You Should Tip

[Daystar Clarion]

Why would I tip someone for doing their job?

Minimum wage exists for a reason here in the UK.

Sure, I tip if the food and service is brilliant, but that's the exception.

 

[Snotnarok]

Always tipped, the one time I didn't was with a group of friends, we waited a long while before we got drinks THEN our food, half of it was wrong, then she never showed up after the bill was given, 45 minutes later we just left paying the bill, but no tip.

 

[BrotherRool]

I'm agreeing with the people in the thread here that the system in the US where you can pay workers below minimum wage and force people to tip to top it up is incredibly ridiculously backward and stupid.

Also not having VAT on the price. Like your country has designed itself to obstruct the flow of information between producer and consumer so that in any transaction no-one can make an actual honest to goodness sensible and informed decision. It's like you heard that the problem with capitalism is that when there's misinformation and information balance then the best products are no longer naturally selected and then _embraced_ that idea. I mean you have election campaigns where how rich the candidate is is a huge factor in how successful he can be? We're not good in the UK still, campaign funds aren't very equal that gives the people with money much more say in how a party operates than the people without money. But at least we're talking about the difference between £8 million and £18 million whereas you're talking about $660 million and $630 million?! You're spending a billion dollars on an election campaign.

...wow got a bit off topic here. But yeah. Here's how tipping should work.

1. It should be assumed that restaurants have to pay their staff a decent wage and illegal for them not to.
2. If you feel like you've been provided with good service, you should feel free to reward that with a little tip of your own choosing.

This is how it should not work
1. You should not feel like if you don't tip the person is going to starve because this is a country where its fine not to pay for your own staff.


I would also like to note, that there are loads of minimum wage workers in the world, factory staff, cleaners, childminders etc that are not in a position where they get to receive tips. I don't see why waiters are a special breed of people who deserve more money than these guys. If your minimum wage is too low for the pizza delivery guy, it's also too low for the poor sods who work in factories in hellish conditions 9-5 with monotonous jobs and the solution is to raise the minimum wage so people can actually earn living. Maybe you could use that $1.2 billion campaign expenditure to raise the wages of 600 000 people by $2000

 

[Major_Tom]

It's not a custom in my country to tip (we already tip the fucking government 25% every time we buy something), I sometimes round-up the bill but that's about it.

 

[Lizardon]

I've never given a tip. But like others have already said in this thread, it's different here in Australia. Everyone who's served me would be on at least minimum wage, which is a bit over $15 an hour here. So it isn't expected that customers would, or should, tip. Everyone just does their job to the best of their abilities, and gets paid by their employer for doing so.

I find the idea of "Tip everyone" to be absurd to be honest. Do I give the person who bagged my groceries a tip because they remembered to not put the eggs on the bottom? Do I tip the bus driver, the postman, teachers? I work in the fruit and veg section of a supermarket, should I be getting tips as well?

Honestly, I find it hard to believe that a place like you've describe could last for very long without being shut down or forced to reform. Don't you have certain regulations and laws that govern what an appropriate workplace is?

 

[mooncalf]

If you think someone should pay you extra for not putting spiders in their food, I don't have a middle finger big enough for you. That's not service excellence, that's basic freaking hygeine. In the grand spirit of consumer-comedians, your tip is "Find a better job."

 

[mrhappy1489]

Here in Australia its a lot rarer to tip, so no, I don't.
I especially wouldn't tip those in Fast Food places because I too know them, and whilst some do care and will try to make your food better, more often I find its the management who care, and the workers just slack off - though this is mostly in fast food chains like McDonalds. Seriously, the food there is crap these days. Its half falling to pieces, and just shoved in with no real care as to how it is.
If you and those you know try your best to make your quality of food better, kudos to you, and if its commonplace to tip over there I'd say you deserve some, but I'm not going to change my ways so long as things remain the way they are here.

I will say as an Australian who has worked in McDonalds (not any more, thank god, sort of), a tip every now and again would go astray. Honestly you have to put up with a lot of shit and the quality isn't that terrible, it's not prime rib or anything, but when I worked there everyone kept things in good order. I'd like to also add that serving the drunks on a friday night is the most horrible experience imaginable and would advise against it with all my might.

 

[Genocidicles]

It sounds like you work in fast food, what with you working a register and everything. Tipping people at fast food joints is unheard of in England.


As for tipping in regular restaurants, I'd tip in America, where some jobs earn less than minimum wage because they're counting tips.

But I live in the UK, where that doesn't happen, so I don't tip, unless theres like a tip jar where it all gets divided amongst the staff. Why is the waiter more deserving of a tip than the chef who put effort into making my meal? All the waiter did was carry it over to me.

 

[Jonluw]

How about someone at your or your friend's establishment contacts the health authorities and tells them, anonymously, about the condition of your workplace?

Also, I don't tip because we have a minimum wage people can actually live on here.

 

[EclipseoftheDarkSun]

Maybe you should be less politically apathetic (on average) and vote for someone who's not in the two main parties - they're both pathetic really, presenting a false dichotomy - it isn't just a two-party choice. If the government isn't doing anything about your tenuous situation, what the hell are they there for - are you living in a democracy or not? And don't think "Noone else is voting independent", just tell others you're going to and why - then do it out of bloodymindedness. As long as people aren't voting at all out of despair or are mindlessly voting for one party, those republican and democrat leaders (particularly republicans atm) are going to logjam the political system by blocking each other in the congress to spite the president, shafting you all in the process. If you actually show up and spite them in the polls, they'll come around kicking and screaming.

Aren't there whistleblower provisions - can you at least make an anonymous complaint to a food health authority, if you're not going to back each other up - surely these kind of things are against the law. As long as you shut up and do nothing because they can fire you and put you on unemployment queues and because you're deunionised, you'll always be pushed around and bullshit like this will happen. Tips are just outsourcing the issue.

Face it, in America, the rich have the middle and lower class by the balls - try watching Fight Club, but take your protest through legitimate channels. It's pathetic how 'the American Dream' is held out as a carrot which only a tiny few can ever achieve, while the wealthy are beating the majority of you around the head with the stick.

(Australian by the way)

 

[w9496]

I know how you feel. I work at a coffee shop, and some people are regular customers who never tip.

I made 6 drinks for a family before, and I didn't get a single penny in tips.

 

[johnnyLupine]

(And the UK, I think)

Works differently over here.

In the US, from what I gather, waiting on staff rely on tips for their wage. Here in the UK, waiting on staff have a wage.

If the service is exceptional, problems solved quickly, friendly etc then I may tip. But the vast majority of the time I go out to eat I won't tip. I'm not giving someone money for walking from the kitchen to my table carrying a plate.

The chef did the hard work.

As for delivery folk and the like. They get paid, why the hell would I give them money?

I very rarely tip and when I do it's only if i've had a bit too much to drink or it was flawless service (which is incredibly rare).

To be fair I could definetly see tipping becoming the norm in the UK, not because its needed to suppliment the wages of the staff (or at least I hope not) but because american culture seeps into our own through the television shows, films and games we enjoy (although I will admit that most of what gets put on nowerdays is really tiedious and I do mean both British ((and as much as I hate that term for disproportionate use in american media but have to admit that it is appropreate to use it now) or american television).

My dad has always been adamant that we do not tip in the uk(he is also adamant that you drink proper beer,touch propper wiskey that you watch proper television and so on) if he had not explained this to me at a young age then I could have easily been carried away by shows like the simpsons and what have you which point out that decent people are expected to tip.

I am certain however that there are people out there that do tip, I used to work as a dishwasher at a local restaurant and do recall the waitresses splitting their tips between one another, the chiefs and other dishwashers were rarely rewarded with a free drink but tips were split between everyone for the christmas shifts. Its likely that the waitresses only shared amongst themselves because there was never enough tipping money to share between the whole kitchen which seems to support the fact that very few people tip in the uk.

 

[mirasiel]

So many tight fisted bastards in this thread, we do tip in the uk, y'all just misers.

We tip waitstaff, we tip cab drivers, we tip barmen, we tip baristas, we tip hotel staff.

/edit lapdancers, forgot them.

 

[Rednog]

I personally hate the tipping culture we've built around the service/food industry. It's changed from "hey you went above and beyond what your job requires, here's a little something for your troubles" to "you better tip or we'll fuck your shit up."
Even worse is the bullshit that some places try to pull by putting a mandatory tip on your bill; or the sketchy art of hiding it on the bill and trying to get patrons to leave a cash tip behind.
Just pay the workers a decent salary and stop this tipping for just doing your job nonsense.

Also, if you're not reporting health hazards like that to your local health department then you really aren't doing any job that I would deem worthy of receiving a tip. Massive companies have gone belly up, thousands laid off, and people have died because of health violations, no way in hell should anyone for any reason let that shit pass.

 

[Patrick Buck]

First, You are paid to do that job, Tips are NOT your right.
However, if you, or the person serving you or whatever is doing a good job, tipping them is a good thing to do, it makes everyone work harder, and be nicer to each other.

 

[Loonyyy]

yeah, thanks, Im sure am glad youre allowing these conditions to continue. you know, instead of reporting these surely well documented cases to whatever health board does your inspections and bringing this matter up. Its great you took a stand, whoop dee do. all that says is youre replaceable when management finds you no longer worth while to deal with and at your professional level you are very easy interchangeable with someone who could give less shits. So instead of doing something about it (getting rid of the higher up who makes the decision, seeing as they're telling you to do these hazardous things) you're just letting it continue. thank you for being part of the problem, and please, dont be surprised when i read that statement and feel no urge to tip you, or ever go to one of your eateries again. I'd rather go to a different one, even if they do the same, because at least they're keeping me in the dark, rather than saying "Yeah, it happens, but I dont really do anything to CHANGE it from ahppening again."

That could very well lose you your job, and will often prevent you from getting a job anywhere in that industry again. How willing are you to go without work?

His solution is to do the best he can whilst keeping his job. Yours is scorched earth. It shouldn't be up to the employees to risk their jobs to prevent this, the inspections should be random and whatnot. But they aren't, and so the guys out the back are doing the best they can. They could just not bother. It would make their job easier, and they're certainly not getting thanked for it.

I'm from Australia, and we don't usually tip. Two exceptions-Pizza guy (My job), or bar staff. Most of the tips I get are "Keep the change." So my complaint's a bit different. If you're due less than $1 change, particularly if I'll have to dig you out a 5cent piece, then I hate you. So much. Carrying enough change for all eventualities is a pain, finding that change whilst juggling a bag and a torch is a nightmare, and all the while the asshole who wants the money's standing their tapping his foot. It's customary, you round off the price to the nearest dollar for deliveries.

Some people don't put numbers on their houses either, so by the time I get to their door I'm hoping their house burns down. A tip greatly assuages that. There's not much I can do to reward people who tip, but I'll certainly be happier with them I guess.

If their job allows it, I tip. Sure, they're being paid to stand there, or whatever. But for me, it's a way of showing that I get that their job is a pain. The amount of extra crap they go through which isn't meant to be part of their job is compensated for by this I figure.

 

[Chanel Tompkins]

I try to tip whenever I can, because I know how shitty a job it is, but I can't tip every time, because I don't usually have enough money to. I usually let them keep the change when I can, but that's not usually much. What really pisses me off though, is that I'm reasonably certain that Utah still has that stupid attitude that it's alright to not pay servers in restaurants with a tip system full minimum wage because "they'll make it up with tips". Yeah, if the tips are inadequate, the boss has to make it up to minimum, but God will he chew all your asses if he has to.

 

[puff ball]

the reason why we encourage tipping is because it in turn encourages better service the employees at that McDonalds would probably work harder once they realized it was costing them money. its a question of motivation if not your only working hard enough to not get fired which isn't that hard some places, and really a little goes a long way i serve roughly 40 costumers an hour if half of them were to just let me keep the change it would really add up.

as for tipping more then that use common sense if your a regular and get good service tip a little every once and a while to show appreciation. my first day on the job on drive thru a regular comes in and the person training me says "that's Alex hes a nice guy look out for him", it will pay off in the long run. besides that if you know your getting a difficult order (ordering for 5 plus people etc..) a modest tip helps smooth things along.

 

[Zeren]

I tip if I think a tips is deserved. I only tip waiters and delivery people and then, only if I'm happy with their service. Some people seem to think that tips are deserved regardless of how you perform. I have left nothing many times and a few times I have left a letter for them telling them that they needed to improve their attitude.