To not want to leave a tip ?

[cookieswirls]

Went for a meal tonight nothing fancy just pizza and my friend seemed mortified that I didn't leave a tip. I was paying for our meal and I generally don't leave tips. Ive never left a tip for anyone actually not taxi drivers, hairdressers, waiters is that mean of me ?

I'm perfectly OK with tipping waiting staff, and I do.

It's some of the other people that apparently we should tip that leave me baffled. Someone mentioned refuse collectors. The refuse collectors where I live will wait until they see someone load the car up with children and school bags then park across the drive and block them in and refuse to move for fifteen minutes, and polite requests for them to move are met with laughter. They are legendary for it. There is not a hope in hell that I would offer a tip to someone who delights in making life difficult for others.

I do feel great about tipping, but I don't feel smug, which is the vibe I got from lyings post saying flinging money and feeling great.

Have you ever thought of giving a pot plant instead of chocolate Lying? I'm just thinking about those waitresses who might be on a diet.

I've also been in Costa/Starbucks/Nero type places hundreds of times with different people and have never tipped or seen anyone else tip. There's usually a cup by the till with a few coins in it but I've never seen anyone put anything in it.

Fame, that post is actually true.

You think the industry survives on your tips? No, it doesn't. It survives on footfall. Sorry to break it to you but all you are doing is perpetuating a ''tipping for mediocrity' culture.

What is the earthly point of tipping 'just because'? It can't make a huge financial difference to a pay packet, given that all staff here in the UK receive at least NMW. If you (general, not pointed at you) tip for no special reason then what's to feel good about that?

As I said, I do tip. Like KERALA said, it hasn't always felt right but I've done it. I am now NOT going to do that as a routine thing because I don't think it's right. The 'lady bountiful' thing really doesn't sit well for me. But, if I'm on the end of excellent service then I'm going to make bloody sure that the staff know how much I appreciate them.

You go your way, I'll go mine - and neither of us should deride the 'other side' for their opposing viewpoint. :)

As I said before, I don't tip in chain restaurants, I don't think the tip goes to the waitress. But I rarely go to chains anyway, I prefer independents whether that be for a coffee or a 3 course meal. But at a pub (obviously most likely owned by a brewery) I would tip a waitress.

I don't feel smug about it in the slightest, it's just something I do. Mind you, I have worked as a waitress and a chambermaid in my yoof, and my DCs have all done the same through their teens for extra money and believe me, a tip means a LOT. I remember my DD coming home after an exhausting shift waitressing and being so excited that she got a fiver after going over and above with service.

limited, I hadn't but I could do that.

I hardly think that's representative of refuse collectors across the UK treacle. Why on earth have people not made official complaints to the council if this is happening on a regular basis?

I'm actually going to STOP tipping as the 'norm' and keep it to just tipping for EXCELLENT service. This thread has convinced me. The sanctimonious and sheeplike - and the outright entitlement on this thread has shed light on some dark corners and they are now illuminated.

You are not alone. I've been mindlessly tipping away all these years but this thread has caused me to revise those practices.

Cheers, OP.

Being a waitress when I was at school far exceeds the 'difficulty' of any job I've had since graduating. Of corpse FT is stressful but I don't recall being screamed at by a colleague or having to hold things half my body weight above my head. Tips were shit there anyway as you only ended up with a couple of quid.

Course, not corpse!!

I give my refuse collectors £10-15 every christmas. They're fantastic. I sometimes chance it with stuff I put out and they always take it . Having said that - I don't give them money to try and bribe them to take stuff, I just think they work hard.

XiCi I wasn't suggesting it was standard practice across the UK but I was saying that I don't care whether it is convention or not, there is no way I'd be giving them a tip.

People complain to the council all the time about it. I have an folder of emails going back well over ten years, as have many other people I know. People have videoed it happening and sent it to the council. All you get is a standard response saying that drivers are not allowed to block driveways. No acknowledgement of the fact that they take delight in doing so.

user1479495984 exactly.

I'd hazard a guess these non tippers have never waited a table or looked after 40+ people, kept them all happy, drinks cold, food hot, shitty requests met, full menu knowledge, allergy knowledge, badly behaved children kept under control...

Paid for the food when their theiving table walks out because they were off tending to another set of needs to exceed expectations.

Not seen a NYE in years so their clients could have a wonderful NYE themselves.

Felt lucky if they got 3minutes for a smoke at the bells but had worked their arse of to get everyone happy before midnight so they could at least be with their fake friends at that particular moment.

Gone 14hours without a break because they are short staffed and it's Christmas and it's what you do but the tips make it worth it.

Been physically grabbed by customers who want their attention and think they own them because they are providing them with service.

You are paying for the food. The owner is paying them for the hours. You are paying them for the service, if you choose.

But if you've ever waited tables, you'll want to pay it forward (if you were ever any good at your job!)

I'm laughing at the refuse collector posts... they make no sense to me. I worked in wastes management for councils for many years and dealt with myriad complaints about them:

• they fight to do the Christmas collections just because of the tips from the 'punters' and nobody goes sick that week - but hang the rest of the weeks of the year when sickness absence is through the roof.
• taking side/additional waste just adds to the collection cost for everybody else who pays council tax so, thanks for that.
• you can complain till the stars burn out regarding vehicle obstruction and it will get you nowhere.

... and this is the clincher for me. They get enormous BONUSES every week so your Christmas tips would be better and more fairly distributed to the council's call centres? Education departments? Actually, anybody but the refuse collectors who are doing just fine, thank you very much! This has really tickled me.

I am really surprised by the amount of you who don't tip! I leave 10℅, also a quid or so for taxi drivers etc.

I would be happy to tip the postman if we had a regular one but it changes all the time and some are better than others. When we used to have the same one every day I gave him money at Christmas because he was so lovely and tried his best (although actually, he wasn't a very good postman because he was always delivering stuff to the wrong address, but he had some memory problems from a head injury sustained in an accident, and he was trying his very best).

Lying different councils are different. As for the extra waste, that is a ridiculous exaggeration, I'm talking one small thing maybe once a year, not huge stuff that should be taken to the tip! I'm really not sure that your perception of them applies to every single council, every single bin lorry in the country!

Fame absolutely spot on with your post, unless you've done it you don't get it.

By 'tip the postman' I mean at Christmas obviously, don't think the budget would stretch to tipping him everyday, even for the most generous of tippers

Fame, I'm interested in your last post; I have waitressed myself when I was at university, I think lots of students do that. Anyway:

Thieving tables - this shouldn't be possible and it's on management to put in place measures to prevent that, ie. taking a card at time of booking or behind the bar? That would circumvent the thieves - and any dishonest staff who 'give' to family/friends.

need to exceed expectations - well they really don't, do they? They don't need to do that. They're getting a salary and they just need to perform their job. If they are so diverted from all of their other customers to 'tip chase' then that's perhaps a reason not to give that temptation?

NYE - come off it, waiting staff work for tips on this day/night and you know it. There was always a plethora of staff wanting to do this night - a bit like refuse collections...

14 hours without a break and being grabbed - you're obviously attributing this to bad and inefficient management, yes? Because receiving a customer 'tip' couldn't make this sort of thing worthwhile, could it? Or are you saying just that?

customer is paying for the food - yes they are - and they're already paying for the buildings, insurance, toilets, car parking, staffing and anything else the owner can load into the price. Or do you believe that the owner takes all of these costs on the chin?

Perhaps you've had some bad experiences of waiting and are projecting as bit? I'm taking your post at face value.

I've never been a waitress. I wanted to when I was at school, but for religious reasons my parents wouldn't allow me to work somewhere that served alcohol. I worked in a coffee shop though, and there were no tips there

Rousette, in what way are 'different councils different'? I'm genuinely interested because I've worked for five, in that industry and I can tell you that those five were much of a muchness with refuse collection because they work to the same guidance and best practice.

If you tell me that your own refuse collectors are brilliant or terrible, I'd believe you because there are some who leap out to help if they see somebody struggling with a bin (who isn't on the 'help them!' list) - and others who will sit and laugh and woe betide if you don't get your bin in its spot in time...

The general policies though are across the board.

In fact, not only were there no tips, but the management didn't actually pay us a lot of the time. It was with some satisfaction that shortly afterwards they were bankrupted and barred from owning a business...

I think you probably worked in a little dream land lying. How were the tips when you waitresses?

I have worked as wait staff. In 3 different restaurants and I will don't tip.

And as for your post of everything they have to put up with Fame. Yup I put up with all of that and more since I started in healthcare. I've been spat on, pissed on , had shit flung at me. Been physically assaulted on more than one occasion and this year with be the first year in 7 years I've spent Christmas or new year with my family because I'm on maternity leave. But of course as we've discussed many times society chooses to tip wait staff over other minimum wage workers "just because"