The shabbos lunch discussion turned to tipping your server and it got heated. I found out what the word TIPS actually means, To Insure Prompt Service. Well what happens if the service was not prompt and your server was rude? What should you do? Do you leave a tip anyway, even though your food was not brought to you in a timely matter or your serving person treated you unkindly?
I personally hate the concept of tipping, I think its one of those things that is a necessary evil. What’s the point of leaving a good tip, if in most places they divide them up anyway- giving equal amounts of tips to employees regardless of worthiness- communism I say? Then again what if the person who is serving you gets less work then the other servers- is that fair?
Then of course the owner of the joint gets to make off with more profit, they charge you a certain fee for the food and then on top of this you have to pay more for it to be served to you, which would be great if the owner paid the servers a decent wage, but in the end they do not and the servers have to rely on the customers to collect the rest of their wages.
My friends mother was screaming about how she went to some fancy New York restaurant and the waitress sucked real bad. She was rude, and unfriendly and the food did not turn out to be what they ordered and so on. Unlike the government, people tend to blame the lowest person on the food chain in restaurants, they seldom think about how the cook may have gotten the order wrong or the fact other people are waiting for food. They just love to blame, so my friends mom left a note on the receipt. She also believes in leaving no tip if the service was horrible- I have to say I agree, when you tip you are paying for a service and if that service is not rendered, well, tough cookies.
Other folks tend to yell and make scenes, those people are interesting. Someone told me that you should leave them a quarter if it sucked that bad. In many kosher establishments they will include the tip in the order- because they know two things, Jews and canoes are different because canoes tip. They also know that the service in kosher restaurants stinks, especially the higher in heimishe totem pole status you get.