Tipping a bad waitress

written 1-11-07
Do you tip a bad waitress? I'm not talking about the one who accidently brought you Coke when you asked for Diet. I'm talking about the one who, in addition to the mixed up drinks, they mess up your order, leave one order out, bring cold food 10 minutes after the kitchen made it, makes insulting comments about people they work with, and have questionable cleanliness. Do you have trouble walking away from that table leaving behind an obvious sign of what you thought of her job performance? It occured to me the other day, while I watched a bag boy at Kroger put a bag of flour on top of a loaf of bread, that I don't speak up for myself when I should. Oh sure, I'm all mouth when it comes to friends and family, but when it comes to total strangers that I might not ever see again, I'm mum. Why is tipping now a requirement? I would love the opportunity to give people silent feedback on their jobs, but the one chance I get to do that, I wimp out. Having been a waiter himself, Rocky can not leave a table without tipping. In all our years together I have seen him do it maybe once. Tipping is suppose to be an option. I hate it when you go to a resturant and at the bottom is says it will be adding 15% tip to your ticket. This actually ties into something I was just reading about. The government wants to increase the minimum wage again, and thereby raised the cost of living, and the cost of many services across the nation. How does that tie in? Well, basically the government wants to tell companies that they have to give a big "tip" to their workers even the ones who don't deserve it. Shouldn't we all make what our market value is and not what the government thinks we should make. I'm sure the concept started out with good intent, as most government programs do, but somewhere things went wrong. They want to give our lowest wage earners a 41% raise. When was the last time you got that kind of raise. $7.25 to forget to put fries in my kid's Happy Meal, to put up a hazard sign up instead of moping a puddle, to throw a paper that lands in my bushes. If this increase does go through I may find myself able to resist tipping bad waitresses afterall.