My Daughter’s Pastor had an experience recently that upset him so much that he did a whole sermon on it.
He had visited a local restaurant after church and he recognized his waitress as someone who worked at the church. He told her that he was sorry she had to work on a Sunday. She replied, “Yes, I drew the short straw.” When he asked her what she meant, she sheepishly said:
“No one wants to work on Sundays because that’s when the Christians come in.”
Pause. Let that sink in. Repeat.
“No one wants to work on Sundays because that’s when the Christians come in.”
Is that not just the saddest sentence you’ve ever heard?
“Church people” are notorious in the restaurant community for being uppity and demanding and then leaving next to nothing for a tip.
My daughters both worked as waitresses for years. It was the perfect job for them to have while going to school.
But, it is a hard job. My daughter once borrowed a friend’s pedometer and wore it on a rather quiet night at work. She clocked in over ten miles … while running up and down stairs holding large trays of food … in a tuxedo. Add to that the customers who take advantage of the fact that they have a servant for an hour or two, and it all adds up to being a very difficult gig.
The other thing most people don’t take into consideration is the fact that servers don’t get to keep all that “free money”. Not only are taxes collected on tips (based on the bill, not the actual tip amount) but your servers have to tip out the bussers, food carriers, and sometimes even the cooks. In most restaurants, this is again based on the total bill, NOT on the actual tip received. That means that when your server is tipped less than twenty percent, he or she not only receives no tip at all, but also ends up paying the rest of the staff out of their own paycheck (in essence, they pay for you to eat out!).
Now, let me be the first to tell you that the whole idea of tipping used to really annoy me. After all, no one tipped me for doing my job. But, I’ve since realized that this is an unspoken agreement you make when you decide to eat out. And, my husband and I have come to the conclusion that tipping is a nice way to help people who are working hard to try and make their own way in the world. These people aren’t begging on street corners, they are working their butts off to try and make ends meet and I am happy to support that.
Sadly, my daughters’ experiences corroborated the stereotype of (most) Christian diners.
Church-goers would arrive, dressed in their Sunday finery, still discussing the sermon of the day and then treat the wait-staff like their own personal indentured servants. After the meal was over, in spite of running the staff ragged with demands, they left a pittance for a tip. And sometimes, to add insult to injury, they actually dropped a tract in with the bill instead of a tip!
What bothered my girls the most were not so much the tiny tips, but the horrible example these people were giving to their co-workers about Christianity.
People, we are the ambassadors for our faith.
Especially on Sundays, we are easily recognizable. Everything we say, everything we do is a testimony. By all means drop a tract into the bill holder, but make sure it’s AFTER you’ve treated your server with kindness and respect AND given them a decent tip for their service.
