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.
I don’t tip either. 90% of the time it’s shitty service anyway. Go ahead and don’t refill my drinks or check up on me, I will walk out the door without paying for you not doing your simple job. Then you will have to pay for the whole meal out of your $2.50/hr. job.
In reply to Jumbo
Salvatore says:
August 5, 2014 at 3:58 am
You walk 50 feet from the kitchen to the table. You think that is worthy of a 40 dollar tip? Fuck you I went to college and earned a degree so I can affored to eat at expensive restaurants. I don’t give a shit what your life story is I am not your employer thus don’t bother me for a tip.you earn 2 dollars an hour. Fuck you I don’t care.
Reply
Jumbo says:
August 5, 2014 at 5:40 am
I don’t tip either. 90% of the time it’s shitty service anyway. Go ahead and don’t refill my drinks or check up on me, I will walk out the door without paying for you not doing your simple job. Then you will have to pay for the whole meal out of your $2.50/hr. job.
And fukc both of you cheap pieces of shiit. Walk out on your tab you Jumbo prick and get arrested.
Just so we’re clear, I love how several of you are insulting waiters. Seriously, good for you that you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and parents who were willing to throw tons of money at you so you could go to college and never have to work at something you consider beneath you.
Guess what?! I have a degree too. I have a waiter job so that I can help pay my bills in addition to another job in my field so that I can get the experience I need (most of it I have to get volunteer) so that one day I can work in the job that I have a degree in. Unfortunately what I am truly passionate about doing, I have to have an advanced degree in so that’s why I’m kind of in an in between area.
But nevermind all that. People like you disgust me. Vomit. Just judging people for the type of jobs they have.
In reply to HippieVan
Above all else, I love my waiting job. I get to meet new people, and excel in customer satisfaction because I do my best to anticipate your needs.
Call it puppy-like, but a tip is of that like a treat of good-doing. And that is the incentive a small wage that is based on tips gets you.
If you dont want a pleasant smile, along with garnished food that is correct and prompt in a friendly manner, than you go right ahead and stick with buffets and get your own food that has been sitting around and perhaps sneezed on by small children.
The idea of working for tips is to influence the waiting staff to do their greatest at keeping you, as the customer, satisfied. I could imagine the behavior of the waiters/waitresses would change dramatically if it didnt matter how well they performed for you. Getting paid a solid amount regardless would mean it didnt change a thing if you left unhappily with the wrong order and sucked ice once you’d finished your drink thirty minutes ago.
And it wouldnt matter if you came back.
You may consider all friendliness a hoax, but I’ve spent much time building relationships with all of my continuously returning customers. Why? Because I take interest in them as people and deliver to them to the best of my ability and at the least, brighten up their day. If you have no passion for people I might suggest learning to cook for yourself so you can stay in your lair. Especially while you stick to judging everyone who surrounds you.
I have never, nor will ever, demand tipping or threaten for a lack of tip. I perform for the gratitude of myself and others. My sympathy for your choice in restaurant if this has happened before to you, sir.
Have you ever walked into a pizza shop where people are getting paid hourly, see a lazy worker and wonder, “What is he/she getting paid for? They have NO work ethic, and they don’t deserve their hourly wage for the service they have given me…”
Waiting is a service where it lets THE CONSUMER be the boss. If you order minimal food, you take up less time at the table, and you won’t have to fork over a big tip. If you order a 4-course meal, you take up more of the waitress’s time, you pay more to the waitress. This is the only opportunity where YOU CAN BE THE BOSS for 30 minutes, an hour, or however long you’re sitting on your ass and being SERVED. If you like the service, you pay your employee a good wage for a job well done. If you don’t like the service, you let the employee know that they don’t deserve a good wage. The better your waiter knows how you like your service (if you’re a regular at your favorite restaurant) the more accommodating they will be if they know you treat them well.
It’s an HONOR system in America: a bone for a bone. I give you great service, you pay me good wages. This is why serving tables builds a GOOD WORK ETHIC in teenagers. I have worked in restaurants where people work for hourly wages. The work ethic isn’t the same. The customer appreciation isn’t the same. People don’t care about the customer as much. Waiting tables on a tip salaries teaches people a sense of urgency, a sense of NEEDING to make the customer happy. A sense that NOTHING WILL BE HANDED TO YOU. Some days are good, some days are bad…but expect NOTHING while treating people with respect. Without tipping, people KNOW they’ll be making the same wage no matter what, they don’t care. It’s people like YOU who don’t understand that this country doesn’t give a crap anymore about anyone else but THEMSELVES.
In reply to Christina
“Waiting is a service where it lets THE CONSUMER be the boss. If you order minimal food, you take up less time at the table, and you won’t have to fork over a big tip. If you order a 4-course meal, you take up more of the waitress’s time, you pay more to the waitress. This is the only opportunity where YOU CAN BE THE BOSS for 30 minutes, an hour, or however long you’re sitting on your ass and being SERVED. If you like the service, you pay your employee a good wage for a job well done.”
So you expect the consumer, or “boss” as you’ve compared, to pay 2x,5x,10x,20x,50x your hourly wage that your actual employer (boss), and you, agreed on? Your boss (real boss), and you, valued your service at 2-4 dollars an hour to serve multiple tables, yet this “boss” of one table gets all the flak for your low wages and your employer somehow flies completely under the radar?
Get a grip
In reply to Greg
Reality check–if the company pays 7.25 an hour for the waiter, a flat fee that just means the restaurant will raise the price of your dinner to compensate for the inflated wage of the server. Except the money will not go to the waitress it will go the company–and the money that could have gone to the persona actually serving, and ensure your own comfort just went into the pocket of a big CEO. Please, please read an econ book before you peck on your keyboard.
~Even a fool is thought wise when he is silent~
-Best regards in your education
In reply to Christina
My question is:
If you and your employer agreed that your services are worth set amount, and you compare the consumer to the boss, why is the consumer the only one thats an asshole for agreeing upon that wage?
Wow, you’re like a colossal piece of shit aren’t you?
I get that you don’t want to give a tip to a waiter. But god fucking damn it bro, you don’t have to make a 500+ worded blog post on the 5 reasons why you don’t want to. This is pretty frickin rude too, if you ask me.
Above all else, I love my waiting job. I get to meet new people, and excel in customer satisfaction because I do my best to anticipate your needs.
Call it puppy-like, but a tip is of that like a treat of good-doing. And that is the incentive a small wage that is based on tips gets you.
If you dont want a pleasant smile, along with garnished food that is correct and prompt in a friendly manner, than you go right ahead and stick with buffets and get your own food that has been sitting around and perhaps sneezed on by small children.
The idea of working for tips is to influence the waiting staff to do their greatest at keeping you, as the customer, satisfied. I could imagine the behavior of the waiters/waitresses would change dramatically if it didnt matter how well they performed for you. Getting paid a solid amount regardless would mean it didnt change a thing if you left unhappily with the wrong order and sucked ice once you’d finished your drink thirty minutes ago.
And it wouldnt matter if you came back.
You may consider all friendliness a hoax, but I’ve spent much time building relationships with all of my continuously returning customers. Why? Because I take interest in them as people and deliver to them to the best of my ability and at the least, brighten up their day. If you have no passion for people I might suggest learning to cook for yourself so you can stay in your lair. Especially while you stick to judging everyone who surrounds you.
I have never, nor will ever, demand tipping or threaten for a lack of tip. I perform for the gratitude of myself and others. My sympathy for your choice in restaurant if this has happened before to you, sir.
Take it easy my friend
Wow. Just wow. All I have to say is try actually working as a server for a week then you can make another asshat rude comment about servers. I served my way through highschool and college and those jobs were the hardest jobs I’ve ever worked! You can talk as much crap as you want but you have no idea the kind of work that goes into serving. When you have 4 tables, serving 16+ people at once, while also making alcoholic drinks for people, and also doing side work AND helping run food out to your tables. It’s stressful and it’s extremely hard. Then while you’re running your butt off around the resturaunt trying to make sure you’re having a good experience you have to deal with people who come in and sit down with attitudes treating you like they’re better than you. Right. No human being is any better than another. Most the customers I used to wait on treated me like this. Which is funny because i now have my degree and have a job that pays better than most those said customers jobs paid them. So jokes on them. Don’t treat servers like slaves. And tip 20% OR DONT GO OUT! If you can blow $100 on a meal then you can at least shovel out another $20 for a tip.
I was a waiter for 3 years in college. Shittiest job ever. You basically suck dick for tips. I loved the money. It was nice. However, not one time did I get mad at someone for not tipping me. I was good at my job. I paid for a majority of college doing it. However, that’s their right. They paid for the food. They didn’t break any law.
Anyway, I waited tables. I don’t tip a good portion of the time. If I feel I’ve had extraordinary service, I’ll tip generously. That’s few and far between.
The old saying is true, if you don’t want to be a waiter, don’t be a waiter.
If you think we should get paid a fair wage, I hope you plan on paying upwards to a minimum of 200 times more for your food at a restaurant. Servers getting paid this smaller amount ensures that your food stays as cheap as it can, within the demand on the economies food prices.
Also, when a server receives no tip from a table, they are paying for you to sit in their section. Most restaurants do a certain percentage of sales, alcohol, food to some degree for the other employees that are helping out. At my restaurant, we tip out 3% of every single dollar we sold that night to the manager who then divides the money elsewhere. So please come sit at my table, be ungrateful for your service, ask for your food, and then don’t tip me on a $50 check. I would love to pay $1.50 for you to be an ass. If everyone doesn’t tip, I’m paying a hell of a lot too much for you to only halfway like your food anyways.
In reply to meghan
Math like that is probably why you can’t find a better paying job. Where did you pull that number from? 200 times more expensive if 15-20% tips were done with? That 5 dollar calamari appetizer just became 1000 dollars because your 20% (1 dollar) tip was taken away? Those drinks are now 200-250 dollars? Wouldn’t want to order a pasta either, they’re upwards of 2800, by your logic.
Lets say you work a 10 hour shift at 2.10 an hour, that would be 21 dollars. 10 hours at 8.50, you’d make 85 dollars; a difference of 64 dollars for 10 hours work. Thats 6 dollars and 40 cents an hour they would have to make up to you. Why the hell would they need to increase prices 200x to make up for 6 dollars and 40 cents to each of the 3-10 servers they have working? They wouldn’t even need to increase prices by more than .5x to make up the difference, considering the already inflated prices of the meal.
Oh, and your employer is, BY LAW, obligated to pay you the national minimum wage if your tips don’t equal, or surpass the national minimum wage (if your state minimum is higher than national, they have to pay you state minimum). Get informed.
I have absolutely no sympathy for the amount of tasks you have to perform on a daily basis, as every job comes with duties that you agree to when you are hired. Servers love listing out things they do like the stuff is not part of their job or something. It’s like servers are surprised they have to serve people and also do side duties too.
SO yeah.. to conclude; your math is terrible, and tipping is OPTIONAL so if you don’t make minimum it’s on your employer (who is lawfully obligated to make up the difference if it doesn’t equal minimum), and not the consumer.