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.
You’re an idiot. Waitresses make next to nothing without tips. That’s their paycheck. How would you feel if you showed up to work all week and they handed you a tenth of what you were expecting?
All of your reasons are pathetic. This article is garbage. …and you’re a moron!
I make more motherfucking MONEY THAN YOU SAND NIGGER, DEAL WITH IT
You know what I do with all of that unclaimed cash tips that the IRS doesn’t know about? I purchase guns privately through private gun shows and stock pile them at home, ammo too so, being a waiter has really helped me :-)
You retards go to a restaurant to pay for the service not the food. Otherwise Yelp wouldn’t have a section for both (i.e food sucked, service great). Stop being tards, k? Thanks!
In reply to The almighty one
I go for the food and to make fun of the underprivileged. Trust me, if McDonald’s sold steak and wine I would eat there. Probably would get better service too.
In reply to Tiffany
Tiffany. You’re only one person with an opinion and thus, do not matter. You would eat at McDonald’s if they served dog shit on a platter, which is a close comparison to what they actually serve. The people that matter are the ones who rack up a thousand dollar bill and drop 20% on me. Go back to work garbage lady.
In reply to The almighty one
You are the retard. We go to restaurants to eat. There is no service involved. Putting the food on my table is not a service you’re giving me what I paid for. I don’t go to the restaurant to support the waitress. I’m sorry you make a tiny wage but that is not my problem it was your choice to to take an unskilled job. When you have no skills I guess a waitress is one of the jobs you have to do. So since you took the easy way out in life your tiny paycheck is your problem not mine.
In reply to Amy rules
Hey retard, my paycheck is substantial. I Manage my establishment, while taking tables at the same time. I get a salary and make tips. So, let’s go over this again: you go to a restaurant, because you’re a lazy cunt, who can’t prepare her own meals, I make more money than you, and you are a loser in life who identifies more with McDonald’s trash than anything else, because mediocrity is what you strive for. You work for minimum wage retard lol, and I’ll keep my nice salary and gratuities, k? Thanks!!
In reply to The almighty one
Hey Almighty, apparently these retards never heard the phrase “take *your* business elsewhere and don’t come back”.
In reply to Adam H.
Lmao, no I guess not! Believe me I’ve said that to tards more times than I can count!
In reply to The almighty one
When I go out to eat the waitress never performed a service. All she did was take my order Last time I checked it’s called her job. I never tip because the waitress does not deserve a tip for doing her job. When I dine with my family and we have a $200 bill I like to hang around to see the waitresses face when she sees that tip line says zero.
In reply to Betty
LMFAO!!!!!!!!! Betty sounds like she’s reading a script and re-typing it like a putrid bit of pond scum leeching off of society. That’s what non-tippers are, by the way, leeches. I can tell the moment someone comes in if their cheap or not and believe me, i’m right every time. Especially if they’re baby boomer aged, they’re the most entitled felt retards on Earth. They want everything for free, try to use coupons completely irrelevant to the place their in, lmao, like they don’t even know where the fuck they are! I enjoy telling them sorry, you’re paying full price regardless if you leave 10% or less tip for me, because it makes me happy exposing and making cheap people feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. Cheap people are the lowest of the low in society regardless of their status because they show themselves as only caring about themselves. I hope they lose everything they have in their lives.
I did the same thing too. Went to a fancy restaurant with my wife for our anniversary. The bill was $78 and I left no tip. Then we went to a bar and had some appetizers along with a ton of shots and drinks. Our bill was $106. Didn’t tip there either because I’m not paying extra to have someone pour my drinks that I paid for. Tipping a bartender is even more stupid then tipping a waitress.
In reply to Jimbo
Lmao! You tards! It doesn’t matter what you think! Some of us have turned waiting into a very profitable job, others not so much. What I make 6 hours… WOW! You can only dream of scoring $250 cash making $17.00/hr. So, as i said and will keep saying: whether you know it or not, your feeble minds should grasp the fact that you’re paying for service, period. K? Thanks!
In reply to The almighty one
So, you’ve made a job out of being an extortionist? Where do you wait at? Tell me so I can never eat there, that’s just LOW and disrespectful to everyone. A TIP, is something your customers do FOR you, BY THE WAY, spitting in someones food can put you in jail for 20+ years, so think long and hard about spitting in someones food/drink
In reply to Jimbo
Well I have one thing to say to you and let me say that I have never been a waiter or server. You are a HUGE DICK HEAD!!!! Thanks and go fuck yourself you dumb mother fucking prick. This goes for any Cock that feels the same as this SHIT HEAD!!!
you better hope no one ever sees your face in relation to shit like this. i guarantee you if i ever saw you sitting at one of my tables i would give you a goddamn reason not to tip me. spit isnt even the tip of the iceberg (do you know what asscrack and ball sweat tastes like after a double shift? cause shit like this is what helps you on your way to knowing) if you dont want to tip STAY YOUR FUCKING ASS AT HOME!!!
In reply to Nate
Nate must be a fag. What guy takes an unskilled job to support a family on a $2.15 salary? Nobody. Only a gay dude would do a woman’s job.
In reply to Abe
Abe: After what you wrote I can’t stop laughing. Now I can’t remember what I was going to say. I do agree with you though!!! I love how waitresses threaten to do stuff to your food if you don’t tip. Like it is our fault they are the failures of society.
In reply to Jessica
Hmm. Jessica? We are the failures of society?
Do you people ever think about the waiters and waitresses that are serving to put themselves through school? Many of us are attending colleges because we don’t want to serve for the rest of our lives.
Is it my fault that you have to call other people failures to make yourself feel better? nope.
Is it my fault that you people are all cheap assholes who think you are better than everyone else? hell no.
If you don’t want to pay for the service you are receiving, cook your own god damn food.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand not tipping at such a place where all the server does is welcome you to the establishment, or a place where the server does everything in one trip and never comes back. If your server is bringing your food, coming back to make sure you don’t want more, making sure you always get refills, and making sure that you aren’t going without need.. THAT IS SERVICE.
Just because you think anyone can do that job, doesn’t mean its true.
but it’s okay.
I’m sure that ANYONE could do your job too (and probably better).
In reply to Stacy
Typing is her job and you just did it better :-)
In reply to Stacy
I wish the ignorant people complaining about having to tip would post a picture of themselves so we can all get a good look of who not to serve when they step foot inside a restaurant. It’s apparent that none of these people have ever had a job in the service industry. Let me tell you, it is not an easy job. If you don’t want to tip someone who is busting their ass, standing on their feet for 5-8 hours a day, just to make sure you’re a satisfied customer, then stay at home or get your food to-go.
On another note, obviously the person who wrote this article lacks any kind of higher education. If you want the employee’s wages to be higher and paid by the place of business, that would make your cost of food rise through the roof. Your $10.00 meal and $2.00 soda would cost you a hell of a lot more than it would be if you would have just tipped the 15% in the first place.
Honestly, waiting tables, bar tending and any other service jobs require plenty of skill. I’d like to see any of you try to work in a restaurant during rush hour. With that said, I hope that any server that has the “pleasure” to run into someone like you at their place of work, drops your drink all over you and your food.
GFY and have a lovely day.
Most ignorant thing I’ve ever fucking read. I’m a scholarship recipient from kelloggs, a Fortune 500 company and I choose to be a waitress. I’d say it takes a little bit of skill to handle the equivalent of a classroom full of people all wanting drinks, food, menus, extra sauce, more lime for their drink, their burger isn’t warm enough and oh look, there’s more people sitting in your section. I don’t work for tips, I work to give assholes like you the service you want. If you’re not going to give me the money I’m worth, either leave the fucking restaurant or you can get your own drink, find your own menu, enter what you want into the computer, go back to the kitchen and tell them they messed up the order somehow and have to remake it, refil your own drink, get your own fucking extra sauce/ketchup/pickled jalapeños/bread rolls/any other time consuming request that takes away from me being bale to give better service to other people. If you’re so ignorant as to assume every server is a high school dropout with no skills or life then honestly, go fuck yourself and never go into a restaurant again. Stay at home and sulk in your own dissatisfaction with your own life because you are the biggest piece of shit that I hope I never meet.
Most of these retards on here are fat bellied union laborers who bitch like little faggots when they don’t get a raise and stand on street corners with cardboard signs. You orange safety vest wearing faggots are just target practice for peoples cars lmao! No class, smelly trash working for the government. Skilled trade my ass, a 5 year old could operate a concrete saw.
LMAO!!! This is what I’m talking about, give to those retard patrons!
http://consumerist.com/2012/06/13/ihop-waitress-mocks-my-sick-fiancee-manager-says-he-cant-do-anything-about-it/
You would be well served to go to cafeterias…..like Golden Corral….. get the food yourself…..