Dollarish featured a post about tipping. Tipping is something that always seems to get to me. So, I thought I would talk about it.
The post talked about reasons for leaving a poor tip: lousy service, expensive food, not having enough money, etc.
First, I'll approach the second two, which are really the same issue. If you don't have the money to pay for the food and for the service, then don't eat out. If you feel the food is too expensive then eat somewhere that isn't expensive. If you are shorting the waitress because you can't afford the food, or because you decided the food is overpriced, then you're making yourself look like a fool. It's not her fault you can't afford to, or are too cheap to eat there. Don't punish them for your issues.
Now, in regards to the lousy service, I don't tip based on service or at least not fully. God gives me grace not based on who I am or what I've done, but despite of both. I don't deserve any of what He has done for me, and He has given to me generously. And I try to keep this in mind when tipping my waiter.
I tip a waitress a minimum of $3, even if I only had a glass of tea and no food, it's not her fault that I didn't order a meal. I go with that minimum of $3, or if it is more expensive I tip a minimum of 20-25% of the total regardless of the service. If the waitress does a good job than I give more, but, never less.
Sadly, from my experience, most Christians tip very poorly, and tip based off of things either beyond the waiter's control (You know Sunday lunch is incredibly busy in most places right?) or based on the waiter's works. We are given grace despite of our works, we should treat the waitress with that same grace. If we choose to tip poorly it makes us look unloving and even cruel. We aren't any better than the people who are waiting on us. "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
How do you tip? What do you think about tipping based off of grace? If you have been a waiter/waitress, what impression do you get of a person based on their tips?
True 
Premium
Comments (41)
I tip between 25-30% depending on how much the meal was and how much money I have on me. I think people who want to eat at a restaurant where tipping is standard should have to wait tables first. No server ever wants to work on Sundays solely because Christians are horrible, horrible tippers. It's rare that a server makes more than $3 an hour. Tips are what pay our rent, feed us, and get us to work every day.
I tipped a penny many years ago at a Pizza Hut where the service was really, really lousy, but otherwise I always tipped the "standard" 15%. Now I tip at least 20-25% most of the time. I won't tip more than a dollar if all I'm having is a drink, but with food it's usually two bucks or more.
Our pastor has a great story about having had a really unpleasant waitress one time many years ago. He talked to the manager about it, and the manager said he hadn't wanted her to work, because her husband had just died the day before, but it was the only source of income she had to support herself and the kids. Since I heard the story, I've tried to keep other things in mind besides just the quality of service.
So in answer to your question, I would say Christians should tip generously. I have heard that restaurant employees say Christians tend to be lousy tippers, but I doubt people from my church are stingy.
God bless you seriously, im glad you wrote this post. I am a waitress and i did read the other blog and i was FURIOUS after reading it. Some people are pleasant to serve as others think you're a servant and must talk to you as if you are a slave. There have been days where i just go into tears because of the way ppl treat me, or if im just having a really really bad day and a table triggers something inside me. Im sure some of my tables have seen me come back with teary eyes and I think for the most part alot of them understood. However i will say one night i got extremely upset because I was waiting on a table and I gave them great great service, he enjoye my service too because he kept telling me how great i was. But then there bill came.. it was $90... he left me $9 (10%) and beside the tip line wrote: W.W.J.D and when he told me by he said "God Bless You".... now im sorry but that made me so mad that night. Also people will tip bad and then leave me one of those "tracks" things where it tells story about how to be a Christian... that annoys me too.
I think I shared once before on Revelife about an experience I had in which my small group was called out by a friend of mine for being "that Christian group" that doesn't tip well and treats the serving staff poorly. It ended up being a great ministry opportunity, but it was really humbling to realize the effect our attitude and negligence had on the people around us.
I try to tip well, especially when a server goes out of his or her way to make my experience pleasant. As someone who works for tips, I know what it's like to put a lot of effort into pleasing a customer and not receiving anything in return, so I try to give what I would expect in return for doing the same job.
Funny story. I went to a coffee shop and watched about 20 Christians holding a bible study. Only 2 of them had bought something. The rest were just using the place and quite possibly taking us space that "paying customers" could have used.
Also, if you go to a restaurant and sit for a few hours yapping (as Christians tend to do)we need to tip more! The wait staff could have sat a whole nother group of people in that time, making money for the company and tips for themselves.
I try to tip at least 30%. But if the service is completely crappy, as in the person is obviously not making any effort whatsoever to do his/her job or gives me a nasty attitude for average, reasonable requests, I will tip less(maybe around 15%-20%). I've only done that a few times, and I am usually very slow to make such a judgment, because you never know what's happening in that person's life that may effect their job performance.
Once I left no tip, because I seriously received no service at all, and I was one of three customers in the whole place. Grace is good and all, but if you are clearly refusing to work, I'm not going to help you make money.
Excellent thoughts!
When I made a change in my life a few years ago and started to be more generous with tips, donations, etc., I found out an amazing thing - the Lord was more generous with me. Who would have thought? "Cast your bread upon the waters" has worked just as well for me financially as spiritually.
Calculate how much you would like to receive if you were working a high-stress less-than-minimum-wage job on your feet serving dozens of irritable and demanding customers all making equal demands on your time right at dinnertime and into all hours of the night. Then do unto others.
To be safe, add five percent.
If on the other hand the service was completely discourteous... add a gigantic tip because you're supposed to do good to those who mistreat you.
I try to always tip at least 30% or more. The service doesn't matter. I'll tip anyone well. Sometimes people have a bad day and they could use the pick-me-up. I know that my good tips spur the server on to treating others well after they receive their reward.
Also, I have this crazy idea that our wallets should be more like revolving doors than storage units. John Wesley once said something to the effect of "I never hold onto money for very long lest it find it's way into my heart." I try to remember that.
1 thing I know is that tracts are not tips.
@Pass_the_Aura@xanga - Right on brother. Right on.
@Seen_More_Spine_in_Jellyfish@xanga - Have you ever read notalwaysright.com? The only way I survived retail was finding the humor in it.
honestly... I would say that if you pray before your meal... you BETTER tip and tip generously... mainly because it's the witness...
I recall one story of my waiter days when I waited on a table and it was one of elderly women who looked like they just got back from a rigorous game of backgammon. So they were seated in my section and I served them. I served them well too. You know the drill (if you ever worked restaurants): drinks and take the order if they are ready, once the food is out via 8 minutes from the time you punch in the order, get back to them for drink refills after their first bite or so to check up and so on. Well, I presume that I did pretty dang good in serving these ladies. I didn't hover, I gave them room to talk about elderly women topics and stuff and when it was all done, I got them their check right when they asked. They even wanted separate checks and did that with a smile. Needless to say, all that they left me was a Gospel tract and no tip. Suffice to say, it left me pretty disappointed. Not that they didn't leave a tip though that would have been nice. But the fact that it was such a POOR representation of Christ. Thanks for looking out for my soul and all, but they left out the part in Scripture where it says that we shouldn't say God will feed you and leave the person hungry or God bless you as you go on your trip and not supply them with a blanket and clothes, cuz such a display is a lack of faith and love. It definitely got me thinking about how the majority of us as church folk really forsake that a generous tip will allow the open door to deliver the Gospel to whomever serves our food.
I tip generously. It's RIDICULOUS that Christians are known as bad tippers. We should be the example and be great tippers.
Incidentally, I have heard my pastor preach on this more than once, telling the church that they'd better tip well or their Christian witness is lousy.
this is a good forum for this post. in the context of religion, i think you make good points. :)
Generously and consistently. If you do it regardless of performance and are always generous, the servers will notice and appreciate it. Heck, I've even been propositioned because I was "a nice guy" on the basis of my tips (which I had to turn down).
//
How do you tip? What do you think
about tipping based off of grace? If you have been a waiter/waitress,
what impression do you get of a person based on their tips?//
I generally make sure the cow isn't looking.
As to the second question, I think it's largely based off of a playful attitude, although PETA would think worse.
My impression is that the person likes to take risks with tipping cows.
Wait a sec...
I usually tip 20% or try to anyway.
My friend who used to be a waitress said she hated working Sunday afternoons because "Christians would come in all dressed up in their fancy church clothes and expect me to just be 'so nice' and then they'd tip me close to nothing for whatever reason - maybe they felt like they already gave enough away at church or something..."
@QuantumStorm@xanga - LOL. win.
I have never tipped anyone, simply because there is a 5% service charge on every bill (in most restaurants/cafes). Also, the waiters/ waitresses here are not very badly paid.
when we do go out we have our two year old with us, so we tip pretty well.
We base our tip on several things, the two biggest being the attitude/attentiveness of the wait staff, and the quality of the food. If the waitress/waiter looks like they are just having a really rough day, we will tip more. If they are just rude (especially to our toddler) then I have given nothing. (she was horribly rude to all three of us, and got the orders wrong and did not refill anything).
I don't know where the notion came that Christians are bad tippers. The thought makes me sick. I worked in this industry for several years and I found the opposite to be true.
Tipping is not considered to be something you just do, in Australia. Tipping is reserved for exceptional service. When I tip, I tip generously, but am grateful that no one just stands around with their hand out waiting for "the tip" here.
It's also not based on a percentage when Aussies tip. I guess I just find the idea of tipping every person who performs a service (for which he/she is paid a wage) kind of foreign and hard to grasp.
for restaurants, i tip 20% for mediocre service.... up to 50% for excellent... and nothing if the service is bad. for other services (salons, etc) i tip a flat 30% no matter what.
Good, bad, or ugly, I always tip at least the very minimum 15% - 20% expected tip. If I don't like the food I won't go back. I've never not liked the service. Usually I talk to the waiter or waitress, thanking them or sometimes joking with them. There are a lot of rude people and people who treat "the service" as subhuman that the wait staff has to deal with. My tips are as much a thank you to the wait staff for somehow having dealt with the ill-hearted people who sat at my table before me as they are for the service they provided me.
It's not how people treat me that makes a difference. It's how I treat them. Example. I was a regular at a restaurant where I met a group of friends every week. One night I noticed there was a new waiter. The girls at the table said they didn't like him. He didn't smile when he served them. Soon after I was there alone and when he waited on me I said something nice or funny to him. He lit up as if it was the first time someone had spoken to him as a person. The next time I was there with my friends he was friendly when he came to our table. To the same girls who said they didn't like him he became their favorite waiter.
It goes beyond that. There is a checkout clerk at the supermarket I go to who seems terribly unhappy. She doesn't look at the people whose groceries she runs past the scanner but I engage her. I ask her how she's doing today. One day I asked how she was doing and without looking up at me she answered "I'm alright" without any enthusiasm. Then she looked up and saw it was me. It was great to see a big smile come across her face as she said, "Oh hi. How are you?" Not everyone is going to respond positively right away but we do make a difference simply by acknowledging that someone is actually alive and worth a moment of someone else's time.
Tipping isn't compulsory in Australia unless one is dining at a fine dining restaurant and/or has received exceptionally good service. In such cases, tipping 10% is pretty standard. This is because Australian hospitality workers generally get a more generous wage compared to their American and European counterparts so fair enough, I guess.
Still, I am also of the opinion that if one is going to tip 20-25% percent, the waiter/ess should actually WORK for it, rather than slack off knowing that they WILL get that much of a tip in the end. I agree with SubScared... if you're not willing to work for it, you don't deserve the tip (think Protestant work ethic). At the end of the day, the patron wants to have a great meal at a restaurant so why should they be obliged for fork out the 20-25% tip if the waiter/ess isn't going make your experience a good one?
I also remember eating out with a group of about 12 Christians at a place that had awful awful food. I'm talking dry crusty burgers, salads with big fancy names but nothing but lettuce and a few carrot shavings, etc...and all of those dishes cost a pretty penny.
The place was crazy packed, there was one waitress for the whole place, and half of the people in our group kept changing their orders and where they were sitting, and some of them were outright obnoxious. Considering all of that, our waitress was pretty much on top of things, and didn't even appear to be slightly annoyed by our unruly tables. I don't know how she did it, I would have been way pissy.And honestly, I wouldn't hold it against her if she were way pissy.
In the end most of the people in our group decided that we shouldn't leave any tip whatsoever because the food was so bad.
I couldn't believe it. Two of us did tip, but the bill was well above $100, and between the two of us we just didn't have enough to cover a decent tip for the entire bill.
I just don't understand why you would punish the waitress if the food sucks. Don't go back, tell the management about your disappointment, whatever... but don't use it as an excuse to not tip.