The Scenario – How to deal with tips

James and Stacia work the front bar together every weekend. They have a great work relationship. They can work around each other without getting in each other’s way. They both have customers that ask for them by name, and neither are offended by this. They both share the work load and clean up equally. They also pool tips, as required by management. Everything had been going smoothly, until James sees a customer tell Stacia that he wants her to keep a tip and not James. Stacia slips the tip in her pocket. The rest of the night, James is preoccupied with keeping a close eye on Stacia. Two more time, he spies her pocketing tips that are supposed to go into the tip jar. Feeling that he is getting the short end of the stick, James slacks off and leaves more than a fair share for Stacia, at clean up time. The next night, Stacia feels as though she deserves to keep extra tips after doing most of the clean up. So she keeps a few for herself. James sees this and decides to do the same. Before long the tip jars are running low and it catches the manager’s eye. He starts to watch the employees more closely, thinking that they are not making sure the customers are properly taken care of, because of the low amount of tips. He sees James leaving an unfair amount of work for Stacia. He sees Stacia keeping tips for herself. Then he notices James doing this as well. He decides to write up both employees for not following company policy.

What could James and Stacia have done to avoid this situation?

He could have confronted Stacia. He could have told her that he does just as much work and deserves the same amount of tips. Stacia could have explained to the customer that they are not allowed to pocket tips. She could have also spoken to James about the extra workload. If they would have been open with each other, they could have avoided ruining their great working relationship and not gotten written up.

Don’t forget that RSA QLD (or whatever state you may be in) training will help you avoid conflict such as this, so go online and get yours today!