Tipping the Bar Staff in a Pub?

Old Mar 28th, 2007, 03:55 AM
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Reading this thread, I wonder whether any of you have actually worked in a pub.

Well, I have. What's more, I've worked in more than a few where tipping was practiced and gratefully received by my poverty stricken student self. We'd always compare our tipping successes at the end of the night.

By no means everyone did it, but some, certainly local 'regulars', would ask me to 'have one for myself'. I'd typically take 20p, which shows my age somewhat. Or maybe it would be a 'keep the change' which never added up to much more. On New Year's Eve we were instructed we could take a full drink's price if offered, and even drink it while we were serving. Got very squiffy as a result and dread to think how the tills balanced at the end of the night.

So, for those who say 'you never tip a barman', I say 'rubbish'. It may be a dieing courtesy, but certainly doesn't go against custom. ANY bar tender will be delighted with a tip. I certainly always was.
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Old Mar 28th, 2007, 04:05 AM
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Sorry I should have added, in answer to cwojo99's oiginal post, you are by no means EXPECTED to tip the bar man, but if you want to tip, it will be gratefully received.
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Old Mar 28th, 2007, 04:07 AM
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Dukey, why get nasty? I thought your approach to tipping was supposed to show you as a nice person.

As it happens, during my student days I worked in bars in both Ireland and England. I got very little by way of tips (and the same applied to my colleagues, so don't go for the cheap-shot response of suggesting that I was a surly or inefficient worker). Where I got tips, it was a case of "don't bother with the change" where the amount was small, say 30c change from a €10 transaction.

I didn't have to work for a tip. I was paid proper wages. That's the point here. In many places, service staff are properly paid, do not need tips, and do not particularly expect them. I don't tip shop staff either.

There are areas of work (restaurants in Britain and Ireland, for example) where staff are paid less because there is a tipping culture and tips are a significant and necessary portion of staff incomes. The norm there is about 10%. I have no problem with that.
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Old Mar 29th, 2007, 05:31 AM
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Speaking as a bartender in a village pub in Staffordshire (saving up for the trip of a lifetime!) I never receive tips, but am regularly offered a drink if its been a large round or someone's been ordering drinks all night, and I am invariably delighted to accept. Sometimes I take a half and drink it later, sometimes I take the value of a half out the change for myself.

Either way it has been thus since time began and entirely in keeping with the traditions of the village pub. I'm not sure I'd reccomend it in one of the more anonymous city pubs and bars though.
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Old Mar 29th, 2007, 06:46 AM
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i think it's strange that this issue is mostly divided by militancy either way. dukey's post is particularly baffling, ethnocentric, and imperialistic. While tipping in some cultures is a social requirement, it is clearly not in british pubs. i appreciate that there are different opinions on tipping in pubs but for the most part, it is not done in british pubs. this is our custom and (to paraphrase from your post) if you don't like it, I'm sorry but that's the way it is.

it is strange and way over the top to compare our tipping culture with local slavery cultures of past times. weird.
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Old Mar 29th, 2007, 06:49 AM
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Everyone's an expert here.
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Old Mar 29th, 2007, 08:26 AM
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If I visit a pub and have one drink then I do not normally tip the bar staff. If I am in the pub for a length of time and have a few drinks I might ask the staff to keep the change when paying, if the change is under a pound. Beware of telling bar staff to "have one yourself" as I have done this in the past only for the bar staff to take for the most expensive drink. Most local pub bar staff have a fixed sum of about 20 pence that they take if asked to "take your own". On most occasions I give the bar staff of my local pub a pound coin and say "that's for you" This usually goes down well and assures good service.
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Old Mar 29th, 2007, 04:53 PM
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Now that I started the thread and after reading everyone's opinion...I am noticing how many people ask for tips in the US.

Starbucks - every Starbucks you will find a tip jar.

Chipotle (fast food place) - tip jar

Full Service Car Wash - tip box

8-)
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Old Mar 29th, 2007, 05:17 PM
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I think the most amazing is the tip jar at 7-11. The guy needs to be tipped for ringing up a lotto ticket sale?
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Old Mar 29th, 2007, 06:22 PM
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You have got to be kidding. At 7-11??? That does top it all.

8-)
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 01:22 AM
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"Starbucks - every Starbucks you will find a tip jar." I've noticed they've imported this practice into the UK Starbucks as well. I think most Brits' reaction is 'bloody cheek!'.
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 02:08 AM
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So many of the Americans who post on this site are looking for bargains - discount codes for travel, cheap hotels on Priceline, drinking tap water, that sort of thing.

And yet when it comes to buying a drink in a pub, they feel the need to tip the bar staff. I would guess that they rarely visit the same pub more than once, do not drink much when there, and never form any sort of relationship with the staff. In such circumstances, it is totally unnecessary to leave a tip.

And NEVER leave a dollar bill!
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 03:13 AM
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What does "bloody cheek" mean?

I frequent the pub next to my home - they know us by name. If I didn't tip...I would feel totally guilty! It is custom (or whatever you want to call it) to tip the bar staff.

><
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 03:55 AM
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Sorry but in the UK it is not the custom to tip bar staff. In 34 years of drinking I have only done it once when the guy had been fantastic. SO NO PLEASE STOP THIS THING
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 04:01 AM
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Oh please bilbo, just because you've never done it doesn't mean it doesn't happen and doesn't mean a tourist is going to wreck the economy or national culture by giving a barman an extra quid. Stop being so dramatic. My father ALWAYS tips bar staff, and he's as English as Shakespeare.
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 04:04 AM
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I guess Kate as I get older I dislike the contamination of cultures. I like the multi-culturalism but not the insidious contamination. I realise the cheese pairing of the idea above but I'm sorry that is what I feel.
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 04:05 AM
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"What does "bloody cheek" mean?"

It means 'what a nerve!', as in 'asking for tips when I've had to queue for this coffee myself, they've got a nerve'. Does that help?

A barman (or barista) asking for or expecting tips is presumptious because it should never be expected. You can still tip if you like however.
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 04:33 AM
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>>>>>>
I like the multi-culturalism but not the insidious contamination.
>>>>>>>

one man's 'multi-culturalism' is another man's 'insidious contamination'

it's a trade-off, ain't it?
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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 06:41 AM
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The honest answer to this is that customs vary around the country and from pub to pub. In Glasgow, my home town, I would rarely if ever tip in larger city centre bars but in my local would ask the barmaid to take one for herself at some point in the evening. The convention for that bar would be to then put a pound in the tip jar.

The difference I suspect from the US is that its seldom expected and never demanded. Its just a nice wee bonus.

Need to remember that UK minimum wage is the equivalent of around $10 per hour and TIPS aren't taxed.

Tipping just isn't as big a deal here as it seems to be in the US but if you feel happier following your usual practice I cant see many barstaff giving you any problems over it. Some local might though LOL!





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Old Mar 30th, 2007, 06:46 AM
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Don't get the wrong impression, wellididntknowthat. Tip jars for people like counter help are not for "expected tips" and there is no pressure I've ever seen to use one. I think they really got started more for people who would just as soon not be bothered with small change, so why not let the clerks divide it up. I've sure never been hassled picking up a pizza or getting my lotto ticket or even getting my Starbucks to put money in the tip jar. But, of course, it's appreciated if or when I do. Frankly what I find obnoxious is the customer standing there saying "Here. I'm putting this in the tip jar". Do they want a medal or something?
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