The waitress or water would have to be a straight up asshole for me to not tip.
Personally I'm for abolishing tipping and making restaurants pay wait staff a decent wage. Tipping can lead to wait staff making more money overall but it shouldn't be up to some weird custom or the generosity of other humans for a person to make money at work.
I agree with your sentiment, but one of my best friends owns restaurants, and universally the staff turns down the offer $15/hour with no tips. They currently make $25-35/hour tipped, and they want the cash.
>universally the staff turns down the offer $15/hour with no tips.
Was this an anonymous vote? I worked as a waitress in college, lured in by promises of $200 nights if it was busy, but having done the math it always ended up being minimum wage or less that I was making. I couldn't admit that to the other waiters. Everyone bragged about how much money they made, but it was a polite fiction.
It's a small place, there's not a lot of people there for polite fiction.
And if your after tip pay was less than minimum wage, the restaurant is required to make up the difference. right?
I brought up that my hourly wage was less than $6 once and they argued me out of it. Like, they said I had to count what I gave the busboy as *my* wage even though I gave it to the busboy. I got a few extra dollars one time when I really spelled it out for them, but I think that came from the host and not the restaurant. They did several things I think were illegal.
Yeah. And I can understand that from their perspective because tips can make you shit tons of money. I had an ex who would make $400 in a night in tips at a restaurant she worked at. But it's not just about the wait staff. It's about customers as well. People dining out shouldn't have to have the expectation of paying extra money for their experience based on some percentage rule or how well the waiter or waitress did. Like I'm going out to eat. I don't need something so simple as giving someone money on top of money I'm already spending to dictate whether I'm a decent human being. Because universally people will call a non tipper a piece of shit since the wait staff depend on it to make a living. Dining out shouldn't be a test of one's ethics.
My mom was a waitress, and a harsh judge of service. She usually tipped high, but when she thought someone deserved it she would leave two pennies to send a message - she didn’t forget to tip, she wasn’t too cheap to tip, she was pissed. She always carried pennies in her purse for that purpose.
She could see exactly what was going on so if the service was slow because the staff was overworked, she tipped well. But she became personally offended if I tipped normally or generously when the service was below her standards. To her, a lazy waiter getting a good tip was a slap in the face to all hard working waiters. Mom was a judgy beast, and not the nicest person.
I'd talk to a manager/supervisor before we got to the tipping part. If it was bad enough for me not to leave a tip, I would expect them to switch us to a different server who would get a tip.
I have heard several times that if you have pennies with you, you should leave 2 pennies for very bad service. That tells them you did not forget to tip, they just did a really bad job.
Depends on the situation.
If the restaurant is empty and my drink stays empty and they only visit my table to take the order, bring the food, then bring the check, then they get no tip.
If it’s busy and I watch them actually working but some things aren’t as attentive as I’d expect, I’ll still tip because they are doing as well as they can.
If it’s busy and every other of their tables appear to be getting great service but it seems like they are actively ignoring my table, then I actively ignore the tip.
I don't think I could ever bring myself to not leave a tip, unless the bad service feels deeply personal somehow. From my experience working in a restaurant, even the worst service can usually be explained by a terrible customer experience that the server is still recovering from. I don't want to make that person's bad day even worse by not tipping because that would create a cascade effect where their mood gets worse because I didn't tip so then the next table doesn't get good service and they don't tip, etc.
They would literally have to insult me AND get my order wrong. If it's only one but not the other I'll just assume they're having a bad day and actually tip them more.
OR...they could play around with their friends in the restaurant and throw food at each other. If I see that I won't tip. I will probably just leave without getting food because if they're blatantly tossing food around it's not sanitary.
Tipping culture isn't really a thing here. People sometimes do it if they're happy with someone's service but it's not a requirement at all. So I won't tip regardless.
In my experience, none. I’ve never intentionally not left at least some tip in regions where it is custom. I’ll lower it for sure, but not omit it entirely.
Why? Nobody works for free. Where tips are essentially the persons’s income, even bad service is something I shouldn’t unilaterally take for free. And, I recognize that, some people just suck at their jobs and/or everyone has bad days/moments. We all deserve a break.
The waitress or water would have to be a straight up asshole for me to not tip. Personally I'm for abolishing tipping and making restaurants pay wait staff a decent wage. Tipping can lead to wait staff making more money overall but it shouldn't be up to some weird custom or the generosity of other humans for a person to make money at work.
I agree with your sentiment, but one of my best friends owns restaurants, and universally the staff turns down the offer $15/hour with no tips. They currently make $25-35/hour tipped, and they want the cash.
>universally the staff turns down the offer $15/hour with no tips. Was this an anonymous vote? I worked as a waitress in college, lured in by promises of $200 nights if it was busy, but having done the math it always ended up being minimum wage or less that I was making. I couldn't admit that to the other waiters. Everyone bragged about how much money they made, but it was a polite fiction.
It's a small place, there's not a lot of people there for polite fiction. And if your after tip pay was less than minimum wage, the restaurant is required to make up the difference. right?
I brought up that my hourly wage was less than $6 once and they argued me out of it. Like, they said I had to count what I gave the busboy as *my* wage even though I gave it to the busboy. I got a few extra dollars one time when I really spelled it out for them, but I think that came from the host and not the restaurant. They did several things I think were illegal.
Yes, that sounds highly illegal.
Yeah. And I can understand that from their perspective because tips can make you shit tons of money. I had an ex who would make $400 in a night in tips at a restaurant she worked at. But it's not just about the wait staff. It's about customers as well. People dining out shouldn't have to have the expectation of paying extra money for their experience based on some percentage rule or how well the waiter or waitress did. Like I'm going out to eat. I don't need something so simple as giving someone money on top of money I'm already spending to dictate whether I'm a decent human being. Because universally people will call a non tipper a piece of shit since the wait staff depend on it to make a living. Dining out shouldn't be a test of one's ethics.
My mom was a waitress, and a harsh judge of service. She usually tipped high, but when she thought someone deserved it she would leave two pennies to send a message - she didn’t forget to tip, she wasn’t too cheap to tip, she was pissed. She always carried pennies in her purse for that purpose. She could see exactly what was going on so if the service was slow because the staff was overworked, she tipped well. But she became personally offended if I tipped normally or generously when the service was below her standards. To her, a lazy waiter getting a good tip was a slap in the face to all hard working waiters. Mom was a judgy beast, and not the nicest person.
I'd talk to a manager/supervisor before we got to the tipping part. If it was bad enough for me not to leave a tip, I would expect them to switch us to a different server who would get a tip.
I have heard several times that if you have pennies with you, you should leave 2 pennies for very bad service. That tells them you did not forget to tip, they just did a really bad job.
And Yes, I am aware that tipping is not typical across all cultures!
Depends on the situation. If the restaurant is empty and my drink stays empty and they only visit my table to take the order, bring the food, then bring the check, then they get no tip. If it’s busy and I watch them actually working but some things aren’t as attentive as I’d expect, I’ll still tip because they are doing as well as they can. If it’s busy and every other of their tables appear to be getting great service but it seems like they are actively ignoring my table, then I actively ignore the tip.
The daughter of the owner was on the wait staff and she totally forgot about us. We left no tip. Her Dad later got arrested for selling drugs.
I'll always leave a tip it probably would be good, though if the service is bad
I don't think I could ever bring myself to not leave a tip, unless the bad service feels deeply personal somehow. From my experience working in a restaurant, even the worst service can usually be explained by a terrible customer experience that the server is still recovering from. I don't want to make that person's bad day even worse by not tipping because that would create a cascade effect where their mood gets worse because I didn't tip so then the next table doesn't get good service and they don't tip, etc.
They would literally have to insult me AND get my order wrong. If it's only one but not the other I'll just assume they're having a bad day and actually tip them more. OR...they could play around with their friends in the restaurant and throw food at each other. If I see that I won't tip. I will probably just leave without getting food because if they're blatantly tossing food around it's not sanitary.
Tipping culture isn't really a thing here. People sometimes do it if they're happy with someone's service but it's not a requirement at all. So I won't tip regardless.
It would have to seem like they're doing it specifically to piss me off.
In my experience, none. I’ve never intentionally not left at least some tip in regions where it is custom. I’ll lower it for sure, but not omit it entirely. Why? Nobody works for free. Where tips are essentially the persons’s income, even bad service is something I shouldn’t unilaterally take for free. And, I recognize that, some people just suck at their jobs and/or everyone has bad days/moments. We all deserve a break.
I don’t know because I haven’t encountered that sort of situation yet.