Hey everyone, I hope the New Year has treated you better than it has us so far. Work has been really slow, and then the entire house got the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Thankfully we’re all vaccinated, though the youngest only had one shot. She had her first one the most recently, so her symptoms were very mild. Here we are two weeks and some days from the first symptoms in any of us, and though there are lingering things we’re trying to bounce back into life.
One thing I like to do when I have some free time, and it’s been this way for many years, is play fun little cooking games. Yeah, they’re probably a bit geared towards kids, but I found this website that has over 150 of them all in one place. There are Nickelodeon games on there too, and all the games are ad free and free to play.
I’ve taken a bit of a liking to the Pizza Party game, though the downside for me is there is no pause or save feature. So anytime I play I have to start all over again from the beginning. It seems simple, but I swear I end up going autopilot and messing up the orders of the customer. They get mad that way, so you’ve gotta be really careful! I like that if I’m fast enough, the customers tip really well. At least in comparison to the price of the really cheap pizzas in the game. XD
I believe I’ve mentioned it before, but for the past few years I’ve been working in the food industry as a delivery driver. It’s made me have less time to blog, but it’s a job that I can do around parenting, homeschooling, and my chronic illnesses. Before the pandemic I was making good money, at the start I was making even better money once stimulus checks started happening, but things have slowly gone downhill over time. People working in food services in restaurants and out are struggling, and you are probably all fully aware of how many restaurants and stores are having a hard time finding people who are willing to work in the conditions people demand of them when working in the hospitality industry.
One of the problems being faced by many in the hospitality jobs is low pay, yes, low base wages where workers depend on tips to make it through life. The cost of everything has gone up drastically, but wages have not, and people are tipping less for the same services and still demanding so much. Hours of work on your feet, abuse from customers, abuse from management, and people telling those workers “if you don’t like it, get a better job” and then being mad when people go ahead and do just that.
I’ve known since I was younger than people who work in food service jobs, as well as a variety of others, really do rely on tips in the USA. So since I live here, I know that if I go places, order food, or use certain services, I should tip well because of that. I know, CEO’s could pay people better, but the fact is that they aren’t, and if we expect people to make our food, serve our food, do a service for us such as driving our food to us, or a variety of other tipping services, then we should tip for the extra work they’re doing. Or, don’t use the services, since they’re luxury services and all. I do my best to always tip at least 20% of the order price, and I mean the order price after the tax, just because I feel like I will be surely tipping well and hopefully helping balance the scales when others aren’t tipping, or aren’t tipping well.
One way to know if you’re tipping well is to use a tipping calculator, I love the one I found on the culinary schools.org website. It even lets you split the tip between people if you have multiple people in your party.
I think it’s important to remember people working in the service/hospitality industry deserve to be treated with respect, given patience for how short staffed many places are, and tipped well. Even if they’re struggling to keep up with a lot of customers and not enough co-workers to make their lives easier. Until we have a culture that pays people appropriately, tipping is something that’s important to keep in mind. If you order delivery, keep in mind that the further you are from the restaurant, the more wear and tear, plus gas, your delivery driver is using. They’re doing their best to get your order to you, and even in some awful weather. I tip more when I am further from the restaurant I’m ordering from, and I add even more if the weather is bad. If I don’t feel like tipping as much, I make sure to order carry out and tip at the restaurants at least a bit because they still did a service for me.
How do you tip when you order for delivery?
Your passion for cooking games shines through, and it’s fantastic that you found a website with so many fun options. As for your work in the food industry, it’s evident how much you care about the people behind the scenes.