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.
Forget about spitting in the food. I’d spit in this asshole’s face.
I come into the resturaunt with 5$. Every time I’m thinking to myself, this is bad service, waited WAY longer then I should of, I take 1$ off. If I’m thinking to myself, this is great service, my cup is always refilled, I add a dollar. I’ve tipped 20 dollars when all I bought was coffee because she was helpful, and always kept my coffee full(and the water)
In reply to Jason
That has to be the dumbest method for tipping I have ever heard.
In reply to Brendan
I tip depending on if the waitress is hot or not. If she’s a fine piece of ass I give her $40-$50. If she’s average looking I give $3. If it’s a fat ugly bitch, an old lady or a dude they get nothing.
If you truly believe in what you are saying, I challenge you to put a face to this article. These are probably the lamest excuses I have heard in a long time justifying bad/lame/cheap behavior.
How about you go back to your own country if you don’t like the way ours is ran. Idiot!
What the retards in this comment section don’t realize is, the IRS only knows what we make, based on the total number of sales we make in a single day, which is electronically submitted by your employer, so no the Government has absolutely no idea what you made in cash, and let’s say if someone famous comes in and drops ten 100 dollar bills on you, of course we’re not going to report it! I never did ;-) You mad? That piss you off? Deal with it because that’s reality. You see, what these fucking losers don’t realize is that we’re better than them. We potentially make more money than most if not all of the river trash posting here who hate tipping and might even have a college degree or a trade certification (which I have). You don’t tip? Who gives a fuck, the chances of you retards ever even walking into my establishment is next to nil, especially since I *HIGHLY* doubt you could even afford to eat here anyways. (yes, I’m at work typing this, you mad? :) I want you laboring Union assholes, who are pushing for a raise of the minimum wage to realize something: If you raise the minimum wage, you’re going to be putting even more money in our pockets, ensuring that you will never catch up to us in what we make! It’s that simple, you think a 100+ year old custom in this country is going to change over night because you want us to be paid a wage like those working fast food? We will purposely raise the prices on our food products in order to pay the baseline wage of the other staff, thus ensuring that tips are still encouraged and accepted by the very knowledgeable wait staff who by the way, know more about food, wine and spirits than any of you idiots ever will, guaranteed because it’s a noble trade. A trade class, elegance, etiquette and fine foods. We’re raising prices all the time as a matter of fact, over simple economic issues. We don’t have line cooks we have chefs, so they don’t get tipped however, I’m the head waiter who has his own personal busser, his own personal expediter (food runner) and his own food prepper. Other than the 15% they receive from me, believe me what I end up taking home, you people could only dream of!! But if your a server no matter where you work, listen to me: These assholes on here prefer the service they get at McDonalds over yours because, they know the cashier at McDonald’s, of whom you know they scream at for fucking up their menial order of shit food, is never going to spit IN their food since they never leave their P.O.S station. And, no mater what, I don’t care if you work at Denny’s or what have you, if you’re a food server, I know exactly what you go through because, I humbly started out working like you. I now work at one of only 8 , 2 and 3 Michelin Star Restaurants in the entire United States and make more money than anyone at the S.E.I.U, who is just one of the Unions representing most of the retarded commenters on this blog to try and raise the minimum wage in this country, effectively trying to destroy an ages old tradition of giving a gratuity, which by the way, surpasses the Socialist ideal of dragging everyone else down through the mud, because they never made anything of themselves other than the dice they rolled getting a degree, or deciding never to leave their menial jobs at McDonald’s.
I humbly work at IHOP as a waiter, and I think (though I have no proof) that my girlfriend is cheating on me. A couple months back we had an argument about how much money I make and she just made a move up in the corporate world where she oversees a certain division of risk assesment, covering R&D. Anyway my beautiful blond and green eyed gal who I love very much won’t even hear me that I made management, closing down the restaurant when the manager doesn’t want to come in. I haven’t gotten a paid raise but I got more time on the clock, plus free meals which saves us money! My girlfriend has a new boss now which she talks about him constantly all the time. I wish I didn’t think like this but I wish she would of just tell me if she feels this way about him rather than leading me on
We don’t get an “employee handbook” like you filthy niggers at the S.E.I.U get. We, as normal people have just an understanding with management in that if you don’t tip, you don’t get served. you can place your own order, deal with the spics behind the service counter, learn the Point Of Sales system (which you never could) and retrieve your own motherfucking food you scumbags. Fact: you walk into a restaurant to suck our cock; you go out of your way to suck our cocks, indeed. You smile at us, you love us walking over to your filthy table, you dish out respect for a dish of clean food. Deal with it, scum, most people are like this because they’re lazy, and you’d never know what happened to your food: My place has no cameras :)
What the retards in this comment section don’t realize is, the IRS only knows what we make, based on the total number of sales we make in a single day, which is electronically submitted by your employer, so no the Government has absolutely no idea what you made in cash, and let’s say if someone famous comes in and drops ten 100 dollar bills on you, of course we’re not going to report it! I never did ;-) You mad? That piss you off? Deal with it because that’s reality. You see, what these fucking losers don’t realize is that we’re better than them. We potentially make more money than most if not all of the river trash posting here who hate tipping and might even have a college degree or a trade certification (which I have). You don’t tip? Who gives a fuck, the chances of you retards ever even walking into my establishment is next to nil, especially since I *HIGHLY* doubt you could even afford to eat here anyways. (yes, I’m at work typing this, you mad? :) I want you laboring Union assholes, who are pushing for a raise of the minimum wage to realize something: If you raise the minimum wage, you’re going to be putting even more money in our pockets, ensuring that you will never catch up to us in what we make! It’s that simple, you think a 100+ year old custom in this country is going to change over night because you want us to be paid a wage like those working fast food? We will purposely raise the prices on our food products in order to pay the baseline wage of the other staff, thus ensuring that tips are still encouraged and accepted by the very knowledgeable wait staff who by the way, know more about food, wine and spirits than any of you idiots ever will, guaranteed because it’s a noble trade. A trade class, elegance, etiquette and fine foods. We’re raising prices all the time as a matter of fact, over simple economic issues. We don’t have line cooks we have chefs, so they don’t get tipped however, I’m the head waiter who has his own personal busser, his own personal expediter (food runner) and his own food prepper. Other than the 15% they receive from me, believe me what I end up taking home, you people could only dream of!! But if your a server no matter where you work, listen to me: These assholes on here prefer the service they get at McDonalds over yours because, they know the cashier at McDonald’s, of whom you know they scream at for fucking up their menial order of shit food, is never going to spit IN their food since they never leave their P.O.S station. And, no mater what, I don’t care if you work at Denny’s or what have you, if you’re a food server, I know exactly what you go through because, I humbly started out working like you. I now work at one of only 8 , 2 and 3 Michelin Star Restaurants in the entire United States and make more money than anyone at the S.E.I.U, who is just one of the Unions representing most of the retarded commenters on this blog to try and raise the minimum wage in this country, effectively trying to destroy an ages old tradition of giving a gratuity, which by the way, surpasses the Socialist ideal of dragging everyone else down through the mud, because they never made anything of themselves other than the dice they rolled getting a degree, or deciding never to leave their menial jobs at McDonald’s.
Well It is obvius this person it compleatly oblivious of what it means to work as a waitor, I work as a waitor in Stockholm, Sweden and though it should be done, where I work 90% of the guests dont tip. I have no problem with normal clients not tipping but I think that if you are more than a normal client (with specific needs) you should tip. I have more times than countable gone out of my way (Not just smiling and brining food) for my clients, made special drinks only for them, bringing baby chairs, playing with children, allowing 2 people to sit at a table for 10, putting a light beer in the fucking freezer to make sure it is really cold (as the customer requested) or simply cleaning an entire floor after a company of people spillt ice cream on tables, walls and floor. This is aside from all the other services I normally give my clients: a welcome and happy attitude (This is not for fucking tips but to be nice), a place to sit often according to your own liking serve you your food as fast as I can (so it doesnt get cold) and then pick away your food, make you coffe or dessert etc. About not wanting to tip because we only bring you your food, who do you think cleaned the room you are sitting in? Made you the soda or beer you are drinking? Clean the bathrooms you are using? Claned the sauce bottles you are using and will have to again because you are an asshole who doesnt tip but uses all the services you can get, that shit is not free man only rude. Filled the sauces and salt and peppar on your table etc. Cleaned the table you are sitting by and the chair you are sitting on, the cutleries you are using? Who do you think placed them on the table. To tell you the truth, we might only visit your table 2-5 times during your stay so you think we dont do that much, but in reality we have chores that include doing everything, exactly everything (cleaning, filling etc) that is outside the kitchen, and we do this while taking care of and prioritizing our customers even if it means we end late.. Show some respect. If a waitor has gone out of his or her way to satisfy your need then you should tip accordingly, is your table a mess? Did you request special things? Use the bathroom? Sit for a long time at the table? and on and on. Tip should not be obligatory but if you get more than just your food from the waitor you should return the favor. // Tex the Waitor
Yes in some countries you don’t tip. If you come to the USA for vacation the custom is tip your server. Respect the customs of the country your visiting. It’s the respectful thing to do when visiting a country your not from.