Tipping.

[Harbinger]

I went without health insurance for 20 years. It's not a right. Well, unless you don't work at all. Then of course it is.

[lorin]

Apologies to Peter. I should not be bringing housing and health insurance issues into the galley. It causes heartburn.

[Zarathustra]

There are pros/cons to either system. I don't think it's inherently better or more generous to think, "We pay our employees well in the first place." Our employees get paid well, too. And ultimately, the money comes from the same place: the customer. The only difference is that with tipping, the power is in YOUR hands to pay for what you get. The relationship between customer of service provider isn't filtered through layers of bureacracy or corporations. If you think servers don't make enough, you can give them more. If they do a great job, you can show them your appreciation directly (or punish for poor service). And if you tip well, you can take pride in your own generosity, instead of claiming credit for someone else paying them for you, or being forced by the government to do it. This empowers the customers, and it fosters a level of trust and mutual appreciation between server and customer.

I wish everyone worked for tips. I wish they realized that their paycheck rides on my satisfaction in this moment. I like being their "boss," for that brief time when they are working for me. Literally. With no middle man. It's just one human bartering their skill, attention, and expertise for my money. It's simple, pure, and engaging. Honest.

If you don't have enough money to tip well for good service, then perhaps you don't have enough money to participate in luxury activities in the first place. Every single service which is paid in tips is a luxury service. Having another human feed you is just about the most indulgent thing an adult can do--to be treated to the same kind of parental care-giving that only children have a right to expect. To think that complete strangers make their living by bringing you life-giving sustenance--cooked to a level of tastiness you may not be able to attain yourself--is one of the beautiful wonders capitalism has made mainstream. And in no other sector of the the economy does this exchange of service and money rise to the level of direct intimacy between strangers as when someone is performing a service for tips.

We see plenty of people complain about Big Corporations. Well, here is your opportunity to make it small, to deliver compensation from your hand directly to the person who served you. In the vast sea of all that Bigness, it's a small wonder. I don't understand the aversion to it, or the idea that a government law between you and your service provider is somehow better standards or values.

Imagine how much food would cost if restaurants paid waiters $15/hr. Sure, maybe it ends up costing the same. But there would also be no opportunity for you to discount your own bill for poor service--all on your own, without getting the manager's permission.

[Avatar]

I'm generally a good tipper. 20-25% at restaurants, as long as the waiter was even relatively decent. 10% is the bare minimum.

Having worked in the service industry, I learned two things...it's shit work, and never piss off the person handling your food. I also know the difference between things that are the waiters fault, and things that aren't.

It also means that, if it's somewhere I go regularly, I get great service, because the staff know I tip well.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

Z - Do you go into the kitchen and tip the chef, then?

[peter]

Are tips a thing that should be pooled and shared amongst all of the staff of a given establishment - or are they a personal thing between two individuals; a gift from me to you for the good attention you gave me [but have I already not paid for that?] One of the hotels I stayed in previously, I had met a chamber-maid in the shop some while later who said that the relative invisability of the room staff [in small up-market hotels] and the policy of non-pooling of tips meant that they [the chamber staff] got virtually no tips at all.

[Zarathustra]

Murrin, no I don't tip the chef. But like I said, I wish everyone worked for tips. If they discounted the meal, I'd gladly express my level of appreciation for the food with an appropriate tip ... and honestly, I'd love to have shown some restaurants just how bad I thought their food was by leaving a crappy chef tip. That would be awesome. I hate having to ask for something to be removed from the bill because it sucked and I couldn't eat it--it makes you look cheap, when really you're just expressing your outrage for shitty food. Tipping the chef would work so much better.

Av, you might be even more generous than I am. I usually give more than 15% for good service, perhaps 20%, but rarely 25%, unless it's just outstanding. Decent gets 15%. Bad gets 10%. I've only stiffed a waitress once, and that's because she left near the end of our meal and let someone else take over for her so she could go home. I wasn't going to give this guy her money for asking me, "Is everything okay" after I've basically finished. And I wasn't interested in hoping someone would be honest enough to deliver her tip to her at a later time. If she couldn't be bothered to wait for my money, she gets nothing. Hell, it's part of the job title.

[Avatar]

Z - Do you go into the kitchen and tip the chef, then?

The chef should be paid enough more that he doesn't need tips. The ones I feel sorry for are the kitchen staff...they work just as hard or harder, but no tips for them.

I'm a bit torn on this one...my brother is a chef, and in his kitchens, tips are usually pooled so the kitchen staff get a cut. (But not the chef staff, him, the sous, etc.)

On the other hand, it would annoy me a lot if I'm a great waiter, pulling big tips, and I have to share them. Where's my motivation then?

--A

[Cail]

In my regular haunts, I tip well....at least 20%. 18-20% is my norm when I'm out and about; a truly spectacular meal and service has warranted more.

It was interesting being in Ireland a few years ago. Tipping really isn't a thing there, but they're used to American tourists tipping, so it appeared that it was sort of expected. Regardless, it was awkward on both sides. I usually ended up leaving a fiver on the bar and telling the bartender to have one on me.

No international incident ensued, so it seemed to have worked.

[Vraith]

I'm a bit torn on this one...my brother is a chef, and in his kitchens, tips are usually pooled so the kitchen staff get a cut. (But not the chef staff, him, the sous, etc.)
--A

The best system I've seen of this [even though I was Asst. Chef...which was a glorified title, really just a cook...so didn't get to participate] the wait person gave 10% of tips to pool...1/2 went to bussers, 1/2 to host and bartender. It worked out pretty well...servers wanted to treat the others well, they wanted to make the servers job as easy as possible. Win-win.

I tip between 10 [but you have to be pretty bad to get that] and 20.

I also always tip bartenders/drink servers...but for very selfish reasons. Faster service, and I can tell the appreciate it by the occasional free Tequila shot.

[Avatar]

Win-win.

That seems pretty good actually.

--A