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.
Its obvious that this person has never worked in this industry. Everyone knows its a GRATUITY business. If you think you can do it, come try it for a week. If you dont want to tip, stay home and cook your own meals.
You dont want to eat at mcdonalds, but you dont want to tip? Cook at home then. You cant afford to tip, dont go out. Simple. Or have the balls to tell your server that you arent going to tip them before service begins.
Waiting tables is considered being in the hospitality industry. When you enter a restaurant you pay for that hospitality. Clearly you’ve never worked in the business because you refer to it as an unskilled profession. Try having a 6 table section who all sit down at once and all want drinks, special orders and a friendly face. It can be insanely stressful. These waiters are stressed out because they want to make YOU happy. A happy costumer will usually leave a nice tip.
You just seem to give excuses for being poor. When you have money you don’t mind giving to the poor college kid or the single mother who’s just trying to make a living.
You know when you had that great service? When your waiter was fast and responsive to your need? That’s skilled service. You know when you had bad service and had to wait forever for drinks and your waiter kept forgetting the dozen things you keep asking for? That’s un-skilled service. You tip based on that scale.
Clearly you should just stay in whatever county youre from and that way you don’t have to drop your 20% 15% 10%…whatever you can afford on your blogger wage…in your pocket.
Waiting tables is also a great way to LEARN skills such as dealing with all types of people. Something you clearly haven’t learned.
you’re a fucking douche. and a tightwad. sure you’re not jewish?
Hey scrooge (aka bhagwad jal-carpet ride dirka dirka…etc) Youre a douchbag!!!….try being a server then lets see what you have to say
you really are showing how truly ignorant you are, if you can’t afford to tip, then you can’t afford to go out to eat…I’m not a waiter I work in retail but I’m not going to sit here and say how dare you…I will however call you a certifiable asshole, a shop floor manager, so what do you do, sit around and tell others what to do while getting a fun feeling in your pants with what power you think you have? Seriously dude, you are probably to thick headed to have a legitimate conversation with, if you don’t tip you are going to get the least amount of service possible it wouldn’t surprise me if they drop your food on the floor and then serve it to you…Fucking jack ass
You’re right, we will get our employers to increase our salary to, say, half of what we make in tips, then we will wait for your post on how ridiculous it is that you have to pay $25 for a hamburger, $55 for a steak, etc. Cause that’s what the prices would have to be raised to to cover payroll. Unskilled you say? I promise you, you would not be able to handle what we do, and what we put up with. From the extreme multi tasking to the biting of our tongues when dealing with shit head fucks like yourself. Now, you say you come out because you want something you can’t get at mcdonalds? Well, its not our fault you are to lazy to learn how to cook it yourself and keep your worthless waist of human air at home till you die in your own misery. People with attitudes like yours are a complete waste of human flesh. Be informed about the people you wanna talk shit about before posting it on things like this. I, for instance, have three degrees. Criminal psychology, exterior design, and business. I choose to do this because I enjoy it and I talk to my tables with genuine sincerity, not just for a tip. You don’t like to tip your server, stay the fuck home.
If all a server did was take your order, bring the order and then your check no tip would be fine. The biggest reason behind tipping in my opinion? The server CLEANS UP after your nasty, messy careless self when you leave! The food you left all over the table, the floor and the chair. You pay the bill for the food; you tip the server because they CLEANED UP after you. While eating out I have never seen anyone leave their table anywhere near as clean as you would demand it to be when you arrive. Who does that? Usually the server! You want the service their wage equates to? You’ll see them 3 times. When they take your order, when they bring the order and when you pay them. Hope the kitchen got everything right and/or you didn’t need anything you forgot to ask for or doesn’t normally come with what you ordered and you didn’t read the menu closely or assumed it comes the way you want, not as the restaurant makes it. And you’ll be expected to clean up after yourself since you won’t pay for someone to do it.
Wow.. I sincerely hope someone realizes what a cheap waste of oxygen you are and puts you in your place. Before you put your foot in your mouth, try being a server yourself. What you wrote is as idiotic as saying, “Well, brain surgeons don’t really do much, so I should have my life saved for free.” You are extremely ignorant, and your attitude is the reason why some people stoop to the level of food spitting. Honestly, you’re the customer every server dreads that thinks youre above others and shouldn’t have to respect other cultures or people at all for that matter. And shop floor worker, really?? I’ve done both jobs, and just because you think you’re above the rest of the world and no one else could dare touch your mere accomplishments of clothes folding, does not give you the right to insult others’ livelihoods. Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes next time you decide to publicly display how low your IQ is.
I am a young female waitress and let me share my insight with some of you.
First off if you do not want interaction with a server than get it to go. Are you serious? You can go to any restaurant and ask to make a to go order.
Second, when I pay taxes they do indeed see the tips I made BECAUSE WE PUT IT IN THE COMPUTER. How about you get your own water, put in the order on the computer (which I know you’ll probably screw up if you’ve never had to before) get your own silverware, napkins, plates, good, refills, sauces all while you have 6 other tablse in your way trying to get their own things as well. If you can spend $30 on a meal you should be able to put in a few more bucks to show appreciation for a server that not only is getting all of those things for you but for 6 other table with 1-8 people at each table.
Third if you have never been a server and you are saying it’s easy I invite you to work a Saturday night dinner rush without being trained and hold down all your tables with a backed up kitchen and try to make each table feel important.
Forth, what kind of restaurant are you going to where the server threatens that they will spit in your food?! I have never said that to a customer or even thought about it. That’s disgusting and I refuse to believe that every restaurant you go to says that to you.
Just like you we try our best to be the best at our job. Tipping is not required but neither is good service. If you’re not going to tip make sure you say it up front. Just like you we have bills to pay and getting a job in this economy is not easy and $2.13 an hour doesn’t cut it. It’s because I’m a good waitress that I am able to go home each night with a decent amount of money so I can have a smooth running life.