My criticism of the headline is the same as your experience: just because you're not taking tips doesn't mean that the restaurant management is on top of their game. Running a restaurant is hard, and there's a thousand ways to screw it up.
Here's my anecdote: I ate in a tipping restaurant in Texas. The steak was late, lukewarm, and so small it slid across the empty plate. The only thing accompanying the steak was a pot of mashed potatoes about four times the size of a thimble. After being largely ignored, the waitress at the end of the meal made a ton of excuses while looking at the wall so as to get me to still tip, and zero effort was made to make me feel better about the situation. If we're making sweeping proclamations from single experiences, then this must mean that tipping restaurants make for very much worse experiences.
I don't like tipping culture for all the usual reasons, plus a couple more. I don't like the waitstaff's arms being constantly in my dinner conversation, as they refill water or keep checking how I'm doing. I don't like that in almost every other job you can have a crappy day but still come out of it with the same wage - tipping faults people for being human. Imagine if software devs had a variable rate largely based on how they were feeling that day? I mean, code and design when you're distracted or angry isn't as good as when you're focused and content, so it stands up to the same reasoning. HN would be in furore if a tech company proposed that.
Here's my anecdote: I ate in a tipping restaurant in Texas. The steak was late, lukewarm, and so small it slid across the empty plate. The only thing accompanying the steak was a pot of mashed potatoes about four times the size of a thimble. After being largely ignored, the waitress at the end of the meal made a ton of excuses while looking at the wall so as to get me to still tip, and zero effort was made to make me feel better about the situation. If we're making sweeping proclamations from single experiences, then this must mean that tipping restaurants make for very much worse experiences.
I don't like tipping culture for all the usual reasons, plus a couple more. I don't like the waitstaff's arms being constantly in my dinner conversation, as they refill water or keep checking how I'm doing. I don't like that in almost every other job you can have a crappy day but still come out of it with the same wage - tipping faults people for being human. Imagine if software devs had a variable rate largely based on how they were feeling that day? I mean, code and design when you're distracted or angry isn't as good as when you're focused and content, so it stands up to the same reasoning. HN would be in furore if a tech company proposed that.