Boss wants us to provide change- what?

July 20, 2011 8:40 AM

Is it normal, in a waitressing job, for the manager to force employees to bring their own change every day?

I'm sort of a waitress in that I take orders and money from customers and give back change for cash transactions. Yesterday, my boss said that all of the people in my position would have to provide their own change ($150 in different-sized bills) every morning. This seemed really abnormal to me, and is certainly a hassle for all the coworkers of mine who will now have to stop at the bank every day before work. His justification is that he has "been shortchanged" in the past. Is this normal?

Thanks all :)

posted by pyrom to Work & Money (24 answers total)

Not even remotely normal.
posted by TooFewShoes at 8:42 AM on July 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

No, that's not normal. Your boss is just being lazy.
posted by ged at 8:42 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Many years ago, I was a ballpark vendor. We had to bring our own change (we also had to buy each load before we sold it, got stuck with unsold merchandise, and then got a commission at the end of the month).

But that was significantly different from waiting tables, and a corrupt operation to boot. So perhaps not a good basis for comparison.
posted by adamrice at 8:45 AM on July 20, 2011

This also strikes me as dangerous. What happens when junkies find out that every waitress at your place has at least $150 cash on their person. Not a good idea.
posted by TooFewShoes at 8:46 AM on July 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

Completely ridiculous. You know how we managed short/over drawers when I worked retail? With a chart. Anyone was repeatedly over or under got written up.
posted by litnerd at 8:46 AM on July 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

Servers providing their own change was completely normal where I waited tables. Of course, we were only expected to have around $20 in change, not $150, which is a huge and important difference.
posted by amelioration at 8:59 AM on July 20, 2011 [4 favorites]

Are you an employee or a contractor? If a contractor, it would be perfectly normal. If an employee, not normal, and possibly illegal (because basically the boss is requiring you to lend him $150 as a condition of employment).
posted by beagle at 9:02 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

The waiters at my place are encouraged to bring change. Everyone once in a while they're jokingly bitched at for not having change, but that's only on nights where they keep bringing $100's back to get change for.

But it's not a requirement at all. And like TooFewShoes says, it's not exactly safe for waiters to leave work anyway since everyone knows they're leaving with cash. It can only get worse when you've got $150 plus that night's tips.
posted by theichibun at 9:10 AM on July 20, 2011

I was a waitress in Key West at a few places, and while management preferred that we have our own change, they totally understood if we needed to break a C note for some guys $17 burger and two beers. You just can't do that on your own at lunch time.

BUT, it was a total pain in the ass, because restaurant managers have other things to do, so waiting to be let into the office, waiting for the manager to get off the phone with a distributor, and waiting for the manager to open the safe and do the paper work about getting money out of the safe was a time suck of epic proportion that most restaurant customers just don't understand. It was a tip killer, unless people who pay for $17 tabs with hundred dollar bills just aren't good tippers to begin with. Too many variables, obviously.

My vote: normal on the change, but $150 is a non-starter for me. That's dangerous. (But, why would you be going to the bank every morning, if you had to start with $150 yesterday?)
posted by bilabial at 9:15 AM on July 20, 2011

When I was a server (at several different restaurants throughout my life), I always had to have my own change. Never more than $20-$60, though. $150 is way too much.
posted by cooker girl at 9:17 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've worked at a couple different restaurants that tried to enforce a policy like this, and in every case it broke down almost immediately. The painful truth is that people who work food service jobs often just DO NOT HAVE floating $150 sums to spare on a daily basis, and it became a huge hassle for the management to enforce.

Considering the amount of cash kept on the restaurant premises, it makes way more sense for the owner to start every server with a bank when they begin their shift, and collect it back at the end of the shift.
posted by hermitosis at 9:26 AM on July 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

$150 is excessive, but at most places I've worked it was understood and enforced that we had some set "bank" on us at all times. It was usually around fifty dollars, broken down appropriately.
posted by stormygrey at 9:34 AM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't understand. If you're a waitress/waiter, I'm guessing most do not have an extra $150 at all times.
I make an everage income and I certainly don't have $150 at all times.
posted by KogeLiz at 9:36 AM on July 20, 2011

The OP says she's "sort of a waitress" so I guess she's not in foodservice but a job where the purchases are larger than a standard restaurant bill...thus the need for a larger bank. It would be helpful to know the exact industry she's working in to determine if this is a standard or weird request.

OP...are tips a part of your compensation? We always had to bring our own bank (around $50 of small bills and change) when I waited tables but we always had a lot of cash & change from tips so it wasn't a big deal to provide the bank. It also saved us a load of time when cashing people out that we didn't have to go to the bar to make change.
posted by victoriab at 10:06 AM on July 20, 2011

I'm piggybacking here, but can someone explain why a server would have to provide money for a business at all? I assume that when a customer pays, the server goes to the till and gets the appropriate amount of change required. If you have one of those tunics with change pockets, and you do it right at the table, why doesn't a manager just pick up an appropriate amount of change to distribute every day?

I don't understand why an employees money should enter into it. If the till's out by an unacceptable amound, then that's a separate issue. If the change pouches are out by an unacceptable amount, then you know exactly who's screwing up.

Can anyone enlighten me?
posted by Magnakai at 10:27 AM on July 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

To further clarify what may be happening, a lot of establishments, especially those who operate on more of a bar model rather than a restaurant model, often treat servers as a kind of independent agent. You are responsible for your sales, keeping track of your money, etc. They are basically providing the shell which you use to make the money. They have no interest in providing you access to "their" money. Its a relatively simple way to manage that aspect of finances, the server (you) owes the house whatever sales were made, anything else left in your pocket is yours.

This model can break down if you have a system where its easy to order food without neccesarily ringing or recording it or if for some reason there are a high number of walkouts.

This is the model where you would most likely be expected to provide your own bank, just a part of running your own little business.

I'd like to point out that you wouldn't have to create a new bank every day. Once you've established your bank, its pretty easy just to maintain it as needed with your tips. Its really only inconvient at first.

Secondly, some people are saying its not safe, I'm behind a bar now so I have a drawer, but when I was on the floor we held all our money on us till the end of the night, so its not unusual to have almost a grand in my pocket by the end of the night.
posted by stormygrey at 10:30 AM on July 20, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks for all the responses so far. I simplified my job title to a waitress to make things easier, but allow me to clarify. I work for a restaurant who owns a food truck, which does the catering events and other special events for the company. On the truck I take food orders and handle money for customers. It's not unusual for us to make in the vicinity of $400 per event, whicch explains the large bank required for the job.
posted by pyrom at 10:57 AM on July 20, 2011

If you were a real waiter I wouldn't have as much of a problem with this, but no, I would find another job in your case. That just sounds bizarre.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 11:15 AM on July 20, 2011

To answer questions about why this type of system would be necessary, many restaurants require servers to manage their own money. Servers collect money thought-out their shift and then reconcile their money in hand with the list of transactions they've entered in the restaurants computer system over the shift. In essence, the waitstaff "owe" the restaurant for all of the items they've ordered from the kitchen, and should have collected the money from their customers over the shift. This is a nice way to run things because it's harder for dishonest waitstaff to scam the system. It also avoids multiple waitstaff using the same cash register, which is another situation ripe for theft.
$150 does seem unusually high for this. Are you selling something expensive, or are people routinely beaking large bills?
posted by cosmicbandito at 11:27 AM on July 20, 2011

When I waitered (at a 50 seat italian place) no one had any money except the waiters. Management didn't provide anything.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:07 PM on July 20, 2011

As a former waitress, I am chiming into say that suggesting servers bring their own change is totally normal, but the amount seems unusually high.

Since you're not really a waitress and actually work in a food truck, your question doesn't make sense to me. In your case, I would consider you a cashier, and therefore, your boss should give you a cash register/bank to start the day.
posted by katypickle at 12:10 PM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah you're a cashier not a waitress, and you should be given a cash register or at least a cash box at the beginning of a shift.
posted by radioamy at 1:42 PM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Present your boss a bill with the interest on $150 every day at the legally allowed maximum.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 1:46 PM on July 20, 2011

I worked at two places as a waitress that DID have this policy. Each person was supposed to bring a "bank" of $50 to work each day. It's not that abnormal.

I also worked at places that didn't have this policy. If you're uncomfortable with it (with reason!), many other places don't make you do this.
posted by brynna at 1:56 PM on July 20, 2011