When I was a bartender, customers would often rack up huge tabs over several hours, ordering martinis at the busiest moments and shots for everyone at the bar minutes before closing. The most ostentatious customers were usually the ones who would ditch the bar without closing their tabs, and 90% of the time, those cards would decline. It's a risky scam, but people who work in the service industry know better than most that customers can be shockingly audacious. As much as we wish we could expos…

As an American who recently moved to the United Kingdom, a lot of the funny observations in this amusing Reddit thread about uniquely American things really resonated with me. For example, when someone asks me where I'm from, my first instinct is to say, “well I grew up in California, but I just moved from New York.” Whereas a European might simply respond with what country they're from. And I never realized that to many people outside the United States, certain Americans (especially New Yorker…

Just dumb

Tipping is a strange, yet highly normalized custom in American culture. Do you ever stop and wonder about the origins of gratuity in America? The history is pretty damn dark . Nevertheless, tipping workers for their service is deeply embedded into our society and it isn't going away, unless of course, employers start to pay service workers adequately. This r/antiwork post about how a restaurant decided to cut wages because workers were making too much in tips makes us think that's not going to…

Seems suspicious.

Not funny

In these trying times, don't forget to tip

Everyone knows that food delivery drivers are some of the most underpaid gig workers in the industry. Many drivers end up earning less than minimum wage. And on top of that, delivering food while navigating apps can be dangerous business. In 2021, The New York Times reported on a survey of delivery drivers facilitated by the Worker Institute at Cornell University. The survey revealed that "42% of workers had experienced being underpaid or not paid at all. Nearly half said they had crashed while…

No one wins here

A red flag?

In a short and not-so-sweet TikTok post, restaurant server @kaybaltazar retaliates against some hypothetical rude customers by applying a 20% tip to their bill. Turns out people have some very mixed feelings about automatic gratuity. The video went viral, gaining over 1 million views and hundreds of comments. While some chanted words of support, others dragged OP for the snarky video and preached their hot takes on tipping etiquette. @kaybaltazar was present in the comments, asserting that the v

Tipping can be an etiquette minefield. How much to pay and what service you should pay for can mean very different things to different people. Not every hospitality worker relies on their tips to make up their wage, but a little extra money never goes amiss. As it turns out, this might buy you some privileges, too. According to Dunkin Donuts employee @jasonmora2 , he treats orders of customers differently depending on whether they tip or not. In a viral video, he demonstrated how the drink of s…

To tip or not to tip, that is the question.

Don't forget to tip your courier!