This Viral TikTok Has People Complaining About Tipping Culture

You'd think it would be a rare day when people who "always tip" still think tipping culture is getting out of hand. Yet that day occurred this week when a TikTok by user @realistic.recovery about tipping at the fast food drive-thru went viral. The video features the user (named Justice Russell, according to her Instagram), sitting in her car with a takeout bag. "Tipping culture has gotten out of control," she says in the video, clarifying beforehand that she always tips 20% for servers, baristas, delivery drivers, and other services. She draws the line, she explains, at tipping when picking up fast food at the drive-thru.

Russell had picked up chicken tenders and fries at a local fast food joint's drive-thru, she explains, when the worker at the window asked how much she wanted to tip. "Home girl, what am I going to tip you for? I'm in the f***ing drive-thru!" Russell says she thought to herself, wondering why she should tip someone for handing her a bag of food. As one commenter noted, this incident took some people's policy that you shouldn't dine in if you can't leave a tip to another level: that you shouldn't get takeout if you're not going to tip, either.

While tipping can be a controversial topic that prompts heated opinions on both sides, there was almost no debate in the comments section of Russell's TikTok. "I have a rule: if I didn't sit down, I won't tip," one user replied. Others said they hold a rule that if the employee explicitly asks for a tip, they won't leave one. One shared a similar story: "I went to Panera and bought a candy cookie with a coffee cup, and SHE GOT MAD WHEN I DIDNT TIP. GIRL ALL YOU DID WAS RING ME UP."

More broadly, other viewers pointed to the issue of tipping in general, with one saying, "Tipping was to encourage excellent service not to pay for the work they are hired to do that's their employers job." Another comment echoed that sentiment: "I always tip 20% minimum but I HATE tipping. Why is it my responsibility. These businesses need to pay a living wage." Russell drove her point home with a follow-up video in which she suggested that companies should pay their employees higher wages. While most comments seemed to agree with her mindset, several users said tipping should remain a practice everywhere until that happens.