So uh… actually less coworker and my boyfriend but we work together. I am a server and he was a busser that just got “demoted” to host for no other reason than we don’t need bussers anymore.

He agreed to it because he was put on the spot and was ill prepared for the question, but since we talked about it tonight he’s been pretty pissed about it.

Hosts make less hourly than bussers do, and we tip them out 5% rather than the 10% for bussers. His issue is that since we’re cutting bussers, he’s now going to be expected to do another ten jobs on top of his for less money altogether. He thought he’d be making 15% in tips without the busser, but I explained to him that we usually give the hosts 10% when we don’t have a busser and everyone is happy, the servers have to pick up some of (most of) the slack from losing a busser for the shift and the hosts help, so we double the host tip out and get to pocket the other 5%, everyone’s happy right?

Except when you go from like $10 an hour and 10% of server tips to like $8 and 5%. He’s reasonably upset and thinks the server tip outs are more like “guidelines” and “minimums” and we can tip out more, just that we’re all stingy.

I’m not sure what to say to him. I can understand his frustration, but because we’re dating he knows how much servers make even with our $2 an hour. I don’t think he’s being reasonable calling us stingy, but maybe I’m wrong? Obviously asking in a server subreddit might not be the best place but maybe y’all will have more experience than me working other places and can help me figure out what to say to get him to see our point of view. Or should I be tipping him out more?