Don't be a bad tipper

[Flames66]

I personally do not tip unless people go above and beyond what they are already being paid for.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Tipping (and the amount that you tip) varies between countries and cultures. If I'm paying 20% VAT on a meal, I'm not paying another 20% as a given. I will tip if I want to, and if I think the service was very good.

Now don't give me all about how tips are the only way to make money waiting tables. I've been working minimum wage jobs for years and I was never tipped in them. Why should I not be tipped for doing an equal, or more difficult job for the same wage? Why don't you tip Supermarket clerks, or the people working on the box office at a cinema, or people whose job it is to clean vomit and other bodily wastes out of theme park toilets?

Don't even get me started on Mandatory service charges at restaurants.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I tip if service is outstanding. That's it. When I'm expected to just tip somebody regardless of service pisses me off, like I get a waitress who comes over and asks if the meal is ok, but runs off before I get to ask for a refill, or when she is hiding in a corner checking her phone. Both and worse happen, fairly often.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

2$ /hour ? they seriously should start burning down some restaurants then. I only tip the delivery boys, about 2-3 euros usually. Because i know they get not much money. but its probably still about four to five times that much, dude my american friends, get those torches and pitchforks out and give it to them revolution style.
I wouldnt even leave the house for that slavewage.

 

[Korolev]

In Australia, we don't tip at all. It is illegal to ask for tips as well. Some people do tip, but it's rare. I don't know why tipping is seen as "necessary" in the US - it's not here. People manage to get by just fine. The logic I use is this - why should only servers get tipped? My father worked like hell for minimum pay for a while, and no one ever thought to give him a tip (again, because it's illegal to ask for one, but he wouldn't have even if he had the opportunity).

Do you tip the garbage man? Do you tip the janitor? They don't get paid much either - but servers are apparently so important that they need to get paid a lot merely because they bought food to your table. Well whoop-de-doo, what a HARD JOB. I know serving food or delivering food isn't an easy job, nor a pleasant one, nor a well paying one, but it certainly, CERTAINLY isn't the hardest, nor the meanest, nor the lowest paying job.

Think about the man who picks fruit for a living on a farm. He doesn't get paid much. Why don't you run off to the farm and tip him? He (or she) works long hours in the sun, dealing with the insects and the spiders, having to get up on that ladder all the time, and haul the fruit to the trucks - you don't tip him. You don't even THINK about tipping him. Why not?

I've worked for minimum pay when I was doing my degree. I cleaned glassware and labware. I got paid very little, I had to work until quite late at night too. No one ever thanked me. No one ever tipped me. And I did my job, I did it well, and I never asked for a tip, never got one, and I had no problem with that.

Now you might think: "Oh, tipping is to encourage good service". No. I don't buy that. If a restaurant serves me badly (and I didn't do anything to deserve bad service), then I don't go to that restaurant. Rather than reward "good" (which is to say, adequate) service, I merely punish stores and restaurants with bad service, by taking my business elsewhere.

And I don't want "good" service. I want adequate service. I want the service to do what it's supposed to do. I don't give a damn about "service with a smile", just bring me the food and leave without a word. You might think I'm misanthropic - I'm not. I just don't see the point in having to pay for little pleasantries with people who don't care about me, and who I don't care about either. Interactions with servers is a strictly "Customer-Provider" service. Don't insult my intelligence by pretending to be my friend, Mr or Ms Server - you're not, and you have no obligation to be "nice" - all you have to do, is give me the food or the product I paid for.

Maybe things are different in the US - Maybe the US minimum wage is so pitifully low that servers need tips to survive. In that case, if someone doesn't tip you, don't take your anger out on them - take it out on your politicians and employers who don't pay you enough to survive.

 

[GotMalkAvian]

Tipping is a strange issue for me. On one hand, I understand why it's necessary; tipped workers get paid well under minimum wage, and it's up to customers to fill out the rest of their wage. I've always found that to be an incredibly unfair bullshit system, to be honest. On the other hand, the concept of tipping irritates me sometimes because restaurants don't exactly lower prices knowing that customers will be expected to tack on anywhere from ten to twenty percent. If I'm already paying roughly fifteen dollars per entree plus drinks, expecting me to pay their employees directly is douchebaggery of the highest degree to me.
Growing up, my mother was a horrible tipper. No matter how much the bill was, she'd leave a single dollar on the table as a tip. Other tipped workers (baristas with tip cups on the counter, for example) pretty much get completely shafted, although she might drop her change in the cup if it's only a few cents.
Thankfully, my fiancee has straightened me out. Now, I tend to give fifteen percent for decent service, and usually somewhere well above twenty percent for really good service. I am, however, still not morally opposed to stiffing a terrible server (NOTE: I will never hold a server directly responsible for anything that the kitchen staff are responsible for, including quality of food, length of time spent waiting for food, etc. I do, however, hold a server responsible for their attitude.), leaving anywhere from ten percent to a single penny depending on how much they pissed me off.

 

[WolfThomas]

In Australia we pay our waiters/waitresses more and they don't get paid less because they might get tips. So we don't tip generally, unless it's exceptional service. I often give the small difference in something, say $35 keep change for a #34.30 meal, but that's more just for ease of handling. In fact I had a cabbie once say "call it forty", when it was a $40.60 fare.

 

[Korolev]

Having worked in the industry for a few years now in the kitchen, some of my co-workers who have had the waitress job for five years now have not seen a raise because the management claims that tips off-set the low wage.

Except that most of the people who show up in the restaurant are either too cheap to tip or are welfare cases.

Honestly, do you think it's cool not to tip someone who serves your food? Hell, I tip every time, and mostly so that when I show up I know that they haven't spit in my food, or that when I want a steak done right the waiter/waitress will go out of their way to ensure I get what I ordered. If your service is bad then don't tip, but otherwise, show a little appreciation for the under-rated, over-worked front line soldiers of a thankless industry.

Plenty of thankless industries to go around sir or madam. Don't pretend that waitresses or servers are the only ones "doing it tough". PhD students will work 10-11 hour days and, if they don't have a scholarship, which is usually the case, they get no pay at all, and usually the credit for the vital research they do goes to the professor or doctor who runs the lab.

Let me also tell another tale - the tale of a man who had to work for a laundry company. He had to work in a blazing hot factory for minimum wage, with horrible co-workers and long hours (7am to 4pm). The work was tiring, ABSOLUTELY thankless, and he had to deal with a lot of laundry. He had to run machines that were dangerous to work with, and he had to stand the whole bloody time, except during his lunch, which was about 20 minutes on a good day, 15 minutes if the boss-man wasn't feeling so generous.

That man is my father. He doesn't have to work anymore, because his kids provide for him.

WHERE WAS HIS TIP? He provided a needed service, to many houses and establishments and customers. He worked long hours, in unpleasant conditions with unpleasant people, for little money. No one tipped him. And no one cares about tipping them. Well why not?

What about a janitor? Why don't people tip them? You've probably seen a janitor at your local mall - did you run up to him/her and say "thanks for keeping this mall clean, here's 10 dollars!"?

Yeah, servers and waitresses have it tough. Guess what - so do lots of folks. Give me ONE good reason they deserve tips over anyone else who does their job for minimum pay. Give me ONE GOOD reason - and don't say "so they don't spit in your food". What gives them the right to do that? That's just black-mail. Pure and simple. It's not a good reason. It's A reason, I'll grant you that, but not a good one.

And again - if tipping really is necessary for you to survive (and I doubt that), then that's an issue you take up with your employer. If the minimum salary is too low, then that's an issue you take up with your government. Not the customer. I am not responsible for your pay, and I resent being thought of as such. I donate to charity. Sick kids need money. The schools for the blind and deaf need money. Guide-dog training, needs money. Disaster relief efforts are worth causes. The government down here is proposing a small tax increase on households earning about 50,000 dollars a year to pay for reconstruction costs associated with this big flood we've had recently - and I agree, that's fine. That's a needed tax, and it will help people who have lost their homes and their property.

But don't pretend that the job of a server is especially gruelling or arduous or a particularly horrible one. Plenty of bad, low paying jobs in this world. You don't tip them, why should they tip you?

 

[PureChaos]

if it's good i'll do 10%, may do a bit extra if they've been especially attentive. though with one place the waitress was WAY over the top, and then completely ignored us, killing any chance she had for a tip.

 

[PureChaos]

what REALLY annoys me is when a tip is automatically added onto the bill

 

[kypsilon]

Having worked in the industry for a few years now in the kitchen, some of my co-workers who have had the waitress job for five years now have not seen a raise because the management claims that tips off-set the low wage.

Except that most of the people who show up in the restaurant are either too cheap to tip or are welfare cases.

Honestly, do you think it's cool not to tip someone who serves your food? Hell, I tip every time, and mostly so that when I show up I know that they haven't spit in my food, or that when I want a steak done right the waiter/waitress will go out of their way to ensure I get what I ordered. If your service is bad then don't tip, but otherwise, show a little appreciation for the under-rated, over-worked front line soldiers of a thankless industry.

Plenty of thankless industries to go around sir or madam. Don't pretend that waitresses or servers are the only ones "doing it tough". PhD students will work 10-11 hour days and, if they don't have a scholarship, which is usually the case, they get no pay at all, and usually the credit for the vital research they do goes to the professor or doctor who runs the lab.

Let me also tell another tale - the tale of a man who had to work for a laundry company. He had to work in a blazing hot factory for minimum wage, with horrible co-workers and long hours (7am to 4pm). The work was tiring, ABSOLUTELY thankless, and he had to deal with a lot of laundry. He had to run machines that were dangerous to work with, and he had to stand the whole bloody time, except during his lunch, which was about 20 minutes on a good day, 15 minutes if the boss-man wasn't feeling so generous.

That man is my father. He doesn't have to work anymore, because his kids provide for him.

WHERE WAS HIS TIP? He provided a needed service, to many houses and establishments and customers. He worked long hours, in unpleasant conditions with unpleasant people, for little money. No one tipped him. And no one cares about tipping them. Well why not?

What about a janitor? Why don't people tip them? You've probably seen a janitor at your local mall - did you run up to him/her and say "thanks for keeping this mall clean, here's 10 dollars!"?

Yeah, servers and waitresses have it tough. Guess what - so do lots of folks. Give me ONE good reason they deserve tips over anyone else who does their job for minimum pay. Give me ONE GOOD reason - and don't say "so they don't spit in your food". What gives them the right to do that? That's just black-mail. Pure and simple. It's not a good reason. It's A reason, I'll grant you that, but not a good one.

And again - if tipping really is necessary for you to survive (and I doubt that), then that's an issue you take up with your employer. If the minimum salary is too low, then that's an issue you take up with your government. Not the customer. I am not responsible for your pay, and I resent being thought of as such. I donate to charity. Sick kids need money. The schools for the blind and deaf need money. Guide-dog training, needs money. Disaster relief efforts are worth causes. The government down here is proposing a small tax increase on households earning about 50,000 dollars a year to pay for reconstruction costs associated with this big flood we've had recently - and I agree, that's fine. That's a needed tax, and it will help people who have lost their homes and their property.

But don't pretend that the job of a server is especially gruelling or arduous or a particularly horrible one. Plenty of bad, low paying jobs in this world. You don't tip them, why should they tip you?

You obviously feel very strongly about this issue and fair enough everyone has their opinion. But if you can pay kindness forward any way you can then that comes back to you eventually. Or you can just hate every one equally.