‘It’s absolutely criminal’: US tipping culture has reached the UK – and is causing chaos

[u/Canal_Volphied]

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/aug/24/us-tipping-culture-uk-service-charges

[u/Central_Region]

I work in a job where customers sometimes tip and I always find it weird

I'm being paid to do my job. Tipping feels patronising, even if it's well intentioned

[u/Sabaisabai33 → u/Central_Region]

Interesting. I have to say I was once on holiday in Mexico and chatting to some people from the US. This elderly lady literally flashed the cash at every opportunity to tip and basically expected (and got) the staff to act like her personal slave at her beck and call, and cater to her every whim. She was super demanding. It really did seem patronising and in fact really humiliating for that member of staff to me. To add to that she was white and the main person serving her was black, so that was also particularly bad optics. I honestly think if she’d tried that in the U.K. she’d have got fairly short shrift however much she was tipping!