Waiter. Server. Whoever you call that person that brings you your food at your favorite restaurant probably has more going on than you know. Unless you’ve served in a restaurant before it’s hard to understand what a server goes through. But if you take anything from reading this let it be that the tip is more important than it seems so, please, never be stingy.

I have served at two different restaurants over the past three years, so I know a few things about restaurants that the average person doesn’t. A server, usually, works one shift: the breakfast, lunch, or dinner shift, although it is not uncommon for a server to work two or even all three in one day. This is actually very common for those who have only that one job and need the money more than anyone, so they work in overdrive.

But even if I desperately need the money, it is never a sure thing when serving. As a server I make a little over two dollars an hour on my paycheck, so tips are heavily relied on.

Aside from working different hours every week, and never knowing how much a person will tip me, I also never know how many people will come into the restaurant that night. Some nights the restaurant is completely empty, and I have one table for the night and go home with two dollars.

Other nights I am slammed and have six or seven tables to juggle all at once. One table asks for some napkins, while the one behind them has been waiting on their food for the past half hour. Before I can do that my manager asks me to take clean plates to the cook station as I am trying to clean up an A1 bottle that shattered on the floor. As I am doing that I see a table that I haven’t greeted yet and another that still needs drinks. There are so many things going on at once I can’t think anymore. I put three hours of smiles, sweat, and saying “sorry” about a million times into serving people food and at the end of the night they’ve forgotten to tip.

You might get great service, or you might get really poor service. Either way the decision is up to you on how you want to tip. But keep in mind that you have no idea what kind of person your server is despite what you think you know. You don’t know what they’ve been through today, or what they are currently going through. You just don’t know, but you should always tip. More than likely they need the money because they wouldn’t be waiting tables if they didn’t. I know I do. It makes you feel better and I can almost guarantee it makes the server feel better too. So please, don’t be rude, and tip.