They stiffed her — after which rubbed salt within the wound.
A bunch of smug teenagers has gone viral after leaving a struggling waitress zero tip and a snarky four-word message on the receipt as an alternative: “Put on a life jacket.”
The 22-year-old server, who goes by Janet and works at a series restaurant “within the southern Midwestern space,” says she’s sadly used to getting stiffed.
However this time, it wasn’t only a lack of money — it was a punchline at her expense.
“It comes with the territory of being a server,” Janet informed Newsweek after sharing a photograph of the receipt on Reddit earlier this month below the deal with u/Wrong_Confection331.
When Janet noticed the observe as an alternative of a tip, she initially thought it was a cheeky nod to latest historic flooding within the space.
“I believed it was a humorous joke at first as a result of we had gotten historic flooding in our space lately,” she mentioned. “The supervisor thought so, too. They have been bewildered for me, and so was all the opposite workers.”
However the bartender later dropped the reality bomb: the teenagers — whom Janet described as a gaggle of a few dozen 18- or 19-year-olds — had requested if they might tip the supervisor as an alternative — and mentioned they left the observe as a result of Janet was “drowning in work.”
The jab hit like a cannonball.
“If all my different tables have been upset with me, or if administration sided with them, I might completely take a look at myself and say, ‘Yeah, I deserved no tip or a foul tip,’” Janet mentioned.
“But when everybody else thought I used to be doing nice, so I don’t know what they have been considering,” whereas noting that some patrons “have their causes for not tipping, in the event that they felt service wasn’t good or if they simply have an ethical or moral stance in opposition to it.”
The teenagers got here in on a Tuesday evening and appeared nice sufficient — at first.
“I believed I used to be doing effectively maintaining with every part,” Janet informed Newsweek. “The one time administration stepped in was to run drinks as a result of I requested them to.”
And it wasn’t like she was phoning it in — fairly the other. “All of my different tables tipped at or over 20%,” she mentioned.
“Like, one desk tipped $50 on $170. I used to be operating my butt off making an attempt to stack as many duties as attainable,” she continued.
For Janet — and most service employees — ideas aren’t a bonus, they’re a lifeline.
“Ideas are how I make nearly all of my earnings,” she defined. “My weekly paycheck is simply $100 after taxes.”
And when a buyer stiffs you, you continue to find yourself footing a part of the invoice.
“One thing that lots of people don’t notice is that loads of eating places within the U.S. share ideas,” she divulged.
“For me, I’ve to tip out 2.5% (weekdays) to five% (weekends) of my credit score gross sales to help workers. That’s no matter if a desk ideas or not. It usually averages out to a few desk’s price of ideas that I’ve to pay out every evening.”
Nonetheless, she’s making an attempt to rise above it — and perhaps educate the subsequent batch of diners.
“I attempt to hold an open thoughts with each desk. I by no means know what somebody goes by means of earlier than they arrive in,” she mentioned.
“I simply want they’d have been extra understanding of what was occurring.”
One commenter beneath the Reddit publish wrote that it “seems like they’re in search of an excuse to be impolite jerks.”
One other consumer slammed the teenagers, writing, “If I have been them, I nonetheless would’ve tipped you effectively BECAUSE you have been drowning, and the help and understanding [are] wanted. They’re cornballs, sorry this occurred.”
Nonetheless, the incident comes within the wake of a February 2024 survey, which discovered that 76.1% of People assume tipping has “gone too far” as rising prices have fueled “tipflation.”
Over half (51%) of service employees agree, saying they’d quite get a residing wage and skip ideas altogether.
