Comments on: Tipping

By: David Moles

David Moles — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 16:20:34 +0000

Tipping waiters and bartenders and taxi drivers doesn’t feel like a class thing to me, but tipping bellhops does.

I liked the bit in the Surowiecki piece about tips being more about the gift economy — that resonated with me, even if (viz. Quasar) a lot of people still see it as a strictly market transaction.

By: Didi

Didi — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 02:06:11 +0000

I used to tend bar, so I’m very comfortable with tips in restaurants and bars. And I usually overtip, because I know many people undertip. If the service was rotten, I leave a regular tip. 10 percent used to be the norm here. Now, in Tel Aviv, it’s 15 percent.

Cabs and such confuse me. In Israel, one doesn’t tip cab drivers, so when I’m out of the country, I’m always unsure whether I should tip or not. It’s very awkward.

But I never see it as a bribe, and I never see it as a class privilege. It’s the money you give a person in the service industry that goes directly to that person, without any of it going to the bosses or the government. I actually like that aspect of it.

By: janet

janet — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 19:53:03 +0000

I hate all the things about tipping that Justine does, but it doesn’t make me feel that I’m trying to bribe someone (if it was a bribe, they’d get the tip before providing the service, not after). I’m so used to tipping in restaurants that I don’t think about it much, and since it’s expected and I know how to do it and I can just leave it on the table. But when I’m in the position of actually putting the tip into someone’s hand, I feel like I’m somehow asserting some sort of class privilege; I worry that it will seem demeaning, like I’m paying not just for service but for subservience. Does that make sense?

By: Chris Barzak

Chris Barzak — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 09:50:59 +0000

You don’t tip in Japan unless you’re a foreigner who doesn’t know better. So says my Japanese boss.

By: David Moles

David Moles — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 05:41:48 +0000

Don’t know how it is in Australia, but here tipping in restaurants is so expected that it’s built into the tax structure and the minimum wage laws — restaurants don’t have to pay waiters minimum wage, because they’re expected to make it up in tips, and waiters have to pay taxes on notional tips whether they actually get any or not.

(Don’t ask me about taxi drivers or bellhops, though. Or about the time I blew my group’s cover in a London theater bar because at the time I didn’t know the English don’t tip bartenders.)

“This American Life” did an episode last year on niceness and meanness, and one of the segments was on tipping. What they found was that folks like quasar are rare, and nearly everyone (except maybe in the case of insanely bad service) pretty much has a set (if sometimes subconscious) flat tipping policy and sticks with it regardless of service. About the only situation they found in which people tip more than their normal rate is when a regular notices one of the staff seeming to have a particularly bad day.

By: quasar

quasar — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 01:40:24 +0000

The first few days I spent in Amsterdam I made some cab drivers really really happy by tipping them. It never occurred to me not to tip, particularly as I was fairly happy with their service. I don’t really begrudge them the money since they did do a good job, but it was interesting to see how shocked my European friends were when they saw me tipping.

What I really hate, though, is the idea that tipping is required not something to be earned by someone. It seems like the service in restaurants here (Boston area) just gets progressively worse as the standard tip amount gets higher and higher. I’ve started adjusting what I leave much more than I used to; I start off with a good but not great tip and add/subtract (usually subtract) from there based on service. I’ve started walking out without leaving a tip when the service is particularly bad and I’ve spoken to managers or called customer service lines (for chains) more than once in the past few months when I’ve had particular problems I found unacceptable. It’s my money and I’m feeling less and less inclined to reward people for mediocre or downright awful service. I also leave a very nice tip and say something positive to the manager or hostess on those all-too-rare occasions when I get very good service; it does run both ways.

By: parker

parker — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:05:54 +0000

justine: i’m with you all the way with the tipping in the us of a – it’s bewildering, particularly for those of us (from oz) who are accustomed only to tipping good or above average service. there’s tipping and there’s tax – and suddenly youdon’t actually have enough money for your purchase – so then there’s humiliation.

roger: what is it about the lack of capital that rankles? embrace the lower case

By: Roger

Roger — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:50:35 +0000

I hear you, old girl. Quite deplorable.

Don’t suppose you might consider giving us back our capital letters, would you? ‘Tis starting to rankle.