Most servers react to being stiffed on a tip with resignation. But one server followed a non-tipping restaurant patron out to her car to confront her.
A TikTok video chronicled a server who followed a restaurant patron outside. He was looking for a tip, with the patron wondering, “Should we really tip ever?”
That set off a renewal of the long-standing online debate about tipping and tipping culture.
The video in question, put up on TikTok on Friday by creator Onemessychic (@callmeishhdotcom), garnered over 725,000 views so far. It’s taken from the POV of the passenger in the car. In it, a restaurant-goer has returned to her car and is getting ready to leave. That’s when the server comes up to the car door. The on-screen caption helpfully adds: “Followed outside by server for not tipping.”
“I really don’t have any cash,” the diner tells him, explaining why she hasn’t tipped him. “Who really comes outside and asks you for a tip? Though I’m just saying that, like, I work on tips every day.”
The server, who reveals his name to be Patrick Smith, strikes up a surprisingly cordial rapport. At one point in the exchange, he helpfully informs her that he takes CashApp. And upon hearing that, she prepares to send him money through that route.
Yet, she makes a point that perhaps not all would agree with. “I know the importance of tipping, but I don’t have to tip all the time,” she says.
@callmeishhdotcom SHOULD WE REALLY TIP EVER 🤔🤔🤔 #atlanta #tipping #fyp #pov ♬ original sound – Onemessychic
The video kicked off the tipping debate
A CNBC article from July 2023, consulting etiquette expert Diane Gottsman, founder of The Protocol School in Texas, says that our expectations about tipping in restaurants shouldn’t be changed despite the tipping fatigue that people might be feeling.
“If you’re going to a restaurant, you know that part of your experience is going to be gratuity. [When] you’re paying for the meal, you also factor in the gratuity.”
She also says that should extend to delivery. “You want to give [delivery drivers] a minimum of $5 even if it’s a small order. If it’s a large order and they’re carrying boxes of food to you and your soccer team, you want to tip accordingly — 15% of that bill, if they have really worked hard to get it to you.”
People hashed it out in the creator’s comments section.
One, objecting to the server’s approach, said, “His tip would’ve been don’t do that again, you don’t know what people have in their cars.”
Another said, “As a former server this is insane to follow someone outside that’s insane.”
Someone else argued, “He did what all servers be wanting to do fr.”
Yet, another countered, “He better call corporate & them for the rest of his wages . Bc that’s who owes him the extra not the paying customers.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment.
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