Shame on Port Ft Lauderdale

[Ocean Boy]

The point was porters are generally paid VERY well! Think of it this way, if it takes 5 mins to assist someone with their bags, that is 12 people you can handle an hour. At $10 a person, that is $120 an HOUR.

 

Even with RCI no longer providing luggage tags and the porter making them for our bags it took less than 5 minutes so I suspect that your numbers are somewhat conservative. When RCI was still providing tags the porter litteraly moved the bags from the sidewalk to the rack in less than 30 seconds.

[quercus alba]

I am a union employee I only make $17.00 an hour and I don't get tips. Sucks to be a school bus driver.

 

Maybe you should get some additional job training from those Port Everglades stevedores... Oughta straighten out those kids in no time! :D

[Pyrate13]

Having worked in both a restaurant situation and as a bellman in a resort hotel I can look at this from both sides. The Federal minimum wage law allows these type positions to pay less than $3 an hour, even if union (which I was in both) so tips make up your main salary.

And by the way, the government taxes you based on what they expect your tips should be for a given time period, not necessarily on your actuals, even if they are less.

 

I certainly do not condone yelling at a guest or berating anyone but also know the frustration when dealing with folks from other countries, and our own, that don't understand or just don't like our tipping system and therefore do not tip. Particularly when you are serving a large amount of them on any given day or period. Sometime it does need to be explained, but politely, and preferably, by management, not he individual attendent.

 

I have very good friends from the UK that complain about our system and then consistantly express pleasure at how much better service is in our restaurants. I find myself explaining that is because most servers here are trying to please you in order to improve their tip, where a server there gets paid no matter how they act. Their answer is, "well pay them a living wage rather than have them living off tips" to which I reply, "well then expect service to match what you compalin about at home".

 

Are all servers and bellmen polite, prompt, and professional, of coure not, and their tip should match their effort. The word tip came about as an accronym for To Insure Promptness. But again, it is not proper to berate a guest for not doing tipping. Bite your lip and move on.

 

As for those calculating how much a server, porter, bellman etc is making an hour, your calculations are a bit flawed as you seem to base them on one hour. Many of these people work full 8 hour, or longer, shifts, but the rush period rarely lasts more than a few hours and they often have other work to perform behind the scenes that receives no tips. Take that high hourly wage you have calculated and spread it out over a full shift, add in the slow periods, (I have worked shifts where you could go two or more hours not serving anyone, hence zero tips) and you may find your wage is not as much as you think. I never got rich in those jobs or ever made the amounts you have calculated. I still enjoyed them and most :p of my guests.

 

There are bad apples in every position whether they be the server or the servee but none of them are all bad. Neither of these is an excuse for berating another person. If my server does not perform well I don't give them a talking to, I just reflect it in my tip. If my guest did not tip I would try to finish with their bags quicker so I could move on to another that hopefully will tip better.

 

I think that both sides of this issue sometimes need to look at themselves and their actions.