I am a waitress too and I feel ya on the bad tips. It seems as if the people that require the most work are the ones that always leave the lousy tips. In Michigan we get $2.65 per hour, but that isn't a huge difference really.

The other night I was making really, really bad tips and this one man gave me $20 (their meal was like $40) and he handed it to me personally. Because he had asked how old I was and where I went to school and I told him that I turned 20 on August 11th. So he gave me $20 and said I was a great waitress and good luck at Purdue. I was so surprised. I hugged him! haha...

And Delt Alum, to go along with what you said earlier, I try to stay away from the script. I always ask my tables how they are doing, where they're from and make small talk with them. People are a lot more friendly and understanding when they feel like you actually care about them.

Oh, and one more thing I reccomend for all servers to do is to keep your tables very informed on the status of their meal. If things are slow in the kitchen, if they screwed up an order, always make sure your table knows. They tend to be a lot more understand if you come out ahead of time and give an explanation as to why they are waiting than if you just leave them sitting out there for 30 minutes.

Thank you!

Outstanding point. Unless you've worked in a restaurant or know someone who has, you tend to blame everything on the waitstaff -- because they become the face and spokesperson for the establishment.

So, if the cook is slow, or the food is improperly prepared, it becomes the servers fault by default. So to speak. Even the airlines are beginning to understand that people are much more tolerant when the problem is explained to them.

Somebody help me out with this...

I was just thinking after reading this earlier that there is a country/culture where leaving a penny (not just a penny -- but a penny with a normal tip) is considered the highest compliment.

Anyone else ever heard this? I'm thinking it might be Italy (whatever the corresponding monetary unit to the penny is there -- probably 23 million lire) -- but not at all sure.