Every job I’ve had with a tip pool divides the tip pool at the end of the day or the shift between employees who worked that day. It’s honestly usually never been very much, but it will usually cover my train ride home or something. Our customer service standards are ridiculously high, to the point where customer isn’t even supposed to open the door for themselves if we aren’t busy. Because of this people will sometimes leave very generous tips.
I have worked at this store (small business so I cannot name it) for about six months and never gotten anything from the tip jar. When I first started working here my manager told me that the tips were going to a “pizza party”, but then my boss (the owner of the store) covered the cost of pizza. Where did the money go? I have no idea. I asked other coworkers who aren’t in management if they’ve ever received their tips and they all said they hadn’t. I asked a manager and she said we’d get them all “around Christmas” for the full year, but my coworker who has worked here for years said they never got anything extra on Christmas, and much of our staff is seasonal in the summer so they don’t get a check around Christmas.
Me and another coworker have brought this up with everyone in management multiple times. I have literally seen the managers take all the money from the tip jar and put it in an envelope. One time I was asked to help count the tips and I refused because of this.
Long story short, how can I tell well meaning customers that only management receives tips? I feel bad when someone puts a ten or twenty in there because of MY or my coworkers hard work and we never get anything.