Working in the restaurant industry may seem cool because of the fat tips you get at the end of the day, but honestly what a server has to put up with throughout their shift is sometimes not even worth taking a tip.

Let’s start off with teenagers. They order practically everything on the menu and you’re constantly running around refilling drinks for them every five minutes because they drink like fish. Then, after all your hard work and great service, they either walk out on you without paying their tab, or they’ll pay for their tab down to the very last cent, leaving you no tip. But, I mean kids are kids and sometimes they really don’t know any better or even know how to tip at all. Some might even leave you some pennies and loose change, and that’s if you’re lucky.

Then there are those “needy” customers who act like they can’t live without talking to you every five minutes. No matter how frequently you check on their table, and they tell you they are “fine” and “don’t need anything,” as soon as you turn your back they are waving their hand back and fourth in the air across the restaurant.

Sometimes I think these “needy” people enjoy flagging you down with a whole list of orders after you just checked on them. Then there’s that annoying thing they do after you just checked on their table where, instead of asking you for something they need, they’ll flag down all your co-workers and ask them for things. Sometimes it’s hard to take a quick bathroom break for two minutes because you have to constantly keep an eye on their table as if you’re a babysitter.

Now moving on to the drunk and overly confident guys. These are the absolute worst. Instead of calling you over to their table every five minutes for orders they’ll just call you over to talk and try to get to know you. It’s frustrating because you’re busy and you just want to do your job and not have to be stuck in an awkward conversation which usually ends up with them asking for your number. Dealing with drunken obnoxious people is the worst because they’ll flag you down in the restaurant just to have a conversation and you don’t want to seem rude, but you also have five other tables that need you. And sometimes they get mad when you walk away to help your other tables and start being disrespectful and rude towards you.

What’s funny to me is when guys leave me their number after not tipping me, or not tipping correctly, because that is such a turn off and definitely makes me never want to date them. At times you may even get people who write rude comments on your receipt just to be mean and ruin your day, even though you thought you gave amazing service to them. That’s where I draw the line. I honestly could care less if rude people tip me or not. I would rather be respected and not tipped than disrespected and tipped. A tip to me isn’t even worth being spoken to disrespectfully; being run around like a dog, and having to deal with rude obnoxious drunk people isn’t worth it.