Yep, that's what I'm doing. On Wednesday the seventeenth, phone service is going to be shut off here and reconnected where I'm moving to. Re-establishing an internet connection may take up to ten business days, though, so if there's not a post for a while, that's why.
I hate having a hiatus when the blog is so relatively new, but--them's the breaks, as they say.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Tipping Really Isn't Just a City in China
I don't understand the notion of tipping servers/deliverers. By that I mean that I understand the process, but not the concept. "Waiters need to eat, too!" people say. Well, true. The thing is, I don't tip my dentist after he roots around my mouth with his iron hook; neither do I give the kid behind the counter at Del Taco money for giving me my soft tacos. The job description for waiters or food deliverers is pretty simple, simpler still in the case of food deliverers. When hired on as a waiter, you are hired to take orders and bring the food to the customer. As a deliverer, you're hired to drive the food to the customer's house. Why does that deserve a tip? To answer my own question, and to oh-so-subtly segue into another thing I don't get, it's because they're paid rather badly. Payment is factored with the probability of tipping--they get paid badly because they should be tipped.
Think about that for a few moments. You'll see that it's the scam of the century, and totally legal. Let's say that minimum wage, across the board, was seven dollars an hour. A restaurant can get away with paying a waiter, say, two dollars an hour because he's supposed to get tips. While, yes, many places operate under a policy of "averaging" out--that is, a "target" is seven dollars, the restaurant pays two dollars, and at the end of the night, if the tips don't equal out to seven dollars an hour or more the restaurant chips in the difference--many don't.
Also interesting is that no one really knows for sure where it came from. The most likely explanation is that it was a gift. Put in today's terms, "Here, have some random money." Some say that if there was no tipping, customers would have to pay higher bills, but I don't think that's necessarily true. From what I can tell, having been a sort of "student of humanity", it seems more likely that it's a scheme. I think that if there was no tipping, the restaurants et al. would have to pay their employees what amounts to minimum wage. Though tips is a bit of a crap shoot in terms of how much one takes in at the end of the shift, it seems that the good days outnumber the bad. As such, not many people employed in such jobs would change the situation if they could, and quite honestly I don't blame them.
I'm not saying that such people shouldn't be tipped. Well--actually, I suppose I am. I fall back on the analogy of tipping the kid behind the counter at Sonic Burger. His job is to take your order and give you your food. His employers don't jack him around and pay him terribly, so why do restaurants do it? Tipping people who go out of their way, sure, I can see that--but I don't see the point of tipping someone who is doing their job. Some people say that tipping is also a form of expressing how much one liked the service. Well, I think that's bunk. Most people I've heard of--not just people I "know", but just random people--tip flatly. Whether a percentage or just adding a certain denomination bill and saying to keep the change, most people don't really try to factor anything into the tip. "Here, have some money."
Now, having said all of that, I don't know how to change it. I can't make employers pay better wages, and if I did I couldn't get them to pay better than minimum wage (which makes me wonder why an official "waiter" should get paid better than the kid at Taco Bell, but that's another tangent), so what should be done about it? Heck if I know. So, having said all of that, I still tip. I am among the many who don't try to figure out tips; if the bill comes out to, say, thirty dollars and random cents, I'll toss out forty or forty-five dollars and be done with it. Still, I am forced to wonder why such an obvious scam is perpetuated. It just doesn't help that, in one fashion or another, I'm helping to perpetuate it. Hmm.
Think about that for a few moments. You'll see that it's the scam of the century, and totally legal. Let's say that minimum wage, across the board, was seven dollars an hour. A restaurant can get away with paying a waiter, say, two dollars an hour because he's supposed to get tips. While, yes, many places operate under a policy of "averaging" out--that is, a "target" is seven dollars, the restaurant pays two dollars, and at the end of the night, if the tips don't equal out to seven dollars an hour or more the restaurant chips in the difference--many don't.
Also interesting is that no one really knows for sure where it came from. The most likely explanation is that it was a gift. Put in today's terms, "Here, have some random money." Some say that if there was no tipping, customers would have to pay higher bills, but I don't think that's necessarily true. From what I can tell, having been a sort of "student of humanity", it seems more likely that it's a scheme. I think that if there was no tipping, the restaurants et al. would have to pay their employees what amounts to minimum wage. Though tips is a bit of a crap shoot in terms of how much one takes in at the end of the shift, it seems that the good days outnumber the bad. As such, not many people employed in such jobs would change the situation if they could, and quite honestly I don't blame them.
I'm not saying that such people shouldn't be tipped. Well--actually, I suppose I am. I fall back on the analogy of tipping the kid behind the counter at Sonic Burger. His job is to take your order and give you your food. His employers don't jack him around and pay him terribly, so why do restaurants do it? Tipping people who go out of their way, sure, I can see that--but I don't see the point of tipping someone who is doing their job. Some people say that tipping is also a form of expressing how much one liked the service. Well, I think that's bunk. Most people I've heard of--not just people I "know", but just random people--tip flatly. Whether a percentage or just adding a certain denomination bill and saying to keep the change, most people don't really try to factor anything into the tip. "Here, have some money."
Now, having said all of that, I don't know how to change it. I can't make employers pay better wages, and if I did I couldn't get them to pay better than minimum wage (which makes me wonder why an official "waiter" should get paid better than the kid at Taco Bell, but that's another tangent), so what should be done about it? Heck if I know. So, having said all of that, I still tip. I am among the many who don't try to figure out tips; if the bill comes out to, say, thirty dollars and random cents, I'll toss out forty or forty-five dollars and be done with it. Still, I am forced to wonder why such an obvious scam is perpetuated. It just doesn't help that, in one fashion or another, I'm helping to perpetuate it. Hmm.
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