A couple days ago I enjoyed a 'not really worth the money' meal at a new restaurant in town.  That part doesn't bother me too much.  You have to try it to hate it.  The part that did bother me was paying the bill and adding the expected tip to it.  When did we become a mandatory tip country?  Why is there this expectation of additional gratuities?  Do we not pay these workers a salary?  If they don't get enough, they should go back to school and get a better paying job.

On the particular evening referred to above, our waitress wasn't horrible - she just wasn't great.  She made a couple of statements that she had to backtrack on later because she lacked the information necessary to do her job well.  She was nice enough, but failed to notice the large and bright cherry tomatoes on the meal that I had ordered without tomatoes.  She also failed to notice the pile of caramelized onions on the same dish that I had also asked to have no onions on.  Now I could appreciate her lack of memory if the place was busy, but it wasn't.  There was maybe 3 tables that she was managing and certainly no rush crowd inbound.  She insisted to me that she had told the kitchen "no tomatoes or onions" and that they had messed up.  Pass the blame.  Nice.

I could appreciate that the kitchen messed up, but why didn't she check it before she brought it out.  That would have been extraordinary service that would have warranted a little extra money.  That just didn't happen though.  The the night was filled with mediocre service and I didn't feel she deserved any extra.  Yet there I was, faced with the bill and a dilemma.  Do I tip her and if so, how much?  I left the standard 15%, so as not to be that guy that doesn't tip.  Although, that left me feeling a little bit angry.  Why is it that I have to conform to the pressures of society?  A tip should be earned, not expected.  I don't want to pay a bell hop to carry my bags to my room, that is his job.  I don't want to pay a waitress to serve me my food, that is their job.  I certainly don't mind offering someone a little something when they do more than their job calls for, but in this day and age, it's less than likely.