Yesterday I did a restaurant job in a restaurant where you order your meal from a cashier at the front with an overhead menu board. They feature an extensive salad bar at this restaurant but also have entrees. Drinks and desserts are not served at the table as they have a self serve beverage and dessert bar as well if you purchase that. The job requirements are to order one entree and the self served all you can eat salad/hot food buffet and something from the self serve drink area. You pay up front at the order cashier and they hand you a tray with your plate, cup, silverware etc that you carry to your seat yourself. There is no host to lead you or seat you.
Someone comes to your table and brings you your entree. They do not replace your drinks, water or give you clean plates for seconds on the all you can eat or drink bars.You just go over on your own and get what you want using the same cup or plate over again.
I usually have no complaints about this msc which I will not name here but the guidelines seemed to be the standard guidelines for a restaurant job with some changes. The guidelines indicated you should leave a 15-18% tip which is what this msc says even if you are at one of their high end restaurant where they constantly bring clean everything and hover over your table . My "server" was quite nice but brought my plate to the table and then evidently her shift ended as at the end of my meal a different person brought me mints and toothpicks and a to go box. I filled my plate with a teaspoon of this and a half cup of that several times from the extensive salad bar using my already used plate to refill. I could have taken 40 different items. I did not see a pile of fresh plates. I was not offered refills as I got them all myself.
I did not leave the same tip I would have at a full serve restaurant nor did I enumerate the number of pineapple pieces I took from the salad bar or how many teaspoons of beans were on my plate that I served to myself. I did fully describe the major items I took from the bars though. Although the editor was very nice about it I was told I needed to describe everything I ate and talk about how many pieces of whatever were on my plate. Also she wondered why I did not leave the standard 15-18% tip.
So I am wondering what others think of this situation. Should the tip and reporting requirements be the same as for a full service meal. I often have to read into what they want when it seems the guidelines have not been tailored fully to the type of establishment.