Ruined: Thoughts on Table Service

Eating out means less to me now than ever. The enjoyment has gone out of it for me indefinitely. I can't stop thinking about how the server feels. Leah and I decided that a woman should judge a good man not only by how he treats his mother, but by how he treats his serving staff. Incredible how some people will behave toward another person who is temporarily in their employ (i.e. a server). Is it a power trip which encourages a customer to behave so poorly to a server?

While talking to other servers today, an interesting observation came up: tips are higher when you mess something up. You can provide quality, timely service--running your feet off to get their drinks and food on the table, dishes off the table, next course on the table, dishes, check please, credit card receipt, "have a great evening!"--and receive a standard 18% tip.

But if you mess up an order--have to have it re-made, run it back for them, hand their food later than the rest of the table, forget to fill up their sodas for a long time, serve them potato salad instead of the requested linguini salad--then, the tip is more likely to exceed 20%. My serving colleagues inform me that this phenomenon is unique to our Isaac's.