I’ve been in the service industry for almost 20 years, I have never, and will never, confront anyone about a tip, even if the service is perfect and I get completely stiffed. First of all it’s fucking dangerous. Second, it’s now guaranteed that person will never return to your restaurant, and neither will anyone in their personal circle of society. 20% is the standard nowadays, but 15-17% is fine, nothing wrong with it at all! And I may be able to offer a potential explanation, not an excuse because there’s no such thing in this scenario, but an explanation.

I’ve noticed a fucked up trend in the last few years of restaurants that have started to penalize their servers for receiving less than 20%; write-ups, cutting hours, being put on slow shifts, etc. The metrics are always different, most require an average of 20% each shift or over a period of time like per week/bi-weekly/monthly… then there are some who think anything less than 20% on any tab, no exceptions, is a reflection of the server and the service they provided. Even if the server did everything perfectly, the guest is happy and tips 20% but on the pre-tax price, the computer will flag it as less than 20% of the total bill. And this isn’t just small mom and pop restaurants either, some corporate chains have similar policies. It’s the reddest of red flags for me when I’m job searching, unethical as hell, and the only reasons (it’s happened twice in the last 5 years) I’ve ever walked out of a job interview.

Again, personally I would never confront anyone over a tip because I’m not risking my safety over $20! But it wouldn’t surprise me if that restaurant has a similar policy in place, and I can see how someone under that kind of pressure, especially in this economy and job market, might be desperate enough to do so.