Tipping

I listen a lot to National Public Radio (NPR) while at work. I find it entertaining, and more on the liberal side (which I tend to side with typically). So I am listening to an NPR intern Danielle Gerson berate the public for their tipping. Apparently her internship is over and she’ll likely be waiting tables until she gets another opportunity:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126285599

I consider myself a good tipper. For sit down table service I tip 15-20% for good service. I view the tipping situation as something entirely within my discretion. I have the power to measure how I felt the service was and tip accordingly.

However, I also see it within the scope of tipping to reduce the tip for unsatisfactory service. My biggest complaint is usually not being attentive to refills. Yeah, I think I have the iced tea drinking records in several of the restaurants I visit. But to only get one or two glasses of tea and have my glass empty most of my meal is not satisfactory. So I will often leave a token tip of some change. The reasoning behind this is to communicate to the server that I didn’t merely forget the tip; I am expressing my dissatisfaction with his/her service.

I know waiters and waitresses have tough jobs, and I try not to be unrealistic in my expectations. If the server is busy, I rather understand that my glass has not been full as often as I would like. However when I see the server walking by my table, noticing my empty glass, and doing nothing I have to admit it affects my tip. I was a server myself back in my college days, and I try to be empathetic.

I am a regular customer at a local Mexican place in town, when I walk in all the servers basically know what I will order before I even sit down. They know I am an iced tea fan and bring a whole pitcher to my table. Perfect, I never go dry and they aren’t caught running back and forth for refills. It is a perfect situation all around, and they keep me coming back as a regular.

I have to admit that I am really reluctant to tip more than 20%. I was reading someplace they were encouraging people to tip 25% and I personally think that is excessive. However there are cases where I do tip more than 20%, but such service goes way beyond the call of duty.

Pizza delivery drivers should also be tipped, because they are transporting your food to your door. They use their own car and also have to travel up two flights of stairs to get to me.

However, when it comes to carry out, I have to admit I am reluctant to tip. It doesn’t matter if you phone the order in or order it at the counter; you aren’t getting the service you would expect in a full service restaurant. They don’t have to manage refills and they hardly spend any time with you. Plus you would be expected to tip them before you consume your meal. How do you know they got it correctly put together until you get it home? Would you be justified in asking for your tip back if you had to travel back because they got your order wrong? I don’t tip servers at the counter of a fast food restaurant, why would I tip for carry out?

Tipping is an extremely interesting social invention. Basically the restaurant saves money by cutting the wages of the waitstaff because it is expected that they get tips. The public the waitstaff serves evaluates that service and determines if and how much a tip is warranted. This puts the waitstaff into an interesting situation, while the restaurant actually employs them; their actual boss is their customer.

So when tipping, I think you should view it this way: Imagine your boss who judges your performance and pay. If you don’t think your boss is fair, this is your opportunity to prove that you can be fair in evaluating the performance of your server. If you think your boss is a fair person, then you should reflect that behavior in your tips. You are the boss of that waitstaff in deciding on a tip, and that person should be evaluated fairly. That doesn’t mean accepting bad performance and paying for it anyway. It means recognizing hard work and good performance and rewarding appropriately.