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.
God just don’t leave your cave. It’s social convention in this country you moron.
In reply to Derpa Derp
Tipping is a custom here and it’s a good one. It encourages people to give a little more personal service and to care about your experience.
Once people know you are a cheap bastard then you will only get the food you paid for and none of the service. All you can expect is for them to flop your damn plate on the table and not give a damn if you wait for a drink refill.
Great idea, come to a place and act in such a way that people will hate you and then you will probably blame it on racism and xenophobia.
Kinda agree overall…. The author was a snob about it, but if I went to restaurant that had great service, but terrible food, I would not go back there. Cooks deserve my tip more than the guy writing my order down.
In reply to ollwong
I am in a tipped business. If people didn’t tip me well then I wouldn’t be in this profession. What I can tell you is that tipping is optional, but if I give you good service and you stiff me, I will avoid serving you and won’t care if you get run over in the parking lot.
I’ll remember you and I won’t give you the time of day if I don’t have to.
If you enjoy being hated then go ahead, be a cheap A-hole. You will not have the best experience I can provide. I’ll save that for those who deserve it.
In reply to Jim
The problem is that sometimes service is never desired. Those that don’t want service don’t care about receiving good service but they have to resign to the fact that they have to accept service anyway. Such a system extorts people to pay for services that they don’t need. Hence, why the argument that poor service will be provided has no merit to those who don’t care about service.
In reply to Tyler Vo
Assume that we have no choice but to accept that restaurants will always offer service and we will have to pay for it no matter what. This doesn’t change the fact that tipping is an incredible waste of resources when thought about on a universal scale. Consumers have to take extra time to pay cash, think about what to tip, and judge the value of service that they received. If we consider that almost every consumer at a restaurant has to do this, the amount of time and resources being used really adds up.
What I have stated above demonstrates the incapability of the tipping system. It is critical for all of us to realize that tipping is far from most productive system for paying servers and better solutions exist.
In reply to Tyler Vo
The necessity for the realization previously mentioned voids any claims that the author’s writing lacks usefulness.
In reply to Tyler Vo
Then don’t go to those establishments that provide those services. Go to McDonalds.
In reply to Tyler Vo
Tyler Vo says:
July 30, 2014 at 3:45 pm
“”The problem is that sometimes service is never desired. Those that don’t want service don’t care about receiving good service but they have to resign to the fact that they have to accept service anyway. Such a system extorts people to pay for services that they don’t need. Hence, why the argument that poor service will be provided has no merit to those who don’t care about service.””
I bet they will care if they are waiting while I serve all my other customers first because they may tip and I know the cheapskate won’t, and therefore he is not a priority and I don’t care if he has a good experience or not.
Don’t assume the owner will side with him, they may hate cheap douchebags as well.
Cooks are the deciding factor if I like the joint, not the guy writing the order. Waiters are so full of themselves, atmosphere? Get real I went there cause of the quality of food, and or type of food offered. Not for somebody to be really fake nice to get my money.
In reply to jk
what you don’t see is the server in the back making sure your food is perfect and may have had that cook do it over to make sure that you liked his cooking. I have done this on numerous occasions. You sir have never been a server, or at least a good one.
I the employer should be responsible of insuring prover service, not the costumer.
Maybe all the people that think they shouldn’t tip for a service should cook at home!! Better yet go to a restaurant get your own drink ,condiments, cook your own food and so on! 1)so you aren’t bothered you anti social assholes( who as the author of this article ) clearly needs to be in a country all by themselves! It sickens me to see people at a restaurant being mean,rude inconsiderate asshats to their servers! We always tip more when we see that! And always make sure to call the manager or owner out!
Thanks business owner ,mother of three, and a past server!!
In reply to April
I’m just curious…
If diners go to a restaurant to get their own drink, condiments and/or cook their own food, what will the restaurant owner pay the cooks and servers for? I usually will give a tip, even beyond 10%, if I am happy with my experience. As subjective as that goes, my expectation is that when I come in a restaurant, what I pay for covers everything. If I end up going out with a big fat smile on my face, for whatever factors I deem important to me, then I most definitely will leave a tip. If they servers and cook divi it up or whatnot, it’s not my concern anymore.
How does serving in a restaurant differ from other jobs in the service industry, to merit a sense of entitlement to receive extra money for doing what they are receiving a salary for?
In reply to Ros
Do you honestly consider $2.13/hr. a salary?
In reply to business nunya
Yes, it is a salary, a low one at that. Making it take-home pay higher is not the customer’s problem. Go to your boss, your boss’ boss or the courts, whoever, and file a complaint and have them address your issues of low pay.
If doing more than serving food seems to be out of your JD, then don’t do it. You agreed to work in whichever restaurant you are at for the pay they offered you, to do a set amount of tasks. If you will expect a tip from a customer for doing something outside your JD, which most likely is something they do not know, then tell them that there’s this equivalent charge for what you are doing. Give them an option to say no.
If you are butt-hurt for the measly salary the restaurant owner is paying you, then find a better job. If you can’t, then you get stick to the jobs that you are qualified for. Unfortunately, the higher paying jobs go to those who has invested more than others in their career – may it be by cheating their way to go up or actually doing a shitload better than his peers. Sometimes, someone less deserving than you will get a break, but hey, that’s life.
If you don’t earn enough, don’t start a family. Don’t buy a car. Push your goals of an iPad or iMac for the meantime. Whatever it is that you use tips for, that’s not our problem if you can’t afford it.
I am shocked and disgusted by the comments from both servers and non-servers. I too am a server however the attitude that many people commenting here have is ridiculous.
I do expect a tip and I do appreciate it very much. I have to pay 3 percent of what I SELL to the kitchen staff every shift regardless of whether or not you tip me. That means if your bill is 100 dollars and you do not tip me simply because you do not believe in tipping I have to pay 3 dollars of my hard earned money to the kitchen so that they can get the tip they deserve for cooking your food.
The guy that wrote this post originally needs to stay home.
And the servers who say they are not going to serve people that do not tip them need an attitude adjustment and a new job. The worse thing I will do to a repeat customer that does not tip me is perhaps not make them a priority when I am swamped with other tables, thereby taking my chances with tables who may actually tip me. But if they are my only table they will get the best service I can offer.
Serving may not require special skillset, but it requires a lot of hard work, giving up all your weekends, nights and holidays, it means there are nights where you do not get to sit down or have a break once and you will be lucky if you can run in a corner and shove some food in your face to keep from fainting, and perhaps the most challenging is we have to deal with self entitled co workers such as the ones who posted here, and dumbass customers who justify not believing in tipping to account for the fact that they are fucking cheap.
In reply to Maddie
Amen to that!! I am a sever also i agree with you 100%
the tip is for the server, not the cooks who make the food you might not like. so..
1) fuck you
2) get your facts straight
3) try being a server for a month. Start with a bank account at $0 and see if you can pay rent by the end of the month. I dare you to try it.
fucking dickwads don’t tip.
IF YOU DONT HAVE ENOUGH TO LEAVE A TIP, YOU SHOULDNT GO OUT TO EAT.
This guy is an asshat… Servers work their asses off to make you happy and you give them nothing in return. I work at a casino as a table games dealer making 4.25 base rate plus tips, luckily there are so many people coming in my average salary is 25/hr. Without those tips I wouldn’t be able to pay for schooling to get a degree, my rent, car, utilities, medical bills, food, or anything. Watch this guy lose his job and have to work as a server, he would change his damn attitude on tipping much faster.
In reply to Dkot
If you are in the in the service industry and you think it is not part of your job, as employed by an establishment, to provide satisfactory customer service, then I think you’re in the wrong field. I sympathize with you and agree that it’s tough times but for a customer to be put at the brunt of disdain because an employer won’t pay you more, I believe is just not right.
1. Great, you don’t want me to talk to you. I don’t want to talk to you either, asshole. However, if I don’t, I get bitched at and complained about to my manager.
I’m kneeling down because I can’t hear your mumbley ass over the 50 other people jabbering on around us.
2. Yea, we’d all love it if shit changed and servers got paid decent hourly so one had to worry about tipping. However, until that happens..shut the fuck up. And maybe go picket the White House and start passing some bills.
3. I’ve never once seen a server spit in someone’s food. Stop watching so many movies, idiot. The ones that do spit in your food won’t hesitate to make it obvious.
4. You’re right, there are worse jobs. But then again, I have to put up with you. At least make it worth minimum wage won’t you?
5. Why thank you master. Dobbie is very grateful for such a gracious gift. Maybe next time cheap your cheap whiney ass at home and make a frozen pizza?
4.
You know what the sad part about that is though? Most restaurants wont do it. They’ll tell people “Oh well I’m sure you made enough in tips on a different day…” And then not subsidize our pay. Oh well then don’t work there? Sorry it’s the only place I could find a job at! ((The job economy is horrendous fyi for those of you who say this. Easier said than done.)) Or oh sorry it’s the only thing that is flexible with hours for me to go to school full time, so I can get an amazing job in the future! ((Or young children, or flexible around your second job’s hours… Etcetera…))
People just assume idiots, or lazy people are waitstaff, but there are many who are students, or people who couldn’t find any other kind of work. They assume that the waitstaff are lazy and just want quick cash and to not work hard for it. What they don’t realize is that waitstaff WORK, and work HARD. They really are treated like dirt, and under-appreciated, and it is so sad to see this kind of article written.
It’s really sad honestly. I waitressed for two years, and I’ll never be able to look at food service the same way ever again. It’s not an easy job. It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, emotionally, and mentally. And although I dealt with a lot of assholes, and was challenged emotionally every day to keep my temper when I had one of those customers, it was one of the best jobs I could have ever asked for.