There's also an incentive for the restaurant owner to put other tasks on the waiters, such as table clearing, that have traditionally gone to non-wait staff (i.e., busboys, or whatever they're called these days) because busboys get minimum wage and waiters get a lot less. That means there's less time for the waiter to provide good service to the customers on whom they're waiting (thus likely driving down tips) and less of a market for busboys.

Fay, I meant to comment on the "you must obviously be black" comment as well -- I am also surprised it went apparently unnoticed.

I didn't see the black and steak with ketchup thing... that is really bad.

There's also an incentive for the restaurant owner to put other tasks on the waiters, such as table clearing, that have traditionally gone to non-wait staff (i.e., busboys, or whatever they're called these days) because busboys get minimum wage and waiters get a lot less.

I think that incentive thing is true for many, many things. Somehow someone got the idea that they could make even more money if they didn't have enough workers. For example, when I was a teenager working in a grocery store we always had ample cashiers, two full-time people to take groceries to the cart and bag, stockboys who could bag and take groceries out at night, bottleboys who just did bottle returns, carts and occasionally helped on the service desk, and service desk people. This is in addition to the department staff, managers, deli, meat, produce, etc. The emphasis was really on making sure that there were enough people there that the customer was always helped, and if there were no customers, you stocked the candy or cigarettes or whatever. The people who made the schedule would get in trouble if there weren't enough people on

By the time I left, there were no baggers, no bottleboys (and man, let me tell you that doing the service desk by yourself and then having a 1200 bottle order come in was something else), and the bare minimum of cashiers. It was a very different culture.

I am also surprised it went apparently unnoticed.

I have to admit, at that point in the comments thread I was pretty much only reading the capslock.

I mostly meant unremarked-upon on the Chow site itself, not here.

I don't know much about the economic structure in the restaurant business, but I would be happy to pay an additional 20% or more for my meals if the staff was paid a decent wage and had benefits. It would be fine with me if salons and taxis were structured that way too.

My step-dad used to drive a private bus from a residential community to their beach access. It was minimum wage but supplemented with a tip jar that riders used daily, weekly, once a season, whatever worked for them. The Man decided the tip jar was tacky and put a sign in the bus indicating No Tips. He doesn't work for them anymore.

Wow, you know what I really don't want to do today? My job. I'm happy enough to be here in the air conditioning, but am wondering if I can just screw around online all day. I bet I can!

Yes you can!

I have two piles of papers on my desk. I can't remember what stage of the proces any of this stuff is in. It's going to take half the day to work that out.

I have two piles of papers on my desk. I can't remember what stage of the proces any of this stuff is in. It's going to take half the day to work that out.

I thought today would be like that for me, as I had no recollection what I was doing on Thursday. But I got an email from a client telling me a database was available for download, and suddenly I remembered I was waiting for that....

ION, NEED MORE COFFEE!