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by stubbedtoe
2467 days ago
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The problem I have with tipping is the idea that if you don't tip you are stingy and ungenerous - surely me choosing to be at your establishment and paying for your product is enough of a contribution to your business and your workers. If you need more cash to pay your workers, make the product more expensive. It's not like people who do tip are even tipping everyone underpaid who helps them live their life - no one is sending extra cash over to the kid that made their phone or the poor worker who picks their food. And specifically for counter service as described in the article, tipping makes even less sense. How can you possibly know what service you will receive before you receive the service? If the tip isn't conditional on the quality of the service, surely it just becomes a tax. |
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I'm glad I never worked at a restaurant where pay is supplemented by tips. That's an unacceptable practice.
At Starbucks, tips were in excess to wages, so anything people gave were a really nice bonus.
Tipping should be done out of generosity. Do you value that person, their time, the level of quality they bring you?
If you look at Japan, tipping is not a thing. In some places it might even be considered an insult to tip because that level of quality is a deeply engrained part of the culture, not something to be rewarded extra for.
However, I see it as a way to show my appreciation, my gratitude.
Yes, I believe that people who have the means to tip who don't, yet greedily eat up high quality service and goods, are being stingy in the worst sense. Just from my experience at Starbucks, it seemed like those who tipped most frequently were the people who might not really been able to afford it.
An extra dollar from 100 customers, for whom that is less than 1% of 1% of their net worth means $20 for a 5 person shift. That extra $20 usually is gas money, college supplies, or a couple bucks to spend for something fun.
However, we completely and utterly lack empathy. So many people DON'T know what it's like to be on the other side of the counter and they completely forget that those people are thinking and feeling humans like they are. That those people have dreams and ambitions just like they do. That they are working because they have SOME goal. There is more depth to the person than the apron they wear, the smile they put on, the job they do. We forget that. We view them as objects and we devalue their existence.
But those who do tip, those who don't necessarily have the means to but still do, they have not forgotten. Perhaps it's because their situation isn't too far removed.
I think Steinbeck said it well:
"If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones."