Friends didn't "tip"....bit tight?

[tvsavec]

Me and three friends went to a little family run Greek restaurant.
The bill came to around £80 for four of us.
At the end of the meal
Friend 1 put £2 on the table and I also put £2
Friend 3 said "is that for a tip"
We said yeah.....she shouts for the waiter and hands him the £4 and says thanks
They didn't bother to put a couple of pound in each

Aibu to think it's a bit tight?

in your circle

Well, yes, everybody "in my circle" tips, because I am not friends with and do not eat out with cheapskates.

None of the thousands of customers I served during my years as a waitress were "in my circle", however. And those are the people I am basing my statement on.

I worked in a fairly average non-upmarket chain restaurant between the ages of 16 and 18. I remember I started on £3 an hour! So I needed those tips.

I’d say around two thirds of the customers tipped, but not usually 10%. A lot of people just put down a pound or two as standard.

I was always very pleased if someone actually tipped 10% or more.

When I went to uni, I worked in a shop instead and earned about £5 an hour. It often worked out less than waitressing when you added the tips on, but it was a much easier, less tiring job without the late finishes. So I was generally happier and less tired.

I noticed quite a marked difference between how managers and customers treated you when waitressing vs shop work.

Everyone I know well tips, as well. There is an inherent lack of generosity in not leaving a couple of quid when you can afford it, and that’s been evidenced by rhe comments trying to justify it. An inherent lack of generosity is coming across.

There is an inherent lack of generosity in not leaving a couple of quid

When you’ve already paid 12-15% on top of the cost of the meal and drinks for the service charge? So your meal costs £100 and you pay £115 in total, and you then add on even more? Why? So you really think the total added on should actually be 17% extra?

How presumptuous of you.

The thing that stands out about this attitude IS. Perhaps your colleague couldn't afford a tip? You don't know your "colleagues" personal circumstances. This whole thread is very very odd I'm sorry but the waitress should not be taking priority here it's disgusting. The majority of us have done shit jobs and worked for £3 per hour this isn't solely waitresses FFS. How entitled.

Why do we need to tip in this day and age? Do you tip staff in the supermarket? In retail? In your local hospital? No! And most of them will be on similar wages.

I worked in a clothes shop as a teen. On my feet from about 8am when I left for work until I got home at about 6.30pm. My feet we're swollen and sore. It was hRd blummin work for just £2 per hour. Did we get tips? No of course not. I can't believe waiting tables is any harder so why are those staff thought worthy?

We pay a NMW, there is no need to tip.

Isn’t it insulting to tip? It’s patronising and very demeaning these days. I’d be a bit embarrassed to treat waiting staff that way.

I honestly can’t say I would notice how much a friend tips. Mostly because the bill is normally split and people pay in their cards! And o don’t care because I’m not a weirdo.

Er, no, it is not demeaning - and I think you know that, you are just trying to excuse your own tightness.

Of course it’s demeaning, and insulting. No one tips these days. Society has moved on, thank God. We’re not stuck in the 1950s - “a little extra pin money for the wifey”. It’s nothing to do with being tight. Jobs are paid properly, and should be respected as such - and staff shouldn’t be looked down on.

That’s just cringe. I mean all of rhem are cringe in there lack of generosity and the squirming to excuse it, but this is the curling…🤯

It’s really not. It’s cringey the other way in attempts to justify tipping.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ah, yes, the emoticons… They tell us all we need to know.

No it isn't insulting to tip! I always notice if someone is too tight to tip. I usually know the friends who won't anyway and don't often go out to eat with them.

My ex used to joke that people who didn't tip were bad in bed. Not sure how true it is but it made me laugh. Just highlights the tightness and selfishness of most non tippers.

No it isn't insulting to tip! I always notice if someone is too tight to tip. I usually know the friends who won't anyway and don't often go out to eat with them

how do you know it’s “too tight” and not genuinely too broke?

it’s a bit like that scene in friends where the rich 3 are leaving generous tips, ordering extravagant meals, and don’t notice that the others are drinking water and struggling to afford the cost of splitting the bill.

100% but not in your favour, right. How embarrassing for you.😋

What fantasy land do you live in?

Surely if you go out to eat you can add an extra £2 to the bill? If I was that close to the wire I wouldn't go out for meals with friends. Cheaper to entertain at home. The friends I'm thinking about are tight

Tip or don't tip, I don't care.
Just done use other people's tips to cover your share of the bill.

Tipping doesn't make too much sense to me, but to be honest I tip anyway just to 'fit in'.

I haved lived in the US, and in 1 to 1 conversations a few friends / colleagues have complained heavily about the tipping culture in the US. Maybe they thought they could confide in a Brit, as Brits don't have the best reputation for tipping in the US.

Will be interesting to see how things go as we move away from cash. Must admit I have never left a tip for a Uber driver.

Although the whole tipping thing baffles me, it baffles me more when very skint people go out for a meal.

I’ve been skint before in my student and postgrad days and I’d often meet people for drinks after a meal rather than join them for the meal. I used to get quite anxious about being in a situation where I was sitting there while my better-off friends decided to split the bill if they’d had 3 courses plus wine and I’d had the soup, thinking “I don’t have £30 in my account”. Or finding (in the days before you could get menus online) that it was a much dearer restaurant than I first thought.

I’ve seen people on here going out for meals and finding their party wanted to split the bill and suddenly they were down to £1 in their account for the next 3 days. I don’t mean to sound judgy but how can people let that happen?!

But why should people with less money miss out @LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet ?

Perhaps they'd like to join in and be sociable?

Perhaps they'd hope that their better off friends won't take the piss by expecting people who've stuck to a budget and ordered what they can afford pay towards their more indulgent choices?

If you've got £20 and ordered a pizza and a soft drink you don't blindly go along with splitting the bill and end up paying £40, including £20 that is allocated for something else, for a pizza and a soft drink because your so called friends had steak, pudding and cocktails and want you to help them pay for it.

And if they think you're mean for speaking up, they're not really your friends are they?