# Why the FUCK do we have to sing?! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 12, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204 "2005-03-12T17:46:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/61 "2005-03-14T15:36:04Z")
Our local equivalent of Coldstone is called the Marble Slab Creamery. I always tip very generously, because, seriously, that is a messy job. Thank god they don’t sing. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/62 "2005-03-14T16:01:42Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > I agree with this, especially when the business in question is a lunch counter that charges about 20% more per item than normal because they have a captive clientele. It’s already expensive, and we’re being asked to tip, too? They can ask all they want - I don’t tip at counters. Like **DoctorJ** said, what’s next? Tip jars at receptionists? At your mechanic’s? I think the tip jars in counter service joints is the equivalent of a homeless person standing on the corner with his hand out - they both want money for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/63 "2005-03-14T16:12:56Z")
About a year ago, I went to Joe’s Crab Shack. Never again. At a certain time, the waiters all stopped what they were doing, went out to the middle of the floor and did a horrible song-and-line-dance routine. Shudder. I left a good tip, because I was humiliated for my waitress, but I’m never going back. Honestly, if I want song and dance, I’ll go see the high school’s production of “Oklahoma!” I just want waiters to bring me my food and check promptly and keep my drink filled. I don’t want a HappyFunTimeMoment, courtesy of the corporate office. Watching employees debase themselves for my entertainment does not contribute to my dining experience. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/64 "2005-03-14T16:16:44Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I have worked for tips – never SUNG for tips, I grant you, because I would have starved in short order – but in the course of working for tips I have adopted manners that I might not otherwise have displayed. I did so… because I wanted to make good tips. I didn’t view this as an assault on my dignity at all. I viewed it as WORKING FOR TIPS. But were you required to adopt those manners? If the workers want to sing for tips because they think it will make them more money that’s their prerogative, but forcing someone to sing for tips is IMO demeaning. If the workers want to take their chances at getting fewer tips by not singing, that should be their right, just like it should be okay for a waitress to be rude if that’s what she wants to do. Let workers act how they want and the market will decide how much they deserve to be tipped. How are the prices at this Coldstone place anyway? I’ve never been to or heard of it before. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/65 "2005-03-14T16:43:42Z")
Okay. 1) I’m not tipping because someone scooped some 2nd rate ice cream into a styrofoam bowl for me. 1. If I accidentally DID tip you while I was having a stroke or something, I’d grab it back out of the jar if you freaking SANG about it. 2. The Coldstone corporation completely blows if they encourage this bullshit. THey’re bad employers and someone needs to buck the system when they tell you to do something this stupid. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/66 "2005-03-14T18:53:20Z")
Regarding tip jars on counters- ignore them. Mostly they are for people giving huge (I need 23 ham sandwhiches, 1 egg salad sandwhich and 14 cokes) or really complicated orders (put half the sprouts on top, half on bottom, and mustard only on the right side). ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/67 "2005-03-14T19:01:14Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > How are the prices at this Coldstone place anyway? I’ve never been to or heard of it before. My god it’s ludicrous. You’re charged for first the ice cream itself and for each additive - but you don’t know how much crap is in there before you order it. (They all have cutesy names.) It takes forever for them to mush the crap around (mostly because they have to stop and SING every 3 minutes!!) By the time my husband and I got out of there it was to the tune of about $13 for two small bowls of ice cream, which turned out to be so sickeningly sweet we could only eat half a bowl each. (And my husband is a serious ice cream person. SERIOUS.) All it is is a sundae that comes pre-stirred for you. What’s so amazing about that? If you ever see one run far, far away. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/68 "2005-03-14T19:16:31Z")
> [@Balle\_M](#): > > When I first read this I thought it said "wait and bar_ **e** _back and thought to myself, “Now THERE’S someone who knows how to take one for the team!” I am SO glad I’m not the only one who read it that way. **Continuity Error** , if they tell you up front that it’s part of the job, you’re welcome to decide it’s beneath your dignity and apply for some other minimum wage job, no? If you know full well that you’re required to sing when someone tips you, you lose all right to complain about having to sing. It would be like me bitching because my employers have the temerity to expect me to do demeaning things like cleaning up dog shit and mopping up cat piss. ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/69 "2005-03-14T20:49:16Z")
Well, I’m certainly not going to patronize any establishment that mandates that its employees sing at me if and when I tip them. If I want someone to sing at me, I will hire a singer. I despise employers that force their employees to do things that neither the employee nor the customer want in the name of some idiot’s idea of “image”. The classic example is the “flare” that places like TGI Friday’s force their employees to wear. I guess Coldstone has come up with its own reprehensible variant. Well, no thanks, I’ll go elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/70 "2005-03-14T22:47:12Z")
I refuse to tip for take-out food. Everyone’s always trying to get you to tip for _everything_. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Next the checker at the supermarket’s gonna want a tip. Or the cashier at Home Depot. ENOUGH, I say. My first job paid $3.35 an hour, and I NEVER got a tip the entire time. If jobs don’t pay enough, then the employer should pay more. Why is that MY responsibility? If you don’t like your job, quit. Stop asking for handouts. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/71 "2005-03-15T00:05:41Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > **Continuity Error** , if they tell you up front that it’s part of the job, you’re welcome to decide it’s beneath your dignity and apply for some other minimum wage job, no? If you know full well that you’re required to sing when someone tips you, you lose all right to complain about having to sing. It would be like me bitching because my employers have the temerity to expect me to do demeaning things like cleaning up dog shit and mopping up cat piss. The difference, to me, is this: I’d assume that cleaning up shit and piss is part of the essential function of your job (do you work at an animal shelter?), and not something the company has you do just for “ambiance.” How would you feel if every time someone adopted an animal, your bosses made you bark and meow and walk on your hands and knees? Such a thing wouldn’t be part of the essential nature of the job, and it would be humiliating to boot. Would you stand for it? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/72 "2005-03-15T00:29:14Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > My first job paid $3.35 an hour, and I NEVER got a tip the entire time. If jobs don’t pay enough, then the employer should pay more. Why is that MY responsibility? If you don’t like your job, quit. Stop asking for handouts. Yeah, it does seem like a scam. “We don’t pay much, but you’ll make soooooo much more in tips!” The same way door-to-door or telephone sales schemes “don’t pay much, but you’ll make soooooo much more in commissions!” And as **voguevixen** pointed out above, they also scam the customers on the prices. “But this ice cream has Oreo chunks in it, so it costs more!” Fuck, man; I could get a gallon of vanilla and a bag of Oreos and use my blender at home. In fact, I **do** do that. I’m betting that this policy won’t last much longer. Eventually, they’ll have fired too many people who balk at singing, and be unable to hire enough replacements. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/73 "2005-03-15T05:57:32Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > How would you feel if every time someone adopted an animal, your bosses made you bark and meow and walk on your hands and knees? Such a thing wouldn’t be part of the essential nature of the job, and it would be humiliating to boot. Would you stand for it? If I worked at an animal shelter, I’d probably baby-talk to the animals, but that’s just me. But I like Maggie Moo’s better than Coldstone’s, in no small part because they don’t make the employees sing at Maggie Moo’s. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/74 "2005-03-15T09:40:20Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > Yeah, the owner of the Baja is a contemporary of the owner of A La Carte Entertainment - the company that I worked for. I swear these two guys and the other restaurant bigwig in Chicago (Rich Melman, Lettuce Entertain You) get together routinely and think up new ways to humiliate their employees. Hehe, I worked for Ala Carte too, used to cocktail/beer tub/shot girl at Exacalibur/Dome Room/Aura several years back. Also filled in a couple times at Leg Room and one of the Alumni Clubs on the occasional night when they were short. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/75 "2005-03-15T09:46:37Z")
Er…Excalibur, that is. _walks off with her extra “a” tucked under her arm_ ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/76 "2005-03-15T19:06:52Z")
The reason you have to sing is because you are powerless to stop them. They hold all the cards in this situation. You need to study hard, go to a good college, get a degree, get a good job where people can’t just degrade you when ever they feel like it. Till then count your blessings. They could make you sing and dance like they do to those fools at Johnny Rockets. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/77 "2005-03-15T20:09:32Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > Such a thing wouldn’t be part of the essential nature of the job, and it would be humiliating to boot. Would you stand for it? Doesn’t matter if it’s part of the essential nature of the job. If it was part of the _terms of employment that I freely and willingly accepted when I took the job_, I would absolutely stand for it. Because I agreed to it. Wearing a t-shirt printed with a horrifyingly ugly pig in a cowboy hat wasn’t part of the essential nature of my job when I was working a barbecue buffet, but it was part of the terms of my employment. (And if you think that shirt wasn’t humiliating, you have clearly never seen the shirt. FWIW, I don’t see anything at all humiliating about crawling around in the floor barking and meowing. I do it at home with my critters all the time.) There are lots of terms of employment that have jack to do with how well you can perform the essential nature of your job. Dress codes and codes of conduct spring immediately to mind. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/78 "2005-03-15T20:13:44Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > I refuse to tip for take-out food. Everyone’s always trying to get you to tip for _everything_. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Next the checker at the supermarket’s gonna want a tip. Or the cashier at Home Depot. ENOUGH, I say. Tipping for counter service is uncalled for in almost all situations, but when you call in a to-go order to a restaurant, tips are greatly appreciated. Usually the host is responsible for to-go orders. They require just as much work as a sit-down order (often more, since there is so much filling of little containers and searching around for stuff), but the difference between a waiter and a host is that the host has a full slate of other duties besides serving food, so a to-go order is really wedged in to an already wholey consuming hectic job. Hosts make a lot less than servers- I made eight or nine an hour, when servers made about sixteen to seventeen- and rarely get tipped for the food they do serve. So a dollar here or there will really brighten a hosts day, and compensate them a little bit for the work they’ve done for you. ---
**Author:** ![Tamryne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tamryne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamryne)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/79 "2005-03-15T20:32:58Z")
Yes, I was aware of the singing before I was hired. Its Coldstone, and they are famous (infamous?) for their singing. I have no problem with singing/goofing off, I enjoy it. But the part I have a problem with is the fact that I am getting paid shit to do it. People throw in NICKELS when there are 6 people working, and we have to sing. When we split the tips it really doesnt make it worth our while to even bother singing. Also, the turnover rate is about every three to four weeks at my store. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204/80 "2005-03-15T22:38:30Z")
> [@even sven](#): > > Tipping for counter service is uncalled for in almost all situations, but when you call in a to-go order to a restaurant, tips are greatly appreciated. Usually the host is responsible for to-go orders. They require just as much work as a sit-down order (often more, since there is so much filling of little containers and searching around for stuff), but the difference between a waiter and a host is that the host has a full slate of other duties besides serving food, so a to-go order is really wedged in to an already wholey consuming hectic job. Hosts make a lot less than servers- I made eight or nine an hour, when servers made about sixteen to seventeen- and rarely get tipped for the food they do serve. > > So a dollar here or there will really brighten a hosts day, and compensate them a little bit for the work they’ve done for you. Funny you should mention that. I actually DO frequently tip if it’s a sit-down place, and they have obviously gone to a lot of extra effort to prepare a take-out meal. I guess I was trying to avoid making too fine a point. And I suppose I can’t really logically defend tipping for take-out at a sit-down place, but not tipping for take-out at a take-out place, other than to say we have to draw the line SOMEPLACE. And completely unrelated: I like Coldstone ice-cream; it’s very rich - almost like gelato. But I don’t get the whole “mix-ins” thing. Lets say I order vanilla ice-cream with a Hershey bar in it: They throw that shit on the slab and proceed to pound the living hell out of it until you’re left with a completely uniform mass of brown ice-cream, with no identifiable pieces of chocolate left. What’s the point? Why not just get chocolate ice-cream? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuck-do-we-have-to-sing/294204.md?page=5)