Tipping culture npcs

Striker@lemmy.worldmod to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 826 points –
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I just stopped going to places or using services that expect me to tip. I hate the idea of tipping.

I look at it as Actual price = menu price + lowest suggested tip + $5 tip awkwardness penalty. So a place near me has a $12 lunch-size sub sandwich that's really good. But they ask for a 15% tip. So rather than just never eat at my favorite sandwich spot, I regard it as a $18.80 lunch and only buy it on rare occasions or when my company is paying.

You're tipping at a sandwich shop? Do they even bring you the sandwich and fill your drink for you?

If I'm getting it to go, no tip. Or just the tip.

Same. I multiply any restaurant price by 4/3 to account for taxes, fees, and tips when determining if I want to go.

Taxes and fees should included in the price, in civilised countries anyway. That sounds like such a pain.

They are included in the price in civilized countries. It is only a very very limited number of places where you can't hand a cashier $5 to pay for something literally labelled $5 and then walk out.

Thanks for subsidizing my $12 sandwiches I guess lol. That sure helps me out! Don't think it helps the servers much in the long run though.

Going anyway and just not tipping is also a completely acceptable and legally protected option. Sort of like saying 'no thank you' to the grocery store check out person asking for charity donations or if you would like to sign up for the store credit card.

Again, it's optional. So people can also say 'yes' if they want and that's cool too I guess. Although tipping is inherently harmful to the server's baseline wage which is a bit problematic, if people want to tip they can and no one is stopping them. And I won't give them shit about it unless they specifically inquire about it. Since the whole thing is 'optional' after all I let them make their own decisions and if tipping gives them a nice release of serotonin or dopamine or something that makes them feel better, who am I to take that from them.

Just don’t eat out if you don’t want to tip. Tipping culture is fucked but servers are just as victimized as customers.

Going anyway and just not tipping is also a completely acceptable and legally protected option.

It's legal, but not tipping at a restaurant is cheap. It's also legal for them to ban you from the restaurant, which will probably happen if you give them a diatribe against tipping.

not tipping at a restaurant is cheap

If you actually believe this then they've already got to you. This is Stockholm Syndrome, or the Sunk Cost Fallacy, or good old peer pressure.

While they could definitely ban me and I'd have no problem with that at all, they won't... because the owners have no incentive to ban me. They make the exact same amount from me whether I tip or not.

I guess if someone went on a big rant that disturbed other customers and caused a loss of sales they may ban them. But otherwise, just quietly playing your bill and leaving, no...not getting banned lol.

This is a valid choice. What isn't valid is still going out to restaurants, having a gay ol time, and then refusing to tip your server on principle while the owner did nothing and made a killing.

I'm not really a big fan of this rhetoric. People should be able to go to a restaurant and eat without being expected to pay more than what their food costs. They shouldn't be shamed for not wanting to tip. This becomes an issue of personal morality which is why I just don't eat out, but I don't think it's anyone else's business except for the person spending the money since it is their money after all. It's not a customer's responsibility to make up the pay of a business's employee. PERIOD. Basically what I'm saying is I don't go places that expect me to tip but I 100% support people's decisions to go to restaurants and not tip because that is their right.

Its their right to be a shitty person so you support it?

Damn son. Its one thing to accept a shitty person is shitty, but its a whole other matter to support that shitty person and tell them they should keep doing what theyre doing.

That server is making $2.13 per hour if theyre American. Non-tippers are robbing that server of another table who would actually pay for their service and allow that server to eat and have a place to stay.

Yes, its part of the game. No, I dont like tip culture. Yes, shitty people dont tip. No, I will never condone the idea of stiffing a server who lives off of tips.

I find it interesting how you're putting the blame on the customer and not the employer. You have no problem calling someone a shitty person for not tipping but you're okay with the practice of a business paying $2.13 an hour to their employees. It should never be the customer's responsibility to make sure that the employees of a restaurant are paid enough. Your attitude shows how brainwashed people are into defending these restaurants by putting the blame on customers.

I did say I hate tipping culture. Its absolute bullshit and should be done away with.

The owners are absolutely shitty too, I never praised them.

You're building a strawman and then using it as a whataboutism to try to "gotcha" my argument.

Serving is a low skill, job outside of fine dining. You remember a couple pages worth of menu and you write down what people want and you fill their drinks. It's not high skilled. It's not physically hard. A 16 year old can do it well after a week or two of training. Getting $150 in tips for a 6 hour shift and then only reporting half of it on your taxes is a showcase in how stupid it is to tip so much for it.

You're talking about "oh, poor server that makes $2.13 an hour" but why do you think servers as a whole are vehemently against removing tips and going to a normal pay? They know what skill level their job falls at. They know if they were being paid hourly with no tips they'd be getting paid around the same as fast station clerks, retail workers, and grocers. Making in the ball park of $16/hr (obviously varies by area) and they would actually hate to be making that.

Eh, plenty of servers in Europe are grown ass adults and they dont rely on tips. How do you think that works?

Maybe once service starts declining more than it already has in the US, the customers will start complaining and the corporations will listen and try to pay servers a better wage so they are happier and more inclined to give happy service.

Or maybe they'll just keep raping profits from the "low-skilled" workers until the only ones who WANT to do the job CANT do the job because they arent skilled enough (hence, the decline of service quality in America as it stands today).

It sounds like you're trying to argue against what I said, but I can't actually tell what you're arguing against.

Cook at home, we don't want you there anyways.

**Gosh I didn't realize Lemmy was so full of broke assholes hell bent on taking money out of service employees pockets. Very working class of you guys!

LMFAO. I love people like you... If you demand everyone stay home... You know what will happen? You won't have customers in the restaurant. Which leads to less tables, which leads to less wait staff needed. You will simply lose your job. So not only do you not get tips... but you won't even get your minimum wages.

Congrats you're ruining it yourself!

To be fair to them, losing the $2 an hour of their actual base pay is hardly a threat. For them, the customers that don't tip are nothing but extra work that they won't get paid for. So yeah, they'd probably rather be unemployed than put up with a busy restaurant for next to no pay.

The tipping situation is busted and I would love to see a more normal compensation picture for the restaurant industry as literally every other industry. However as things are now, the restaurant workers are just downright boned if no tips, and they have essentially nothing to work for if there are no tips.

If you're not tipping, they pay out to the business to serve your table. Most restaurants require their service staff to pay out part of their tips to the cooks and bar. So if you don't tip, your server had to pay to serve you. Your logic works both ways. If nobody is working at the restaurant, your entitled ass aint getting food. It's a symbiotic relationship, and the restaurant owners hope you take it out on their server while they pocket insane profits.

No. Minimum wage is minimum wage. If wait staff doesn't get sufficient tips to make minimum wage then the business must pay them out. You make it sound like it's the opposite and that's factually wrong.

Bro I work 50 hours a week. If my place closes, another one will open. I've worked at at least 15 different places since I've been 18. We hate you and resent you for walking in the door, regardless of tipping.

Literally, just stay home. If you can't afford to tip, or don't want to, just stay home.

We hate you and resent you for walking in the door, regardless of tipping.

This is the reason you've worked at 15 difference places. You're shit at your job and keep getting fired. It's not anyone's fault except your own that you hate the world. You should hate your boss for paying you like shit... But instead you're peddling the tip-mentality here so that your wages go up much higher than any reasonable job with your skillset should pay. But right! You hate "us", the ones that keep your ass afloat and able to pay rent.

If my place closes

It's not yours.

Literally, just stay home. If you can’t afford to tip, or don’t want to, just stay home.

Very classist thing to say, no? If someone is poor or simply down for the week and just needs to get some food, fuck them right? They're not allowed to get food from "your" establishment cause they can't afford your 50% tip ransom!

Bro I work 50 hours a week

Join the club. I done 168 hours per week... Where's my tip for deploying to Afghanistan? Even separated from the military at this point there's weeks I put in 60-80 hours at the expense of my family. I don't demand a tip. Raw hours means nothing. Shit you're reading my content. You can tip me at bc1qtg5zxzuact47zvsaguns97swn4w3u8qatchgzl for simply talking to me.

Here’s my for you tip: don’t behave towards food service workers in a way that will get your food spat in.

Or do, I’m not a cop.

Restaurants aren't a right. It's a luxury. And when you take advantage of the luxury, you're making a restaurant owner very rich. They pay their staff less than $3/hr and they're expected to pay out to the business for every table they serve. Don't want to pay for a luxury? Stay home.

They pay their staff less than $3/hr

No they pay their staff whatever minimum wage is... and if that staff gets tips can have some of that credited back to them. When you say it the way you do, you make it out that workers are leaving their job every night making less than minimum wage... which is factually not true.

Don’t want to pay for a luxury? Stay home.

If you look at this thread, the majority appears to want to tell you that tipping shouldn't exist. So if we all stayed home... who would pay those workers? Your demand is not only unreasonable, but makes sure that people would be out of a job.

Thank you for your service.

Now could you please just tip your waitress for your chicken tendies next time you're out? I mean it's what, $6?

I'm sorry you've commented on my comment. I demand a tip. Otherwise I'll spin up lemmy instances that will troll your account and downvote everything you post (spit in your food, make you wait for your food, serve your food cold, make whatever analogy you want here).

See how absurd this premise is? Get mad at your boss, not me. I didn't hire you.

The fact that that thought even crossed your mind is super telling.

It's exactly the same mentality that the other poster is advocating for. If you read their post they absolutely disdain customers. They even stated they HATE customers as they walk in the door (before there's even a chance to tip or not). I fucking guarantee you that this individual has thought about doing the shit that I've outlined.

Edit: typo... stupid phone.

I'm not defending tipping. It's unnecessary and overcomplicated. I'm defending the wait staff that didn't make the rules but have to rely on them to live.

You can't hate it all you want, but until we're ready to actually change it at a core level, the bill the waitress hands you shouldn't be where you try to make your point.

You are literally defending tipping and saying people should tip. Get a grip.

Did a waitress laugh at you when you asked for her phone number or something? You seem extra worked up about this.

So i see a handful of players here, the customers, the servers, the employer and maybe politicians. Who do you think should wake up one morning and decide not good enough, the system needs to change and I am going to do something about it?

Probably one of the people in positions of authority who are paid to make such decisions. I gotta work a morning shift today, should I ask them if today is the day?

Bro at least send him like ten bucks or something. Buddy went to fucking Afghanistan. I bet you've gotten bigger tips for bringing some lukewarm plates of food you didn't even make to a table 32ft away. And I'm sure you were appreciative of those customers and felt they were doing the right thing, correct?

So, here's your chance, do the right thing! Send the $10 to the address they provided. If you do and they post confirmation, I'll legit tip 100% on the next meal I go out for.

Hey at least it's transparent since anyone can check the wallet address. So you don't need to wait for me to post a confirmation (https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/bc1qtg5zxzuact47zvsaguns97swn4w3u8qatchgzl). More transparency than we're getting in this discussion from "career wait staff" who likely get way more than minimum wages and still get tied up in knots that people don't pay enough in tips (rather than demanding better pay from their bosses). I wonder if these people would be okay making their tips publicly known at the time that people leave the tip... eg, on the check it tells you how much tips your server collected for the night so far and on average for a given pay period). I mean, if it's being left to me to pay someone's wages, I should have a right to know how much they've collected right?

But seriously. I don't need the money. I do well enough for myself and have no-one but myself to blame if I don't take home enough money for my family in a given pay period. I generated the address to prove a silly point.

I'm not saying you need the money, just that he should give it to you as he would expect you to do for him if the situation was the other way around.

He won't though. Leeches like that only take from others.

Yeah I suspected that was your intent. But can't always attribute tone to text. I'm just trying to prove the point and I think you get it spot on. Demanding tips from or hating/resenting your customers because they choose not to tip you is just nasty behavior when they should ultimately be mad at the person who hires/pays them. This behavior that this lemmite espouse here in the attempt to justify tipping is exactly why I don't like tipping at all.

The military thing is in the same vein, everyone always claims that the military members don't get enough for what they do... So when you put tipping in that context to... Where's mine? That logic fails outright... and everyone knows it. So why keep it floating for wait staff?

Leeches like that only take from others.

Saying this while demanding a sub-minimum wage worker send money to someone who presumably has permanent access to healthcare due to military service (and also admits they are paid well) is peak internet.

who presumably has permanent access to healthcare due to military service

This would only be true if I hold 100% disability. For any other percentage I could only use VA healthcare for service related disabilities. And this all assumes I hold a disability at all.

I'm well paid, because I worked hard to start my company and gain the contracts I have.

Interesting, the rules must be different depending on circumstance because my grandpa had zero issues getting VA care with no disability. This was post WWII though so it wouldn’t surprise me if they stopped giving out healthcare once the US stopped winning wars.

Regardless of your healthcare status, demanding a minimum wage worker give you a tip for your service is absolutely deranged. Especially when the food service worker is actually providing a useful service and not just enforcing imperialism.

So then you're talking on topics that you have no information about... and expect anyone to take you seriously?

Demanding tips is deranged from the get go.

Your employers sure love us though, since they invite us in with open arms every single time. And we always, always, pay them then the full price they asked for. We have a great relationship in which we both benefit. Their business adds value to the community and I want to support them, and so I do. And they thank me for it. And I get a delicious cheeseburger.

So no, I'm not staying home and you can't do a fucking thing about it. If I happen to walk into your place of work, you will serve me with a smile on your face the entire time too. It's pretty fucked up and I can't understand why you do it to yourself. I did for a few years and am thankful everyday I left for greener pastures. You could too.

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Order take-out, all the food, none of the worries

Thats the funny part, they still want tips on everything they sell. Tipping just needs to be stamped out and employers made to pay living wages.

The debit machine is automatically programmed to ask for a tip. Your server or take out bagger didn't program the debit machine. No one has a gun to your head saying you have to tip on takeout. Servers generally aren't required to tip out on takeout orders.

Order take-out, all the food, none of the worries

Eh... I have to disagree here. I often get wrong orders if I do take out. Since covid, delivery drivers drop the food at the door and sprint away like Fedex/UPS... often without even hitting the doorbell. So if there's something wrong with the order you're just SOL. The restaurant will blame whatever app/service they use for delivery... the app/service blames the restaurant... and you as the customer just get shafted because nobody will ever make it right.

taking money out of service employees pockets

Doesn't your employer pay your wage?

Alot of states in the US have like the opposite of pro rated minimum wage where they actually are paid less than minimum wage because they earn tips.

So like a waitress earns $2.75/hour as opposed to $10/hour because she might make that up in tips within the hour. That's the thought anyways.

So what happens if they don't make any tips? Surely they still need to make the legal minimum wage?

No. They pay starvation wages. Server wages in the states is like $2.65/hr. "Well if they hate it just quit!" What person in the US could do the intense labor of serving tables and still survive on that little? Who would want to?

Do you not have a minimum wage?

We do. They're misrepresenting it all.

Federal minimum wage is 7.25 and the majority of states have a higher minimum wage.

The $2 number is that in many states tips given can refund back some wage cost back to the business...

So if you work 40 hours one week... and make 1000$ in tips, the business can take back some of the 290 they paid you for hours. Conversely if you get 0 in tips for the whole week(pay period) they must pay you the full minimum wage... not any reduced amount.

So surely that's a good reason for nobody to do any tipping, then the employers have to pay everyone the legal minimum wage, right?

I would agree... Except that wait-staff often make well over minimum wage with tips. So you'll see them here in the comment astro-turfing to keep tipping more and more, even people who claim to HATE customers as they walk in the door (before you even have a chance to tip). I've never met a wait staff in person that didn't like the tipping structure. And even in the comments I've only seen one that claims to be current wait staff that wishes tipping wasn't a thing. Everyone else blames the customer... rather than their boss... for not getting paid more. Which is insane... I as a customer didn't participate in your hiring, I didn't negotiate your pay, I didn't consent to paying your wages. In every other job, IRS requires strict control and knowledge of every penny paid to workers... But for this specific instance it's "special" and different. It's absurd.

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