It never fails to shock me how a tip is demanded in the US. People simply refuse to listen to reason when we (yes, there are others!) tell them that leaving a tip isn’t necessary. Well, I’m hoping for too much here, but if you’re a waiter, here are 5 reasons why I will try my best not to give any money to you and why the reasons for tipping are crappy.
1. You act as if you’re my best friend
Just leave me alone ok? I don’t want to bloody chit chat with you. I want food. FOOD! Get it? It’s a restaurant. I go there to eat. I go because I want either Italian food, Chinese Food or something else which I can’t get in a McDonald’s. So I come to a restaurant to fulfill my cravings for it. I will pay for what I value – food. Not you.
Christ, you offend me – kneeling down next to my table, pretending to like me and chatting as if you’re my best friend when it’s obvious that all you’re after is the tip! I’m not a bloody money bag you know. I will pay the bill which includes the cost of the food, the environment and the salaries of the people involved – nothing more.
The only way to get money out of me that I don’t have to legally pay is by prying it out of my cold dead hands…
Bottom line: I don’t want to know your name, or interact with you for any longer than I have to in order to place my order. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the equivalent of a conveyor belt that brings me my food and a computer into which I input my order. Of course, I won’t be rude. But don’t expect me to interact with you any more than I would with some stranger.
Image Credit: cafemama
2. You don’t get paid enough
And this is my problem how exactly? It’s astonishing that customers are expected to make up for your employer’s cheapness in not paying you a decent wage. Please include the full cost in everyone’s bill thank you very much. I’ll pay it because I have to and the charge is there for me to see.
What’s really funny here is that no one seems to criticize the employers! All criticism is reserved for non tipping customers instead of the owners of the restaurant for not paying a decent wage. Wtf! Could it possibly be because you guys know you can make much more by tips and under report your income to the IRS?
3. You’ll spit in my food if I don’t tip you?
And I’ll shoot your kid if you don’t give me a million dollars. Seriously, am I even hearing this right? You’re actually using the threat of blackmail to make me pay you? Well as long as you’re openly claiming to be a criminal it’s all right I guess.
Fortunately that’s why I prefer buffets. Listen apart from it being illegal, this shows your poor integrity. But if you spit in someone’s food because they didn’t give you money you didn’t earn, then you’re a loser and deserve to be a waiter for the rest of your life.
4. Bringing me my food isn’t worthy of being paid extra
Did you cook it? Did you invent it? No. You picked it up and brought it to me. While it might not be easy, there are plenty of jobs which are much worse – shop floor workers for example. And I’ve been a shop floor manager, so I know. Face it – compared to other jobs, being a waiter is unskilled. You get paid what the market will think your services are worth. You don’t deserve more for your work over and above what your employer should pay you.
5. Money doesn’t grow on trees
I expect you to be grateful and pray for me at night if I tip you 10%. Be happy I gave you anything at all. I worked for the money in my wallet and by giving you some I didn’t have to, I’m doing you a favor. Learn to remember that when people give you something they don’t need to, it’s a favor. You don’t complain that they didn’t give you more!
By the way, the same thing above applies to all professions that demand tips including those on cruise liners.
So now that you understand why I won’t give you money you don’t deserve, stop with the “oh how could you?” attitude. I can. And I will.
Update: Here’s a rebuttal of the many silly justifications for tipping that people have given in the comments section.
Hey guess what? Restaurants don’t just depend on customers to pay their employees, they also depend on SERVERS to supplement other employees income, it’s called a tipout, and it’s mandatory unlike your “optional” tip. So when you go out to eat, yknow to get FOOD that you are somehow incapable of making yourself despite your wordly experiences doing much more difficult work than servers do, your server is actually paying to serve you since you don’t tip. But there’s a place where you can eat anything you want and not pay for anyone to cook or bring it to you, or CLEAN UP AFTER YOU… it’s called a grocery store. BTW, I’ve worked in management in several environments and you have no idea how much more difficult the restaurant industry is than most. Why don’t you actually gain experience in something before you start to critique it, with your wallet or online. And for those of you who are out of work and don’t think you should have to tip when you go out because you don’t make enough… restaurants are ALWAYS hiring. Why don’t you give it a try?
Referring to you as a piece of shit is an insult to turds everywhere.
I’ve been a waitress for 15 years, I am college educated, but I make good money waiting on tables and I enjoy it. You are in the minority when it comes to this. when I have the very occasional table that doesn’t tip, it doesn’t matter that much, because it is so unusual, I do well and make a good living. Part of being a good waitress is understanding that everyone gets customers like you from time to time, and your table isn’t going to make or break our shift. But if you feel strongly enough about tipping to write this, my suggestion for you is that you not hide behind your screen, but print this out and keep a copy of it with you to show the people that end up waiting on you when you go out to eat, so your servers know they should focus more on their other tables and customers than you. You’d likely get the least amount of service required to get you through your meal, but that’s what you want anyway, no conversation or anything extra anyway, so it would probably be fine for you, right? I also suggest that maybe when you go out to eat you ask to speak to the managers or to the owners of the restaurant about paying the waitstaff better hourly wages, because it’s obvious you think servers deserve better pay. Just my opinion…on your opinion.
I would love to have an intelligent conversation with you about this topic because I find it very interesting. However based on what I have read including the comments I get the feeling that you are very narrow minding and are not open to understand why tipping is a standard in America. On top of that to know that you are taking up a table and not giving a good tip to someone who needs that money when someone else could sit there and you have no compassion about that I find to be incredibly sad. If you dont agree with tipping please dont go out where a tip is expected. People work hard for their money and its not fair because someone disagrees or doesnt understand tipping that waiter/waitress doesnt make money. Its not important why tipping happens because that is jsut how it is, and if you dont agree please dont eat at establishments that expect tips.
For everyone who says tipping is something bad in America, do you know the basis of which American Economics is formed. Everything in “Democracy” is formed off of incentives which is basic economics. I know some people who are saying they don’t tip are just being trolls trying to rile everyone up but there are a few I’m sure that they believe that servers should just make more, but how hard would it be to get the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to change its laws on how servers can be paid. Also the reason there is a Top 1% in the country is because of people like you who think that omg i have to give someone some money for doing something for me. The way i look at it is i don’t work for the business i work for the customer, in which case i am going to do my best to make sure you are happy. I say if you don’t like tipping then get the laws changed because expecting people to lose money on you because you don’t want to tip, and yes i do mean lose money because you are taking up a table of which a tipping customer can sit at, also most employers require you to claim at least 10 percent of that bill as if you made money, so now im paying taxes on something that i shouldn’t of even had to deal with.
You say you wont patronize a restaurant anymore like that’s supposed to upset us. That’s just one less self-important dickhead to deal with. I also have a hard time believing that a server legitimately told you they would spit in your food. Basing your bullshit on a movie possibly? And school is not for everyone. I happen to like my job. Sure, it’s stressful, but my regulars and my coworkers and the occasional incredibly friendly person makes it worth it. You just stay home and make your own food by yourself. I can’t imagine a jackass like you has too many friends. Go fuck yourself.
Sounds to me like you must make a decent chunk of change. Nice. Fuck you. Your lack of compassion for fellow humans is amazing. You would be the reason people have gotten so self entitled in the past decades. You’re not better or blessed by god. There is no god and I hope life gives you nothing but pain and self doubt for ever letting yourself get this numb. You’re a shell of a person and your passing will be a blessing from god. :)
Great article, but one suggestion: change the title to “why I do not deserve service and should not eat at restaurants that provide it,” or perhaps “how I work towards perpetuating negative racial stereotypes.” If you’re looking to be more concise, try “I am a cheap and ignorant.”
Wow, you’re a complete prick. If you don’t like America or American culture, don’t come here. Stay in your own shitty country and rot there.
In American culture, we reward people who work with money.
It’s part of our culture to tip the server when we go out to eat.
If you don’t like it, don’t go to restaurants. Stay at home and cook.
Fuck you. I’m going to go to wherever you’re from and criticize the culture.
Shit bag.
umm, how about ordering your food for “carry out” and take home and eat it alone, then, instead of taking up someone’s section with your sad sack of issues, wasting their time when they could be serving someone who appreciates the value of good customer service?? but you wouldn’t do that, since you obviously enjoy going out wth the goal to ruin other people’s nights…. you pay for the service you get. you don’t want the service, take it home and wait on yourself.