The waitress probably gave poor service and the jerk he was dining with had an axe to grind with his boss. That, or it’s a fake story to fan the class flames. If the story is actually true, it wouldn’t hurt the waitress to get a ‘real job’ as the one percenter suggests.
I am usually generous with tips even when the service is mediocre. I have only never left a tip once. The attitude of the current generation of servers is poor as they expect at least fifteen percent for their ‘hard work’ regardless of the service. It just goes along with people raised to believe that they ‘deserve’ something regardless of their own personal efforts. This may have something to do with many servers having useless arts/humanities/aa/womens/transgender studies degrees which were, at one time, rewarded in the workplace but with our financial shakeout, no longer are.
Me too. But then again, 99% of the time I'm eating at local Mom and Pop joints where the servers are, more often than not, their kids. Or friends of their kids.
Funny, in the small town I live in, there have been a number of chain restaurants (or higher-end chain-type restaurants) that have opened and closed in the past few years. Usually in the same locations. People shake their heads and sadly say that the area just won't support dining out. But the local Mom and Pops....who provide good food and service at an affordable price .... just keep on motoring along.
IMHO, I'd rather eat at a BBQ joint, run by a guy who's been perfecting his art for the past 20 years (and who likely learned it from his Dad, who learned it from his, and so on) than some Olive Garden or Applebee's. Or a ripoff lookalike of them. And, judging by the local economy, I'm not the only one who thinks that way.