Olive Garden should require automatic gratuity for large parties

I work at Olive Garden, and recently my coworkers and I have been dealing with some pretty awful situations, serving large parties of 6 or more, with checks totaling $200 and more, and walking away with absolutely nothing in tips. Not even a couple dollars. Literally $0.

Anyone who has ever served knows how draining big tables are. You’re juggling huge orders, modifications, drink refills, endless breadsticks/soup/salad, splitting checks, and handling last-second changes, all of which pull your attention away from every other table you’re responsible for. When a large party tips nothing, you basically worked that entire time for free.

A lot of restaurants already have automatic gratuity (18–20%) for parties of 6+ to prevent exactly these situations. But at Olive Garden, we don’t add auto-grat unless a guest specifically requests it, which obviously never happens, and servers end up paying the price.

I’m hoping to start a bigger conversation about pushing for mandatory automatic gratuity for large parties at Olive Garden (and honestly across the industry). I’m planning to start a petition to bring to management/corporate, but I’d really like advice and support from people who’ve been in the industry longer or who have successfully pushed for policy changes.

Questions:

• Has your Olive Garden (or restaurant) dealt with this too?
• Do you think automatic gratuity should be required for parties of 6+?
• Has anyone successfully pushed corporate or management for this kind of change?
• Would you support a petition calling for auto-grat at Olive Garden?

Servers shouldn’t have to gamble their entire shift’s income every time a large party is seated in their section. Servers are getting hurt by current policies. Any insight, advice, or support is appreciated.