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.
Sir (if you even deserve that title) have obviously never worked in our industry. If you did, you’d change your tune in a heartbeat. I
Could fill a book with restaurant industry facts that would make your head spin. When your income depends on tips then come talk to me. And actually yes it is basically required. Tips stands for ‘to insure prompt service’ I you don’t want to tip then I won’t give you prompt/good service cause its obvious you dont want it. Want me to do a good job for you? then tip accordingly. We don’t like it anymore than you do, and we certainly half the time don’t care about you anymore than you care about us, but what we do at your table is required of us by management. We don’t want to go through an appetizer/desert/wine speech but our managers require us to do it because they get on our asses about add ons. I could go on…but it’s obvious you don’t/won’t understand until you’re in our shoes. Typical ignorance of you. Trust me, this job takes more skill than ignorant idiots like you recognize. We don’t paid enough to care about it. So quit being ignorant and open your eyes to the world around you and actually care about your fellow human beings. You might have a happier life.
And lastly, if you don’t want to tip, then don’t eat out here in the US or go eat out in Europe where serving is actually a revered job with an EXCELLENT income and they get offended if you try to tip them.
I understand that tipping is a US custom and most if not all Americans do tip their waiter or waitress if they enjoyed their meal and experience. I have been to Europe many times and tipping is not customary there and I still do it because I think its a good practice. But if you refuse to tip and refuse to take on a US custom that people work very hard for, please please please return to where ever you came from and slap women or do whatever you do, because we would rather not have you.
In reply to Bartrender for 13 yrs
Well said!
Wow, you are incredibly misinformed. Legal minimum wage for people in service are, in most states/provinces, lower because it is assumed that people will leave tip. Also for tax purposes, generally speaking, minimum tip is automatically calculated in to their assumed earnings. Additionally the tip often goes into a collective pot and divided among the kitchen, wait staff and bus boys (so you are often tipping the people who actually made your food). Also, would you really like to go to a restaurant where the staff had no incentive to provide better service? Having the customer able to choose the amount of tip left really is the only way to actually get people to care about a job which, outside of pay, is not fulfilling in any real way. It’s people like you who make me always say that I think everyone should work on the other side of the service industry for at least a year because you sir have no empathy. I have been a contractor, recreation center manager, lifeguard, professional musician, teacher and I’ve served. Can you guess which job was the hardest to get up (and mostly in the afternoon or evening) for? That’s right serving.
So imagine making $2.25/hr and trying to pay $700/mo rent (which is cheap). So sorry you don’t like our system, maybe you should stay out of this country then. We aren’t paid a living wage! And as for the stupid suggestion that we just get different jobs, what if we all did? You did say you enjoy going out to eat, what if there weren’t any more servers? I can tell if you don’t want to chat, so I will leave you alone. But some people, especially tourists do want to talk to us, and get advice if what to do in our city.
What an incredibly idiotic post that depicts an incredibly uneducated simpleton making assumptions because he’s an angry little man.
If you don’t like it, don’t go to the bar or restaurant. How is your uneducated opinion the problem of the American culture? What a fool, learn to research.
Perhaps you should learn how servers and bartenders are taxed off sales regardless of tip ( meaning no tip, it actually costs them money to serve you….idiot ).
If you don’t like it, don’t go to the bar or restaurant. How is your uneducated opinion the problem of the American culture? What a fool, learn to research.
You’re probably the most narrow minded self serving piece of crap I’ve ever had the misfortune of encountering.
Wow! You are what’s wrong with the world today. This is just how it is. If you go to a restaurant and have a server then you’re supposed to tip AT LEAST 15% for good service. It is not the job of other people to serve you like they are your mommy for free. You have very unrealistic expectations for this world if you think that you should just get stuff for free. Servers are just trying to pay the bills like every one else. They work harder than you think and get you things that you think are trivial but when combined with all the other things that they have to get for you and all of their other tables it adds up quickly. You are paying for a service. I’m sure that you don’t go to work for free so I don’t see how you’d expect someone else to. You are clearly very arrogant and entitled. YOU are what’s wrong with the world today and a disgrace to journalism. In the future let your server know in advance so they he/ she may give you the service that a $0.00 tip entitles you to.
Katelyn from Daytona
Oh man, just looked at your blog page….. I’m not that mad anymore, because most bartenders and waitresses make triple what you do!! lol
In reply to Bartrender for 13 yrs
Boom haha
You are straight garbage actually
You my friend are an ignorant piece of shit. Stay home and cook you’re own god damn food. You deserve to be stabbed in the forehead, with a fork. Seriously…. Go fuck yourself.