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.
I am assuming by the ignorance of the posts encouraging this garbage none of you ever had to stoop to serving. I’m trying to pay my way through school because I WORK for my education douche bags like you come in and waste my time. If you had vet been a server you would know its not an unskilled job. When people like you come in and stiff us we end up still having to tip out on whatever your check was. So thank you for being a cheap piece of trash. Get your food to go if you can’t or won’t tip, pretty easy solution. We remember faces and your service after will reflect upon it.
In reply to Jes
Not only will the service be reflected, managers have the right to refuse service to anyone. They can kick people out. I know servers deserve tips, they work very hard for their money! I agree with everything you said!
once you don’t tip a few times you can’t go back since there will be some sort of repercussion, so in time you would run out of restaurants to piss off and be stuck eating at crappy buffets for ever… sounds awesome
This person needs to go work in a restaurant if they really think all servers do is bring them their food and that’s it. Also, if you want to act like a dick and not even know your servers name, don’t come to a restaurant as it is a servers job to tell you their name, make recommendations from the menu, check on you throughout your meal to make sure you are having a good experience, and etc.., servers aren’t overly nice to you just to get a tip out of you either. They have to be nice or they could lose their job. I’m a server and I don’t act like I’m peoples best friend, I’m just nice to them, as I should be, and I make sure I do a good job. Because as much as you said you don’t want your server to be your friend, I’ve got news for you’d we don’t want to be your friend either. We don’t actually care about the small talk we’re making, but if it makes the guest’s experience better, why not? My final problem with people like this is, they know that when they go out to eat at a restaurant that the server working there gets paid way under minimum wage and is working hard for their tips, if you, as a guest, have a problem with a server wanting a tip out of you, complain to corporate. They’re the one who decides servers wages and basically puts it on the customer to compensate the server. But everyone in this country (U.S.A) knows that its customary to tip your server. If you have a problem with that you’re welcome to “satisfy your craving” at home and learn to cook what you want. Or the servers will remember who you are and trust me, you probably won’t come back.
You’re a worthless American.
I find it profoundly ironic that one of the reasons you dont tip is that you work hard for your money because it doesn’t grow on trees. The statement is ironic because you’ve focused it at someone who is working equally hard to earn money that doesn’t grow on trees. I begin my rebuttal by countering this statement first because it bothers me the most. You clearly have never been a server in your life. Which is fine. It’s certainly not a job everyone can do but let me give you a little lesson in what a server does to make sure your meal is suitable that you don’t see. First, they must learn a menu. Not just the names of the dishes but whats in the dish and how its prepared so that when you come in nd don’t know what a “ragout” is, we can give you the best answer and ensure that you enjoy what we “carry to you
We also must be proficient in our bar stock. When you ask me how a certain wine tastes because youve never heard of the vineyard, I’ve spent countless hours learning them so you have the best wine to suit your tastes.
We have to put up with you. Yes, you, the guy who thinks I’m some high school drop and can’t get anything better and will be a waiter all my life. Actually, I very much enjoy my job when I don’t have to put up with you. It’s challenging, fast-paced and I must think and move quickly in order to make everyone happy. Kind of like the job I’m going to school for now. The one where I’ll be saving your life should you have an emergency. That’s right, I’m in medical school and working two nights a week at a restaurant helps me supplement the income I receive from my grants and student loans. And don’t think i won’t remember you when you come in to have your finger sewn back on. We always remember the ones who don’t tip. Hell of a lot scarier than the thought of having your food spit in right? Which is so unbelievably stereotypical to say. I’ve worked in restaurants all my life. I have NEVER seen or heard of that actually happening. We may feel like doing that but come on. That doesn’t even make sense. By the time your check comes, you’ve already eaten your food.
Which brings me to my last point. I would LOVE it if you told me when I introduced myself that you prefer not to tip. That’s your prerogative. I wish it was for reasons that actually qualify as worthy enough not to tip. If I knew from the get-go that you didn’t desire my services, only the food, I would be sure to give you just that and apply my efforts towards someone who came to the restaurant for the dining experience. You know, most restaurants have take out of their full menu. If you want Chinese or Italian or Thai, pick it up and take it home and quit wasting our time. Otherwise, youre just a self-righteous, cheap, ignorant waste of a table. If you demand to sit down, you’re insisting on my services and my services deserve more than a goose egg on the tip line when I pick up your check. It’s called the hospitality industry for a reason. Your so-called reasons have a been sufficiently shot down.
In reply to Sarah
Amen!
In reply to Sarah
YES!
I hope u rot in hell
What a shit stain… On a pair of brand new white under-roo’s. For starters the term “waiter” is extremely outdated. We are servers, not to be confused with servants. Furthermore, this man is complaining about a system that he fully understands. In America, servers do not get paid a substantial wage. Most of us don’t even get a paycheck because our $2 an hour is taken by the government, at the end of the year most of us still owe more tax dollars. It’s well known that in America, we tip for these services. 20% is considered good, anything under 15% is horrible. If you don’t agree with the system than don’t use it, eat out in your own fucking country and use one of your overpriced gadgets to google the ingredients you need to make the Italian food you don’t have at home and the preparation while you’re visiting… As a server, I tip out on my sales so if you don’t tip me than I just literally paid to wait on you. I can’t imagine that anyone willingly wants to spend time with this miserable sap so he’s probably dining alone. Even if he balls out, what’s his tab going to be? Maybe $70-$100 at BEST? If he can’t, or simply won’t spare an extra $14-$20 than he really has no place calling anybody a loser. Time for some self reflection, Buddy. What ever happened to “When in Rome…”?
Ok. So, you can get up off your ass and go get your food yourself after you order it. Don’t forget to go get your refills, and don’t worry, the cooks know EXACTLY what you want to eat, so don’t you worry your pretty little head about whether or not your order comes out right…
Also, the job is unskilled, sure. But the job does require a set of skills called “soft skills”. Chances are, if you are posting this, you have no idea what I’m talking about, and you have no people skills whatsoever. Your friends are fake and only chosen by how they can best benefit you. You are a shell of a human being, and have obviously never worked in customer service. I can only assume you are the type of person who bitches at some poor unsuspecting soul over the phone about how you just ran over your brand new iPhone in your cadillac escalade that you (yourself) drive to and from your desk job in, and how you demand a refund because nobody told you that they aren’t crush-proof.
On that same note, you are probably the kind of person who is the reason restaurants have to put “caution: hot” on a cup of coffee, because unless you said you wanted iced coffee, THE COFFEE’S GOING TO BE FUCKING HOT!
You are the reason why this country is fucked up.
The problem IS the american system of allowing owners to pay servers $2 an hour…YES $2 an hour! Thats legal! Don’t think “not being paid enough” equates to “i get paid minimum wage” because servers ARE NOT paid minimum wage! Look it up if you want to what the federal minimum wage is for servers many of you will probably be shocked. The reason is because YOU are expected to tip! And your right this is a problem with the american system but how is that the servers fault? They’re just trying to make ends meet and if youve never worked a server job you haven’t the slightest clue how to compare it. 90% of a servers job is trying to read peoples minds….literally! You come in expecting the server to be a certain way…in your case thats just to act as a food middle man…others its for the server to realize they wanted onion rings instead of fries even though they didnt ask…others its to talk to….and so on and so forth. Servers have to figure out what theyre role is to each oerson which is extremely difficult. You can compare it to shop floor worker cause shop floor worker unless the customer was standing at the end of the line ready to try whatever it was you were producing…
Thank god this guy is not a real journalist and instead has to write haiku’s net to a technology section. Perhaps instead of writing articles about reasons not to tip a waiter in the philosophy section he could grow an ounce of humility and try and write something inspiring in the philosophy section of this shit blog. Perhaps this man can contemplate the value of treat others as you would want to be treated instead of showing his outright selfishness. I can safely say that this man has probably never served a table in his life and is just a judgmental lonely man. Servers are people just as much as you and deserve respect just as much (or in your case just as little) as the next person…….and go work harder you lazy shit and start tipping.