Why do older waitresses not like to serve young people?

Question

By saying older, I mean older than me, not necessarily being an old person.

I am always very polite and never too demanding as well. Like last night, I went to dinner with my boyfriend and our waitress gave us TERRIBLE service. She never once checked up on us, and she also took very long to take our orders. Yet, she was serving an older couple behind us and she was giving them great service. Constantly checking up on them and then snubbing our table. Needless to say, she received NO tip. Too bad for her considering our dinner was nearly 100 dollars.

Why do some waitresses do that? Why are they even waitresses if they know they are going to have to serve young people as well? They are only s******g themselves over because they will receive a very bad tip in the end.

Answer 1

man, f that i give young people faster better service so they will eat their goddam food and get the h**l out faster, because i know most of em are S****y tippers, and if i can turn the table faster, i wil make more money off the jerk sitting there that's ogling me, after your S****y-tippin self leaves!

Answer 2

Who knows what her problem Was ! You should have reported the Poor service to your manager and gotten another waitress before you had to deal with that frustration the full time! If you remember the waitresses name you should also still do so! Managers do want to know because poor service means you may not return!  If you weren't rude to her, other young people may have been but you shouldn't suffer for it !  And I believe she was stereo typing you, or knew the other people and thought they were better tippers then the unknown people! Regulars who tip always get better service !  Sadly that can Happen ! Two woman often get such treatment and get stuck in a back corner by the toilets or something ! You have to take control of the situation early, be polite, but ask for the manager as soon as you notice the problem !  We too tip better then Normal (mom and I), but if I have a problem I will take it to management and fast! Don't be afraid to get assertive, after all the customer is always right with in reason of course!

Answer 3

Usually older waiters and waitresses are veterans of the industry and they have seen every possible type of customer.  So sometimes  they have "been there and done that" attitude that sorta poisons their outlook or view of what a good customer or guest might be.

So even though you think that you are a "good tipping young person" , it may not matter because the older waiter or waitress has already labeled you with the stigma that previous years of younger customers have already verified.

And chances are that they are mad that you are young not headed to a life doomed as a waiter or waitress for a life career.

Thats not saying that their are not a lot of happy waiters that love what they do!  I am just saying that, that industry has a lot of burned out workers.

Answer 4

It's not jealousy, despite what others have posted.  Unfortuanately unlike yourself, most young people (I'm talking under 21) are rude and self-absorbed and horrible tippers.  I'm glad to hear that you are more mature than that.  I used to work part-time at Outback Steakhouse as a server and the worst time of the year was Prom season.  17 year old kids sucking down a whole soda as soon as you set it down on the table and just generally not respecting anyone else's dining experience.  Then they would leave less than 10%, usually for a party of 4 with a $150.00 check I'd get about $7.00, which after tip-out means I didn't make anything on the table.  And it wasn't me, I was an outstanding server.  Untill someone works in food service they will never really understand.

Answer 5

i dont know. but to pass judgement how how someone looks as to how much money they will have to tip you is not right to do. not sure what happened in her head. so sorry to hear it.

Answer 6

yeah im a waitress im only 16 and my older work colleges wont give equal service to "youngens" i give it to young peeps because they are awesome just like the older peeps they are awesome

maybe because they think your young rude punks or something but what the h**l

dont go back there

come to cafe wood works in bungendore NSW australia if your nearby :P

Answer 7

They're jealous of younger couples/younger people. They think you should be serving them and despise the fact that they are in the position where they have to serve you.

Answer 8

i get that too sometimes....

Answer 9

Probably because young people will stiff them on the tip more often than not. And while she may not have earned the tip, failing to leave anything simply confirms what she expected.

The thing that many people don't realize is that waitresses work for tips, not their hourly wage. Some states allow businesses to pay servers a very low wage - in some cases it's about half of minimum wage. So in order for those servers to make a living, they depend on the tips people leave behind. When you have a certain age group that makes a habit of not leaving tips, many servers won't go out of their way to provide those people with great service.

The other thing you should realize is that servers are taxed on a percentage of their sales. So the server you didn't tip will still have to pay taxes on about 8% of that $100 sale.

My uncle used to start off by putting $10 on the table. That was the tip the server started with. If the service was good then he would add something more at the end. If the service was bad, he would gradually take away money. If he got down to where he took back the whole $10, then he would leave a penny. The point of leaving the penny was to show he didn't forget to leave a tip.

Answer 10

Your waitress probably recognized the older couple at the next table as well-established customers who tip well, which means they get better service than young people who, as a rule, tend to tip poorly if at all ~ no matter how good the service is.

Answer 11

They're just jealous.

Answer 12

I consider $20.00 as very generous, as a tip for a resto meal.

Here in Melbourne the tip is around $5.00  if any at all, most of the time we do not tip.There is no obligation.

As for the service some might as well change jobs, if they are not fit for the hospitality industry

Answer 13

We have had our servers do this to my husband and I many many times - in extreme cases, I leave the smallest tip possible (never leave NO tip, because servers in my state only make $3 an hour, and are taxed on what they SHOULD HAVE gotten from their customers - yeah, dumb), and I write a note on my receipt explaining why they received the tip they did.  That way, both the server AND manager will see it (if you paid with a card).

I was a server for nearly 10 years, and I NEVER played favorites in regards to younger/older people...in fact, in my experiences, older people tipped worse - probably due to the fact that they're on a fixed income (then don't eat out!), or because they just don't realize that 10% just doesn't cut it anymore.  

Anyway - don't take it personally - it happens to the best of us!!  :)

Answer 14

It's not that you are polite, it's that everyone else isn't. Young people just feel like "it's your job, do what you're suppose to. serve me." They are never courteous and are very demanding. They don't expect much of a tip either. Then add the dine and dashers nowadays and there is almost no enthusiasm to serve young people. They do that sometimes because it's just not a good day and they just don't want extra attitude. They are waitresses because they might not know what else they can do. It's sad but true. Waitresses get immediate money and do not require much skill. Most people tip still since whether or not they gave you bad service, they did serve you. It's not fair to them, waiting on people is a tiring job.

Answer 15

I hate bad service too and I am an older person...lol  Anyways, its all about attitude.  It affects the young, old, people from different ethnic backgrounds, special needs and frankly anyone that looks different from the "NORM"  face this issue. I sure wish that people that work with people would drop the attitude and give all people the same courtesy and service.

Unfortunately in the real world people have attitudes.

I agree tipping a bad business attitude would only reinforce it.

I would take it a step further, it's really worth the energy, phone up the manager of the restaurant to relate how disturbed you were by this behavior. Hopefully the manager won't have the same bad business attitude and will try to make amends with you and motivate you to come back as a customer. Ask for compensation! A good manager with good business sense will show how valuable customers are.

Unfortunately, there are managers with bad attitudes which reflects the cultural attitude of the entire staff. You will know after talking with the manager if this exists and if that restaurant will ever see your business again!

Let the manager know you will take your business elsewhere and spread the word to others about their bad business attitude.

Cheers to promoting good business attitudes!

Answer 16

Many experienced waitstaff know that younger people don't tend to tip as well as older people. Older people usually have more money and can give better tips. Unfortunately for her she probably put you in the "bad tip" category without even knowing you. If you noticed her bad service before you ordered your meal you should have got up and walked out and went somewhere else.