Restaurant servers, tipping, and resistance

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a next step in Greta Foff Paules' groundbreaking analysis of control‐resistance in service work by exploring the work practices of restaurant servers in regard to ways they resist and reshape the tipping system that structures their work life. Specifically, the author explores how workers will attempt to manipulate the system to elicit higher tips from customers and when servers forgo an economic tip, so that they can exercise dignity and self‐respect. Central to this analysis is to highlight the space in between Paules' notions of “getting” and “making” a tip. In this space, servers can exercise resistance and still acknowledge the humanness of the customer.

Design/methodology/approach

The research methodology is participant observation and interviews.

Findings

Restaurant servers see their ability to manipulate the tipping system as routes to exercising agency and resistance in work interactions. Moreover, servers see their ability to earn tips (and even forgo tips) by both capitalizing on the organizational structures and capitalizing on the customers' human nature.

Research limitations/implications

The research focuses on servers broadly, and not on distinctions within groups of servers (i.e. sex differences, age differences or restaurant types).

Originality/value

This paper furthers the understanding of the tipping practice, which is historically viewed in terms of status inequality and control. In contrast, the author highlight how workers in practice, are able to use the tipping system to resist customer and manager demands, assert their creativity, agency, and self‐dignity, and still treat the customer as a social being.

Citation

Gatta, M. (2009), "Restaurant servers, tipping, and resistance", Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. 6 No. 1/2, pp. 70-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/11766090910940674