Tipping waiting staff..

Personally I think its bullshit.

As A waitress I served about 6-8 tables usually.
Turnover is about 90min.

On 6 tables with an average bill on £60 (which i actually think is on the low side)

gives £45 in service for 90mins for £30 ph in tips.

Wait staff all make £12-15 ph already....

My cleaner makes £15 ph for a much harder job.

I hate it and I hate its added as standard.

@Duvetdayneeded haha I think there’s another name for ‘tipping’ the man that processes planning applications 😋

If the service is terrible I get the service charge removed
If the service is incredible I tip directly in cash
If the service is average I just pay service and don't tip.

I'm not on much more than min wage now so I don't tip anyone else. Hairdressers, taxi drivers, delivery drivers etc. They are so expensive anyway, and everyone gets a similar wage to me now.

Off topic but I wouldn’t say retail staff spend less time on customers. When I go to a shop, I usually get 30 mins uninterrupted time with someone and they’re very knowledgeable.

Eating out, it’s perhaps a couple of minutes.

If anyone here works in hospitality… Do you then actually get paid your wage and 5-10% turnover on top? As that is what it should work out as… And it could easily double income in some restaurants

For my brief and disastrous bar career, I’d usually get my wage and another 100% on top in tips… but those were different times

It’s not just tipping these days I find shops are also asking to ‘ round up for charity ‘ . I was in Pets at Home last weekend and was asked to add money for charity . Being as it was the second time I’d had to go in I said no . Between tipping and ‘ charity ‘ it’s all adding up .
I totally get the awkwardness though . There’s a pub near me where the waitress rushes over on signs of you leaving to ingratiate herself with you with the specific hope / reminder of giving her a tip . It feels pressured now not voluntary.

I never pay service charge. Always tip the individual that looked after me. If they want to put the tip in the staff tip jar then that's up to them.

I’ve stopped tipping now. I cannot abide an automatic add to the bill. I’m a farmer who produces the food they sell. No one tips my staff.

It’s also vanishingly rare to get anywhere near decent service let alone excellent service.

Tipping is getting ridiculous. I wouldn’t mind so much if there was excellent service but the majority time is not. They’re being paid a wage and it’s their job to serve etc. Why should One table spending £150 and getting the same service as another table spending £40 tip so much more? I never tip Hairdressers because why should I? I wouldn’t tip the supermarket cashier, the bin men, the person who does my nails or massage, the lawyer, the man processing planning applications…

I worry that not paying an optional service charge reflects poorly on the server. It seems like the sort of thing that might be used as a performance metric. Does anyone know?

My aunt always refuses to pay the service charge and also nearly always sends something back. I wish she would just eat at home 😂

I ask for the service charge to be removed, and tip in cash for only way above average service. Why should I give the waitress more money just for doing her job? She’s paid at least the NMW and it’s not a particularly difficult job. The establishments rely on people being to embarrassed to tell them to remove the ridiculous charge, but what they should do is build the charge into the stated price. They won’t because that would deter customers. It’s so sneaky.

Tipping should be optional but you feel really bad not tipping (particularly
if your server was very good). When it is added automatically, I always ask if they will actually get it and in what form.
I had one a while ago that said it covered their sick pay (WTAF) so I removed it and paid the waiter cash. The manager want happy at all that Id removed it and came over to tell me so (I told him why I’d removed it but didn’t tell him about the cash tip to the waiter). Little wins! 😊
This week, we went to a Beach cafe where we had to find a table and then queue and order the food and drinks.I got my card out to pay and was asked to follow the instructions which guided me to a variety of percentage tips. I declined and said how could I possibly tip for food and service when I haven’t experienced either. As it happens it was fab so I tipped at the end.
I don’t think tips should be assumed. Far too many pay their staff very little and rely on the tips to top it up so add it anyway.

I dont tip, unless its something like a works night out , or large family gathering and there's lots of us , where we are monopolising a member of staff all night , then there would be a whip round around the table. Big tables are difficult , making sure everyone gets served all the same time, the calls for drinks, extra sides etc can be very challenging

Service charge USED to be set for tables over a certain size to cover this , now its on every bill - but there is no need to pay it

Over the years I have worked both sides - waitressing , bar tending and Kitchen ( line cook ) all minimum wage jobs and have never expected a tip.

You can ask for the service charge to be removed. I never have and wouldn’t do unless the meal and/or service was rubbish.

If there’s no service charge on the bill, I’d usually tip about 15%. I just see it as part of the cost of going out for food.

I love going for a meal and great wait staff enhance the whole experience so I’m happy to tip when I’ve had a good time.

I also will also ask for the 'optional' service charge to be removed. Unless I have been somewhere where I feel it has been exceptional in terms of food or that the service has been amazing (friendly waiting staff, giving recommendations etc) then I don't feel I should give a tip.
Sadly I do think it's expected though and like someone else said, some will ask if everything was ok when I ask for it removed which does make me feel uncomfortable (I don't really want to have to explain myself e.g. it's now out of my budget, I didnt think it was above average, pointing out that it is an optional fee). I also find that some chains particularly the staff generally think they will get it, I have been in a few places where once the staff realise there won't be a tip they start bashing dishes around and reacting like a tantruming child.

I’d also add

the banks take a chunk of the tip

the card machine that asks you if you want to tip - the bank takes their % as the bank charges the company for making card transactions- so it’s been in their interest to increase the total amount on the card reader.

My way round it is to ask for it to be taken off 'as I prefer to leave a cash tip'

Then leave £1or £2

🙄

The answer is to ask them to take it off the bill? You don’t have to pay it.

you can then leave a small amount ^if you want to* or leave without tipping

I tip very generously believe it or not, but I don't have to agree with it 👍.

This is another argument that doesn't stand up to scrutiny - you don't need to be rich to eat out , you just need to be away from your own kitchen. People need to eat regardless.

Dont be cheapskates. If you can afford to eat out then you can afford to tip. We usually tip just over 10% unless the service is below standard.

We went out last night. The staff were great and very helpful. Food was lovely. No service charge added and so we left a tip.
I always tip in cash, want to make sure it goes to the staff and not the business.
I also felt for them working in the heat.
As for the USA I always feel pressure to tip because they ask for a tip!
The prices in the USA can be very expensive so I can see why people are totally against tipping. It can make you feel uncomfortable though.
I think tipping say waiting staff is very different from tipping a plumber or workman, they get a lot more money anyway and change extortionate prices.
I also dislike how some shops have introduced a charity donation on their card reader.
It’s just another hassle.

What annoys me is a jar on the counter in self service cafes. Cheek of them when I’m serving myself. Am I meant to take a tip for myself out of their tip jar? That last bit tongue in cheek.

Exactly, it's the relying on people's good will that's the problem I have.

I agree, if we have a bottle of wine costing £100 the service is the same as for a £20 bottle.

(Unless, perhaps, it was delivered to tbe table by a monkey in a flaming chariot pulled by a pygmy hippopotamus - I would definitely pay extra for that.)

I just got back from Hawaii and on every excursion we were given a long speech by the operator about how they rely on tips to survive, they are not mandatory but always appreciated etc etc. It can’t be nice for them to have to ask like that and it’s not nice for customers to be guilt tripped.