You want to take care of your waiter: DON'T FRICKING CAMP AT YOUR TABLE [View All]

Here's the best advise I can give to anyone who wants to take care of their waiter - don't camp out at your table all night ESPECIALLY if it's a high volume restaurant.

I've been seeing a ton of stuff here on DU about tipping and that is all fine & dandy. But I waitressed for 3 years at a high volume restaurant (Houlihans) and nothing killed my night more than a table where the customers decide to camp out all night.

I usually averaged around 18% because I was the hardest working waitress you could find and because of that I would make a decent salary from this industry. But most of these high volume restaurants limit the number of tables any one person can have in order to ensure that top service was being provided (Sure I could wait 10 tables at once and I have, but the service starts going down hill along with the tips). At our restaurant you were allowed to have 4 tables at a time and on occasion 5 and on any given night I would need to turn each of those tables over about 3 times in order to take home a decent salary. I could sell about $200-300 worth of Food & Beverage a night per table (not per customer) which would net me about $30-70 in tips. The last thing we need is someone with a $50 bill sitting there for hours and leaving me a fricking $10 tip. That just cost me a ton of money!

Now I appreciate that you're spending a night out with friends/family but once the bill is paid and the 2nd cup of coffee is finished - do the waitperson a favor and get out of the table. If you're having the amazing date of your life - there's a bar area, go there and have some coffee or if you really feel you need to keep that table for FIVE fricking hours (I had that happen a couple of times on a Saturday night :grr: ) tip a little better than the measily 15%.