Although in some countries the concept of a service charge has left the hospitality business a lot easier about gratuities for waiters, bartenders and other servers; over in America we're all about tipping. Most service jobs in the USA will now factor tips into an employee's pay, so please be sure to tip your server, regardless of how good their service was.
But if you find yourself unable to give out as much as you'd really like - then that should be no worry. That is, however, unless you had a server who was offended by your tip. Then, things can get ugly very quickly. Don't know what I'm talking about? Well then, strap yourselves in - this next story is going to go places.
It comes all the way from the wonderful world of Imgur, where a user by the name of noctynight was out on a date at a fancy restaurant. Standard fare, really; you want to please the object of your affections, so you take them somewhere nice, but it's not necessarily somewhere affordable.
"So long story short, I’m trying to get back into the dating game and decided to take a date out to a fun and classy restaurant. We’ve been getting to know each other and I thought we could use something like this. Date was going well, food was great, our server was good for the most part."
Emphasis here on "for the most part", because things were about to go south in a big way. The bill came, but noctynight was ready for it: they thought ahead of time about planning for covering the costs of the meal, looking at menus, taxes; everything you'd need to stay ahead of the financial game on a date. But noctynight made one grave mistake.
"Thing is, I always forget to factor in the tip. So when the bill comes up I realize I’m a bit short on the tip. I ask my sheepishly ask my date for some assistance with it, and she happily threw in a few bucks. We managed to get to about 15%."
Phew. That was close, wasn't it?! But things were not over. Far from it. The waitress came over with a smile on her face, but a minute later, the smile was gone. She asks about the service, if everything was okay; noctynight explains that he only had so much to give, and that's when things started to really get messy.
"‘Sir. I would actually be offended if I accepted something as small as this' - Usually, this line would be read as sympathetic, but the glare, the body language, and the tone of her voice did not give off any sympathetic vibes. Especially following it up with things like 'If you can’t afford the tip then I suggest you choose a more suitable establishment in the future,' doesn’t help either."
Oh dear. Realizing that he'd made a grave error, noctynight tries to make a hasty exit. His date, luckily, is understanding. "If people could glare daggers, my date would be glaring swords. She’s a head bartender at a higher end establishment and she told me that if she saw this happening in her work place, there’d be hell to pay," noctynight explains, and I'd have to agree with that idea.
All in all, it's a bit of a weird story. Of course, wait staff are under a lot of pressure financially, but as noctynight explains, "causing a scene and shaming a customer because of a low tip while on the job to their face... well, she made sure to lose two customers that night". Let's hope this waitress learns her lesson in the future.
