Predicting what kind of tips one might walk away with after a shift is a valuable skill among servers and waitstaff—but sometimes, amid economic uncertainty, the patterns these workers may be accustomed to do not hold.
Just as many servers and bartenders observed in the 2008 recession, some servers now are seeing their tips severely reduced. One bartender, @gucsii5, says she has seen such a decrease in her tips, as she has yet to make more than $6,000 over the past three-and-a-half months while she made over $10,000 in just two months the previous summer.
“Can anyone else in the service industry please tell me what the f*ck is going on this summer?” she says in the video. “Are people out of their COVID money? What is the deal? Because this is the least amount of money I have made in a very long time, and I don’t understand. Are people less giving? My customer service personality has not changed, I’m just a little jokester.”
@gucsii5 #fyp #server #serverlife #serverproblems #bartender #bartending ♬ original sound – gucsii
She said she has noticed other servers who are very good at their job struggle in similar ways.
“You’re so nice to these people and the tips come back and it’s like, 10%, 9%,” she says. “What’s going on? Yesterday I was working with our best-looking server, cute little college boy, so funny, and he got a $2 tip on $30. I know he did not f*ckin’ do anything to those people, and they were so nice.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @gucsii5 via email regarding the video.
The comment section was flooded with fellow service industry employees who shared that they were also experiencing a particularly hard summer.
“No literally!! tips have been so weird this summer,” one commenter wrote. “And my restaurant has been much slower than normal.”
“I’ve worked at the same restaurant for years and this summer is one of the worst yet,” another said. “Lucky if I make $100 in a shift.”
“Fr I’ve been a bartender for years and I’ve never seen a slow summer THIS slow,” a third shared. “I’m broke.”
Some viewers suggested that summer is typically a slow season, and business will pick back up again in the fall.
“It’s slow season,” one commented. “If you’re not in a tourist town it won’t be better til school gets started again.”
“Yes!!! summer is always slow for us, we do very well during football season but it’s exceptionally slow this summer,” another argued.
“The summers are the worst for tips it’ll pick up in October,” a third claimed.
Others chalked lowered tips up to the prevalence of “tipping culture,” which many customers have decried online after noticing the prompts to tip at more businesses than usual.
“People hate tipping because everywhere asks for it and prices have raised so much,” one viewer suspected.
Some simply said it was due to the increase in costs.
“We’re all broke. Rent for a 1bed is almost 2k,” one argued.
“Inflation- no one can afford anything,” another suggested.
