I need advice and would like to open a debate about the noble art of tipping. Travelling for these past five weeks I have eaten out and used services on at least 70 occasions. I would guess that my tipping bill will amount to around $200 roughly £140. It is so much a part of western culture that I have paid the average15% without stopping to think - that is until now.
Readers of my blog will know that I am travelling to research examples of how employment has been created and supported for people who have learning difficulties. This research has been made possible through a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, of which I have attempted to remain within budget. On my most recent visit, to a wonderful Toronto baking cooperative, (Lemon & Allspice) I had the pleasure of visiting a satellite business, 'The Coffee Shed.' A customer ordered the 'Maxi Combo,' That is a Coffee & Cookie. He served himself an enormous cookie and a good size coffee. The combo was only $1.80 so I thought he must have taken more than he had paid for. Checking with the staff it was fine, they assured me that they still made a profit on the $1.80. That set me thinking about the mark up on such goods. If I had bought that in a local cafe I would have paid around $5.00, plus tax and then shelled out a tip on top.
That has led me to a dilemma with which I am seeking urgent advice as I need to resolve it tomorrow morning. But before I get to that, I would like to share the thought process that has set off my internal tipping debate and check where other people may sit along the tipping spectrum.
Readers of my blog will know that I am travelling to research examples of how employment has been created and supported for people who have learning difficulties. This research has been made possible through a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, of which I have attempted to remain within budget. On my most recent visit, to a wonderful Toronto baking cooperative, (Lemon & Allspice) I had the pleasure of visiting a satellite business, 'The Coffee Shed.' A customer ordered the 'Maxi Combo,' That is a Coffee & Cookie. He served himself an enormous cookie and a good size coffee. The combo was only $1.80 so I thought he must have taken more than he had paid for. Checking with the staff it was fine, they assured me that they still made a profit on the $1.80. That set me thinking about the mark up on such goods. If I had bought that in a local cafe I would have paid around $5.00, plus tax and then shelled out a tip on top.
That has led me to a dilemma with which I am seeking urgent advice as I need to resolve it tomorrow morning. But before I get to that, I would like to share the thought process that has set off my internal tipping debate and check where other people may sit along the tipping spectrum.
The service industry seems to now routinely include an expectation that whatever we pay for a service we will then add around 15% as a tip. So we pay for a meal on which the proprietor has built in a profit. Do they also calculate that a tip will supplement the wages of their staff and therefore allow them to reduce wages? when you pay by credit card the machine whirs into life and a question appears on the screen, "Tip - press F1 for %, F2 for amount...." At that point it is possible to tell the machine not to take a tip, but unless the staff have been positively rude there is that expectation that you will cough up.
I do not begrudge paying a decent tip when excellent and attentive service has been lavished upon me. But it seems that a tip is not a expression of 'Thanks' but expected no matter how good, average or poor the service has been. So I thought why a tip would be paid had it not become customary:
1. - When someone has looked after you extremely well and provided outstanding service we express our gratitude and appreciation by giving them money. I have tipped above the 15% when encountering this level of service and been happy to do so. But in my altered thinking I wonder why "Thank-you" is not enough. When the midwife delivered my first born I did not think to fumble in my pocket for loose change. When I decide not to use the self serve at the supermarket I do not say grandly,"Keep the change," to the checkout girl. When my wife makes a wonderful meal I do not leave a small pile of coins under the plate. If someone does something exceptionally well surely our first reaction should not be cash based. Someone working in the service industry and providing great service should be rewarded by their boss, as in any other industry.
2. - On occasions we may want good service; the best table, an attentive waitress, or special treatment in a place that we visit regularly. We tip well to get improved service. Or pay a bribe as it would be described in other spheres of life! If tipping does bring about a better quality service, then what about those who give a less generous tip? As a manager surely you wish for all your customers to receive a high quality service. Does tipping actually work against providing a good experience for all clients?
3.- We realise that many service industry workers are not well paid and as we are able to afford the service they are providing we feel superior or generous so we give them a little extra. If that is the case then are we perpetrating low wages by allowing a business to pay their workers less? Is it not also demeaning to rely on handouts as a supplement to your living wage?
However the practice is so engrained that to buck the trend and not tip can leave you feeling cheap, embarrassed, exposed and may even lead to open criticism. Consequently I am sure I am not alone in tipping even though the service has been poor, minimal or expressly not wanted. For example some petrol stations here still have an attendant to 'pump gas.' I have managed to perform this task independently for the past 30 years or so. Also, after a long drive, I am quite happy to stretch my legs and enjoy the sun while filling the tank. Yet in some places they insist on providing this unwanted service and then expect a tip for doing it. While travelling I have lugged my bags upstairs and downstairs, I have struggled on and off crowded transport, I have dragged luggage along hot streets. Then at a hotel someone simply lifts a case out of a taxi or wheels a bag through a door and we duly pay up.
When I leave the crowded city streets and enter a building I always look to hold the door open. The amount of times people just waltz past without any acknowledgement or thank-you. I am convinced that if I was to don a jacket, say "Door Madam, Sir," and extend my hand, those same rude individuals would stop and deposit a small tip. If I am correct then we as a society are perhaps getting our values muddled. We should acknowledge people for who they are and what they do. Instead of making this connection is it easier to simply leave a handful of cash whether they have 'earned' it or not?
That brings me to the dilemma I mentioned earlier. I am staying in a hotel where breakfast is provided. I have been here for 1 week and each morning I find a table, help myself from the self serve buffet and try to catch the eye of the waiters who serve coffee. I have given up on a couple of mornings and gone without as they have been busy and it wasn't worth the wait. Yesterday I noticed some money on the table next to me. Someone had left a tip. How quaint I thought - it is a self serve buffet and getting coffee is a lottery so what is the tip all about? It piqued my attention and to my horror I noticed that many other piles of coins sat amid the empty plates and unused coffee cups. I wondered briefly if failure to catch a servers eye was in direct correlation to my failure to leave a tip. However observation suggested not and the staff are pleasant when you finally get their attention.
So I now have a dilemma. Had I tipped each morning I would have left about $20 by the end of my extended stay. My final morning is tomorrow. What do I do? just leave a tip for that day and ignore the past days? Do I leave a $20 tip for the week? Or do I leave nothing because I would have been blissfully unaware that such minimal service merited a tip, had I not noticed other people's contributions?
I am really interested to know what other people think. Am I a cheapskate, or do I have a point? Or perhaps I have spent too long on my own! Maybe I carry a grudge from my past. As a student I worked in a busy restaurant as a dishwasher. I took pride in my work and elbow deep in greasy water I ensured each plate, dish and all cutlery was gleaming. I never once had a single customer thank me for the clean plates. No one ever said they were impressed with the shining cutlery and the waiting staff never shared the tips they accrued through delivering dinners on my throughly cleaned plates.
I do not begrudge paying a decent tip when excellent and attentive service has been lavished upon me. But it seems that a tip is not a expression of 'Thanks' but expected no matter how good, average or poor the service has been. So I thought why a tip would be paid had it not become customary:
1. - When someone has looked after you extremely well and provided outstanding service we express our gratitude and appreciation by giving them money. I have tipped above the 15% when encountering this level of service and been happy to do so. But in my altered thinking I wonder why "Thank-you" is not enough. When the midwife delivered my first born I did not think to fumble in my pocket for loose change. When I decide not to use the self serve at the supermarket I do not say grandly,"Keep the change," to the checkout girl. When my wife makes a wonderful meal I do not leave a small pile of coins under the plate. If someone does something exceptionally well surely our first reaction should not be cash based. Someone working in the service industry and providing great service should be rewarded by their boss, as in any other industry.
2. - On occasions we may want good service; the best table, an attentive waitress, or special treatment in a place that we visit regularly. We tip well to get improved service. Or pay a bribe as it would be described in other spheres of life! If tipping does bring about a better quality service, then what about those who give a less generous tip? As a manager surely you wish for all your customers to receive a high quality service. Does tipping actually work against providing a good experience for all clients?
3.- We realise that many service industry workers are not well paid and as we are able to afford the service they are providing we feel superior or generous so we give them a little extra. If that is the case then are we perpetrating low wages by allowing a business to pay their workers less? Is it not also demeaning to rely on handouts as a supplement to your living wage?
However the practice is so engrained that to buck the trend and not tip can leave you feeling cheap, embarrassed, exposed and may even lead to open criticism. Consequently I am sure I am not alone in tipping even though the service has been poor, minimal or expressly not wanted. For example some petrol stations here still have an attendant to 'pump gas.' I have managed to perform this task independently for the past 30 years or so. Also, after a long drive, I am quite happy to stretch my legs and enjoy the sun while filling the tank. Yet in some places they insist on providing this unwanted service and then expect a tip for doing it. While travelling I have lugged my bags upstairs and downstairs, I have struggled on and off crowded transport, I have dragged luggage along hot streets. Then at a hotel someone simply lifts a case out of a taxi or wheels a bag through a door and we duly pay up.
When I leave the crowded city streets and enter a building I always look to hold the door open. The amount of times people just waltz past without any acknowledgement or thank-you. I am convinced that if I was to don a jacket, say "Door Madam, Sir," and extend my hand, those same rude individuals would stop and deposit a small tip. If I am correct then we as a society are perhaps getting our values muddled. We should acknowledge people for who they are and what they do. Instead of making this connection is it easier to simply leave a handful of cash whether they have 'earned' it or not?
That brings me to the dilemma I mentioned earlier. I am staying in a hotel where breakfast is provided. I have been here for 1 week and each morning I find a table, help myself from the self serve buffet and try to catch the eye of the waiters who serve coffee. I have given up on a couple of mornings and gone without as they have been busy and it wasn't worth the wait. Yesterday I noticed some money on the table next to me. Someone had left a tip. How quaint I thought - it is a self serve buffet and getting coffee is a lottery so what is the tip all about? It piqued my attention and to my horror I noticed that many other piles of coins sat amid the empty plates and unused coffee cups. I wondered briefly if failure to catch a servers eye was in direct correlation to my failure to leave a tip. However observation suggested not and the staff are pleasant when you finally get their attention.
So I now have a dilemma. Had I tipped each morning I would have left about $20 by the end of my extended stay. My final morning is tomorrow. What do I do? just leave a tip for that day and ignore the past days? Do I leave a $20 tip for the week? Or do I leave nothing because I would have been blissfully unaware that such minimal service merited a tip, had I not noticed other people's contributions?
I am really interested to know what other people think. Am I a cheapskate, or do I have a point? Or perhaps I have spent too long on my own! Maybe I carry a grudge from my past. As a student I worked in a busy restaurant as a dishwasher. I took pride in my work and elbow deep in greasy water I ensured each plate, dish and all cutlery was gleaming. I never once had a single customer thank me for the clean plates. No one ever said they were impressed with the shining cutlery and the waiting staff never shared the tips they accrued through delivering dinners on my throughly cleaned plates.
So what do you think and how do you perceive tipping? Am I missing something and need enlightenment; perhaps we should increase tipping and include solicitors for their services, or bankers as they advise on investing our money, perhaps we should have an on-line tipping system so when we actually speak to someone in a call centre and they don't keep us on hold we can reward their service.
My daughter, when travelling during her gap years, did work in the service industry and I was delighted to hear her delight at receiving a generous tip. I do know that giving a good tip carries with it a certain intrinsic sense of goodwill. I am not totally against the concept, I just don't like the idea that a tip is expected and that even the most cursory service seems to demand some level of handout.
I wonder if instead of tipping some brave establishment introduced an evaluation card where the customer rated the service provided. When a service provider achieves perhaps 90% excellence they then qualify for a bonus from the owner. I think service may improve as the bonus would be directly related to performance, the customer still takes pleasure in giving good service a high score and though the bonus would no doubt come from inflated prices at least the customer would not feel obliged to pay extra to someone who is not performing well and has not enhanced the service experience.
I wonder if instead of tipping some brave establishment introduced an evaluation card where the customer rated the service provided. When a service provider achieves perhaps 90% excellence they then qualify for a bonus from the owner. I think service may improve as the bonus would be directly related to performance, the customer still takes pleasure in giving good service a high score and though the bonus would no doubt come from inflated prices at least the customer would not feel obliged to pay extra to someone who is not performing well and has not enhanced the service experience.
If you have read this far then the following clip may be of interest. Enjoy and let me know what you think - I will check for comments before breakfast - you have 16 hours starting from now!!!!!
ps - if you have enjoyed this blog you can forward cash donations to...... only kidding.
ps - if you have enjoyed this blog you can forward cash donations to...... only kidding.
A dying man's last wish was to make someone else's day. After his death, the family of Aaron Collins fulfilled his wish to go have pizza and leave their server a $500 tip.
The story surfaced on the blog Fark: 30-year-old Collins, a computer technician who died July 7, had no money to make his wish come true. So his family raised the cash through a website after just a few days and then made good on his request. At Puccini's restaurant in Lexington, Ky., the family lunched on pizza, and then presented one very lucky waitress with $500.
The video captures the moment. As the cash is handed over, the waitress keeps asking, "Are you serious?" She then promises to share her good fortune with other restaurant staff, and says, "You know, I'm going to be telling this story for the rest of my life."
To introduce the video, Aaron's brother Seth writes, "We think he just wanted to provide a random act of kindness and generosity for someone he thought was under appreciated; the kind of thing that would make a lasting impact they would never forget." Mission very accomplished.
The website continues to accept donations, and the family plans to give away big tips every time they raise another $500, noting, "We have already received over $500 more, so we will be doing this again soon. Hopefully we can continue changing the lives of random waiters and waitresses for years."
Just a real quick reply before your self service breakfast.
ReplyDeleteThink you should do an Aaron Collins!
I think dying may be a bit drastic - but thanks anyway :) !!!!
Delete