Be Excellent To Each Other

Why don't Rubray consider research into that foul stench that they pump out onto the streets that makes me retch every time I'm near one of their slop houses?

No, bringing stuff to the table on a tray is included in the price. What you might tip for is largely the attitude and personality of the person you get. That's a human variable, and can't (or shouldn't) be charged for as standard.
Because a) you might not get it and b) you might not want it. And c) you possibly shouldn't even expect it.

My local S(R)ubway has the tip jar on the counter, which is of course how I'm able to tip them.

My local chip shop has a tip jar around Christmas time too, and I always make sure to tip them with my change, because I'm a regular customer, and I'm always being given free stuff (two fish for the price of one, that kind of thing). I know they only do this because it's near closing time and they want to get rid of it, rather than it being out of the good of their hearts, but it's still nice.

Probably because they're not who you assume they are.

What he said.

Also, American waiting staff terrify me.

I've tried Rot-13ing it and everything

[guess redacted]

So what is the difference between that and a fast food joint again?

It'd be a bit daft to make obvious who your client is, when they've approached you confidentially about playing on public weaknesses in order to stuff more money into their greedy pockets.

You never get it.

Unless you've been monolithically unlucky, that's simply not true.
I look forward to pointing these things out to you next time we're out

You take your own stuff to the table. You get your own drink from the machine. Any extra you wish to pay on how well done or friendly or attractive you are in performing that service you would need to pay to yourself.

You mean "Got hit with bones by a load of apes and then buried on the moon"?

At the KFC at Oxford Services, you can order and pay at a terminal. YOu just then take a receipt and pick your food up... very little human interaction.

Sometimes that's not the case, especially if it's late at night.Only at Subway, as far as I'm aware.

I've worked in Mcdonalds and bars and restaurants and I'd have to say that out of all of them, McDonalds was by far the easiest. I went there for about a year after having worked in a hotel for two and a half years and I went from around £3 an hour to £6 an hour for doing much easier work, with regular breaks and free meals. Oh and earlier finishing times but I suppose that depends on which branch you work in.

Hmm, I might tip in that case. The person, that is.

No, I mean some slimy things came out of the frozen ocean and tore your spaceship apart.

Yeah, if they have to cook your burger or whatever and the place is quiet, they'll tell you to go and sit down to wait, and they'll bring it over.
Thinking about it, this has only ever happened in McDonalds.

Some leering, pockmarked youth turning through 180 degrees to pick up a marked package of 'food' before sullenly handing said grease-laden packet to you, at a till =! [yay!] someone taking you to your table, talking through that day's menu options, engaging in conversation before taking your order, bringing out each course, serving you drinks, clearing plates and glasses and arranging your bill.

Hence the first option is demonstrably very different from the second.

Of course, to tip or not to tip is very much a matter of personal choice and there's no intrinsically 'correct' option, but IMO to suggest that there's actually no difference at all between simply picking up a pre-prepared item of food from a shop counter, and being waited on, is surely misguided. Added value and all that, not to mention the human touch.

You know what's hard work for a low wage? Whatever the male version of a Chambermaid is.

Chamberbutler?

Chodcleasner.

Oh, I always tip chambermaids. They are alone in your room, where all your stuff is, and can happily fart on your pillow. Not tipping is madness.

Heh. I thought Chamberlain. But I'm not sure in the slightest. Either way: seriously tiring work, though I was in a weird situation when I did it:

The restaurant section of the hotel I worked in was being renovated, so everyone was shipped off to various different places for courses and other duties. With no transport and only working weekends, I was put into the hotel itself instead, helping the Chambermaids. They were paid per room, I was paid for how many hours I worked. So it was in their best interests to work their arses off, and not in mine; but I did, and only clocked up a few hours each day instead of the eight I'd usually do.

So if waitressing and waitering is such a shitly paid and terrible job, considered the lowliest and unskilled of things by their actual employers, why do places not struggle to fill the positions for it?

How the fuck do you tip a chambermaid? Leave cash on the sideboard? What happens if you leave your wallet there the next day while you're down in the pool? They'll think they can walk off with it.

Lunacy.

Chambermaids, as with scullery maids, should be content with a good tupping when you deem fit.


A few words for you:

Recession

Very high unemployment

Far fewer jobs available than those looking for work

People need money

And yet because you're at a services, you get to pay more. I hope the terminal gets the extra.

Chamberchap?

I agree though - cleaning hotel rooms seems like a real sod of a job.

You don't need any qualifications and money buys food and pays rent.

Since when can money be exchanged for goods and services?

Indeed, if you see them. We gave 50TL at the end of the week to the chambermaid in Turkey when we stayed. She did an excellent job, and was paid next to nothing. I've never seen a more grateful person, either.

Every day a school day, eh.

MaliA.

Tup a scullery maid? Good lord man, whatever next? Chamber maid certainly, parlour maids and ladies maids of course, but a scullery maid? I'm all for venturing below stairs for that sort of thing, but a gentleman needs to have standards.

Well, ask a silly question!

Wow, lots of people against tipping.

If I sat down at a table and a person runs back and forth getting me my every demand then they get a personal tip because I'm using them (a very little bit) like a slave, and it's a thanks for that.

Shopkeepers, fast food people and barstaff don't get tips because I walk up to them and ask to buy a product off them. It's a transaction.

Whilst the latter people have a far far harder job, the former subverts the way I normally treat people and feels weird.

Also a huge reason I tip is that if it is a place I like then I'll be returning. and it is effectively a bribe for them to at best treat you well and a worst not mess with your food. If I didn't leave a tip at a place, then I wouldn't really want to return.

The amount I tip also varies on how long we took, if we've took our time and hogged a table, a tip says 'thanks for not trying to hurry us out'.

Aside: One of the best tips I've heard, is when you have a meal anyone who is nice to you, but not nice to the waiter is a dick to be avoided.

EDIT: So yeah, if tipping was based around who deserved it the most then waiters would be near the bottom of the list. But it's weird so they get away with it.

While your mighty prejudice is impressive, it would appear that your skill at reading threads isn't. Working in a fast food restaurant doesn't automatically mean you're young, male, or have bad skin. It also doesn't mean that you won't be friendly to people you serve, or do a good job.
Waiters in fast food restaurants also serve you drinks (and pour them, too), bring you each course (albeit all at once), often clean up after you, and arrange your bill. They will happily explain the menu to you, and have to be able to reel off the ingredients of each item because of allergy stuff.
The fact that you wave them away as 'leering youths' simply because of the job they do says far more about your social skills than theirs.

Oh, and it's !=, not =!. Sorry.

Got in himmel, yes! What is that smell? It's like cooked Play-Doh (exactly what their sandwiches taste of, incidentally). It's so nauseous I will happily take a ten-minute detour through a city centre just to avoid being assailed by it.

Hey, Cavey's back!

Surely you can read that back to yourself and realise that, really, it makes no sense, right?
Basically, you're giving a tip literally because someone is carrying something to where you are without you having to move?

Yes but in what other situation do you ask people to fetch and carry things that you can easily fetch and carry yourself?

I know what he means.

On a similar topic, we were in Pizza Express in Birmingham and there was a party of about 12 of us. One of my friends asks the waitress for some tomato ketchup to go with his pizza. The waitress snootily looks down her nose at him, "We don't serve tomato ketchup here." My mate just looks back up at her and says, "that's your tip gone then, isn't it?" She looked crestfallen, it was brilliant!

I'm all for standards but when a gentleman has, shall we say, *special* requirements, a scullery maid tends to be more of an education.

Dog walking.

I think I tried to make it very clear that it doesn't make sense.

If I'm using people as a pseudo-slave, to go get me food or tidying up the room in which I'm living in then they get a tip to undo the socially weird way we are interacting. You are treating one half of the room as equals and the others as not-equal. It's weird. Hence tip.

If I go to a fast food resteraunt and buy something, it isn't weird.

What?

/flies over head

Eh?

Tongue firmly in cheek for laughs, as I'd have thought the classic stereotyping would've indicated, (although I was half serious about the difference between being served at a counter and being waited on). I've not worked in a restaurant to be fair, but have done a number of menial jobs from shop floor to garage pump attendant, and been treated like shit at all of them. Not forgotten it, hence the tipping/smiling bit.

Anyway, what on earth has gotten into you, are you serious here?

What about removals men?

Haha, same here. I had to explain this wrinkle of British tipping etiquette to sistaflapjack. I said the objective is to give the server the money without either of you ever acknowledging that this has taken place. In the States, tipping is completely normal with no British reservation. So she could pay for a $6 taxi ride with a $10 note, say "three back" (which I had to have explained to me as "give me $3 change, please"), and leave the balance of $1 as a tip; somehow that feels faintly vulgar to me.