Oct 21st 2010, 20:28:03
I personally think tipping is fine as long as that is what it is, a voluntary tip. Giving an extra sum of money for someone doing a good job for you because you feel it is worth paying more for what they gave.
American tipping however seems to have, in some situations, become something of a mentality, an assumed income and a way to keep wages low and to place that extra cost on the customer and get around taxation.
Take a hotel in NYC, you are expected to use and tip the staff even if you didn't want their services like a porter, saying no to help is frowned upon.
In the rooms you are supposed to leave a tip out each day for the cleaning staff but how on earth do you know if they have done a good job that warrants the tip, in this instance it is a bribe to give a level of service you expect to receive. If you don't give the tip are they not going to do their job properly for you, if not what are they employed for?
In these instances it might be just the scenario as you don't always expect to meet the maid as they would work when you're not there but maybe if this is expected the hotel should allow the staff to have areas they cover so tips could be left for a good service rather than assuming people will subsides their overheads for them in advance of receiving anything. Sure if it is to say well done, why don't they leave a name and have a box in reception where you can give a tip directly to the person(s) who provided the service.
The mentality in the US in the food industry is that you will be tipped. That if you provide a bad service you'll get a lower tip but a tip never the less and that the tip will go up should you do something right. The European or 'outside the US' view is that tipping is given for going above and beyond rather than just doing the job you are paid to do satisfactorily.
If you got a shocking service in an Cafe, say the food was very slow, the food was just dropped on the table and maybe they got the bill wrong so you had to get them to change it and they were fussy about it. In this occasion in the UK at least they're likely to give you money off the bill.
In the US if didn't tip even a poor service you'd get a funny look and should you ever go back and be recognised you would get a basic or even intentionally bad service. Yet you paid full price for something where you didn't get the basic product and service you were led to believe you would be provided with.
Tipping has become more than a thank you for giving me good service, it has become a payment to ensure you get what you actually paid for the next time. The threat of bad service fuels the mentality that a tip is compulsory. Tipping to encourage good service still exists so it has positives but those positives exist everywhere else in the world too, its just everywhere else you'd expect to get what you paid for at the actual price advertised without having to pay extra.
It might not be a bribe but it's not a 'tip' either. Like the American way of not having prices stated including tax, its all psychological. If you added the price of a service and then add the expected tax then add the tip you're paying a good 20% on what the advertised price was. What cultures who don't expect to be tipped for doing their job don't like about that is that is the psychological deception involved.
I don't much mind as I just work it out as a given price and if its bad service never give them custom again. However what I do hate about tipping culture is what does get a tip.
Ambulance driver - expected to get there on time and save your life = no tip
Pizza delivery boy - shows up 5 minutes late = put money in his hand or never use the place again.
Tube driver - arrives on time and transports you to where you want to go directly = no tip
Porter - grabs your bags and expects you to let him take them to your room when you don't need his help... after all you made it all the way to the other side of the world with them and packed them specifically so you could carry them! = put money in his hand.
Expected to tip culture = capitalist excuse to save money.
Not expected to tip culture = still give tips, they just mean more when they're given and usually more deserving.
Both encourage a good service, just one expects the person providing the service to do their job to a high standard as a given. The other only to give a good service for the sake of being encouraged (could call it a bribe if you like) to keep it up.
No?
Village Eejit
The Fist of Odin