When I got my receipt back, there was a message written in red ink, all caps, saying I needed to learn how to tip and that serving me wasn’t supposed to be for free.
I just sat there confused, then annoyed, then honestly embarrassed. I did tip, and not even a bad one, so being called out like that didn’t make sense.
Maybe she expected more. Maybe 20% isn’t enough to some people anymore. Or maybe she didn’t even look closely at what I left.
It just made me question when tipping turned into something you can still get criticized for even when you follow the standard.
I paid, I tipped, and still got made to feel like I didn’t do enough. Next time, I might not bother going out of my way.
Not out of spite, just because clearly it didn’t matter anyway.
