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.
here’s my two cents. i’m sure i forgot to mention a ton of stuff but:
1. most places, especially big, well known restaurants, MAKE servers and bartenders act like this. we even have secret shoppers that come in to make sure we’re “trying to be your best friend” because that’s what the big wigs think “exceptional customer service is” and if we’re caught not acting like this, we get in trouble, get written up or, if it’s happened a few times, we even get fired over it. it’s not our choice, we know it’s annoying, we’re just trying to keep our job.
2. you’re right! we don’t get paid enough, but when we take the job we accept that we’re getting paid less than minimum wage because you, the customer, are expected to tip us to make up for it. this goes hand in hand with number four. we do A LOT more than just bring you your food. we work long hours away from our families with no breaks (have you ever walked non stop for 14 hours straight, six days in a row every week for years?), we have to be on our feet and running around all day, we have to deal with rude, unappreciative idiots like yourself, in “down time” we constantly have to be cleaning, stocking or organizing anything that need be on top of doing side work, rolling silverware, etc., we get you your drink and however many refills of it you want, we learn how to use dumb computer systems to ring your order in for the cooks, we make sure that your food gets to you in a decent amount of time, we make sure that your food is exactly the way you want it and after you leave we have to clean up your mess which is the worst when you bring kids with you because most places don’t have bus boys anymore to cut costs. on top of all of this we buy our own uniforms and we go through shoes that cost anywhere from $20-70 that need to be replaced anywhere from one to three times a year and pens? we can spend $100+ a year on pens because everyone steals them.
3. obviously we don’t know ahead of time if you’re going to tip us or not unless we know you/of you or you straight up tell us because, let’s be honest, you wouldn’t do because you’re a little bitch that knows what could happen, so we’re not just going to spit in your food. i don’t serve anymore, thank fucking goodness, but when assholes like you come in and don’t tip after i bust my ass making sure everything is perfect for you and your idiot friends and annoying wife and kids, i will remember your dumbass face, i will recognize you the next time you decide to show your dumbass face at the establishment and i will tell everyone that you don’t tip so that you get the service you deserve. you better make that one drink last the whole time because you can bet your bottom dollar i’m not about to go out of my way to give you a refill. you want your steak cooked well done? i’m going to give it to you medium rare so you have to send it back to be cooked more. then i’m going to give it to you medium well so you have to send it back again and, you guessed it! when it comes back again it will be burnt to a crisp so good job tacking on an extra 20+ minutes to your very unwelcomed visit. oh and you want that cake for desert? i’m going to tell the cooks to give you the oldest, crumbliest, driest piece of shit cake you have ever had. you need extra napkins? cool! use your fucking sleeve. you’re acting like a bum so you might as well look like one. and now you want to complain to a manager? K! BRB!! as long as we were nice and technically gave you what you ordered, complain all you want! we’re not going to get in trouble. you might get an apology from the manager and a coupon to come back but would you really want to knowing that that’s how you’re going to be treated eevvverrry sinnngllle tiiimmime you do come back? doing things like this to unappreciative asshole customers is a tip in itself.
4. see number two.
5. again, you’re right! money doesn’t grow on trees. eating out is a LUXURY. obviously if you’re complaining about your “hard earned money” you don’t need to be spending it on luxury items, such as overpriced food at a restaurant where you’re expected to tip people who work hard to make sure you have a nice meal and hopefully make enough money to pay the bills and support our families. stay home or go to mcdonalds where you’re not expected to tip, fucker.
Wow. This has to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read on Facebook! I see very big problems with your theories. One, if I visit your country I will follow your customs. Two, I will never spit in your food even if you are a complete jackass. Three, even if I am a single mother paying tuition, why does that concern you? Four you can’t even spell. Five, if you go to an establishment to eat food or drink, a tip IS optional. However before I go out to a restaurant I am well aware that I should tip because that’s what 90% of people do when they go out. It’s a service you pay for. If you can’t afford to tip someone for their hard work just stay home kid. Especially if you know they only make 2.63 an hour, at least where I live. Six, even if I were to start a war over my employer paying me minimum wage, I would likely be standing alone. Chances are I probably still make more than you do even without your tip. And lastly, seven, you should probably go deep throat a cactus.
Because your a douch bag who has obviously never worked in a restaurant and you f’n cheap, if you don’t want to tip don’t expect good service or don’t go out to eat. If your to cheap to tip the minimum 15% of your bill then sounds to me that you shouldn’t be eating out in “this economy”.
I always tip 20%. Its part of the expense of eating out you lazy eggplant. people who do not tip are the scum of the earth. its common decency!
The only argument you’ve made against tipping a server is that it’s “your money that you’ve earned, how dare you be asked to give it up to someone who’s already being paid to do their job”.
Well…allow me to enlighten you, grasshopper. A tip IS indeed necessary. No it is not required, but it’s a cultural necessity. Now I agree, you don’t HAVE to tip. But you also aren’t a person of substance or character. In the United States, we tip as a gesture of gratitude to someone who’s job it is to make out evening and dining experience enjoyable. That’s also why tipping is flexible: better service, show more gratitude with a higher tip. Waiters and waitresses are laborers who’s sole job is YOUR comfort and wish. It’s deplorable you treat someone in that position like a slave, who isn’t worthy of your generosity.
I refuse to respect someone who values money and greed higher than social consciousness. Wait staff make very little money. They really due survive on tips. If you can’t AFFORD to pay a tip, stay home and cook. Go to McDonald’s. If you don’t wish to, then why are you in a restaurant.
Unskilled? And your job is? I hope your offended when I say that if you said “writing”, I really hope you were being sarcastic. This is a poorly written excuse for an argument. At no point did you present a reason to make me stop tipping. You only presented reasons to make me hope terrible things befall your life. I really, genuinely do not like you and I like everyone. Let’s be frank, this goes beyond tipping. You have presented yourself as entitled, that money is of greater value than human decency, and that ultimately your joy at such responses only further instills your glee at being infamously reviled. Which is an indicator of some more issues that quite frankly I don’t care to help you out of.
You’ve angered me immensely with such a poorly written article. At least for God sake’s try to cover up the fact you’re an asshole. Didn’t they teach you anything about subtlety? They clearly didn’t teach you about how to not be a jerk.
Just some helpful advice- there’s this super awesome concept of eating at home if you don’t like being in restaurants :] I’m sure whoever waited on you would rather you did, too!
You’re the reason our jobs so hard. How about learn to cook your fucking self , and stay at home.
Just give this article to your servers before the meal.. You more than likely won’t have your food spat in.. however, you will not receive efficient service I’m sure. If menu items were priced accordingly to pay each staff member a “decent wage” people would freak out about the price. Almost all transactions these says are on credit cards therefore reported directly to the its.. Furthermore, tax fraud is a federal offense! I
Then you should get to go you ignorant sons of bitches…. I hope you know how idiotic you sound.
Wow the person who wrote this is the most ignorant person ever Servers have to do a lot more than bring you food while getting paid 2.25 an hour it is the customers paying them not the company So if you have to stuff your face and don’t want fast food order ToGo !!!! Don’t eat out if you don’t like people douch bag