I've got a tip for you, Sir

Whereas it used to be left at the diner’s discretion as to how much they left for the waiter, in recent years, establishments have taken to automatically adding service charges to the end of your bill. An old acquaintance of mine used to refuse to put down any form of tip as he said that the waiters are already paid to do their job – which is to look after the customer and meet their needs. In a similar environment, you wouldn’t pay a shop keeper a tip for being polite at the till, for example. However, I know some restaurants pay their staff slightly less and expect them to make up the rest of their wages in tips, so in that instance it seems somewhat unfair. But I do object to the presumption that a tip should be an automatic right.

After dinner last night with a friend, we received the bill and they had routinely added on a 10% service charge. Usually I am not against tipping if I have enjoyed the meal and the service has been good; I suppose I see a tip as a small way of saying thank you. In this case, the food was good but the service was abominable. After we had been seated, the two waiters on duty (split their time between four tables each, so they were hardly run off their feet) proceeded to nonchalantly ignore us and only provided us with the pleasure of communication once, when they took our food and drinks order. One of the waiters, however, was more that happy to frequently attend to his friend who was sat at the table next to us. Even the kids party that was over the other side of the room received more attention than we did; though perhaps they might not have had the parents not been sitting at a separate table a few feet away. Even when paying our bill the waiter spent the entire time conversing with his friend, and offhandedly mumbled ‘thank you’ over his shoulder as we stood to leave. My friend, paying for dinner (thanks, by the way) insisted on leaving a tip. Whether this is because he is a waiter himself is still yet to be confirmed. I don’t see that service like that deserves any form of reward though, however small. I was certainly not thankful for the attitude the staff displayed and felt that by leaving a tip, it conveyed the message back to them that their behaviour was satisfactory.

I don’t treat restaurant staff like servants and am always conscious of being polite. If a friend disrespected you, then you wouldn’t do them any favours in return. If a waiter disrespects me then why should I honour them for it? Call me old fashioned and I’m probably going to have my food spat in next time I eat out, but I’m leading the campaign to bring back discretionary tips.