Tipping is a scam, article.
"My favourite trick though is where you get the bill and at the bottom it says ‘service not included’.
Oh dear, that’s a bit of an oversight isn’t it; not including the cost of one of your raw materials. Or was it understood that I would go to the kitchen, request my own food and fetch it when it was ready - I can do that if that is what is required. And why is it service that is not included, why not food, or the furniture?"
Personally I don't anymore have as hard an attitude as the article, but I admit I think tipping is weird. For example I always leave the change with the pizza dude, but when I get groceries delivered there's no cash involved and the guy (who is usually much more pleasant and helpful than the pizza man) does not get a tip. How's that fair?
Also if a tip is a tip, it's voluntary. If it isn't, it should be included in the price. If it is, then waiters do not have the right to get pissy if they don't get a tip.
By the way, here's a tip (the other kind) for service workers, from Stuart Wilde: if you want to earn good tips, be extraordinarily helpful and pleasant. Really go way beyond duty with providing service, help, and friendliness. You'll be tipped more than you ever heard of.
Tip does not help.
ReplyDeleteIf you can get tip at your work, the boss will just pay you less. Or take your tip in his own pocket, and give you your normal salary.
I worked in a restaurant, and the money I was getting was the tip. I guess it is quite usual.
But if there is only credit card involved with a delivery guy and you want to give a tip, you can still prepare a coin in your pocket...
Sure, but this does not happen in general, is what I mean.
ReplyDelete"I worked in a restaurant, and the money I was getting was the tip."
The restaurant did not pay you?
"The restaurant did not pay you?"
ReplyDeleteNo. Did not stay long. But it is quite usual.
If clients give tips, the owner will calculate it. Either keep the tips for himself, or reduce the salary to be just a complement of the tips, or give no salary if the clients are generous.
As far as I know this is quite common.
Which is quite ironic: the clients' habit that developed to give tips actually has the effect of lowering the salary! :-)
But probably we cannot go backwards: stopping giving tips will probably not get the salary higher.
In the usa most restaurants do not pay the waiters anything.It is a legal kickback of part of the waiters tips to the restaurant.Usually about 5% of the bill goes back into the owners pockets negating the $3.10 per hour that is the minimum wage for waiters.Most restaurants dont pay insurance or other benefits.In the usa any tip over 5% is not a tip it is how the waiter get paid it is the only money the waiter gets for doing his job. More after I get back from work.
ReplyDeleteHuh, did *not* know that. I must say it only makes the whole thing weirder.
ReplyDeleteStranger yet: The government (USA) taxes waiters on a percent of what they sell. If your bill is $100 the internal revenue service assumes that the tip was $ 10 and taxes the waiter on that. Waiters get paid exactly what they are worth as tiping is optional.Imagine getting wour car fixed and only paying for parts plus $10 because the guy fixing the car did not smile enough.The only consolation for waiters is that rock stars are being paid the same way.The songs are available for free with p2p so if someone buys the cd they are tipping the band because the like the service. NIN and Radiohead have released their music on the internet for free so their fans can tip them directly and not have to pay the label for a cd they dont need to give the band some money.I get paid the same way the rock stars do just not as much.Waiter groupies ?
ReplyDeleteI'm a tipper. 15% is the floor, and for me, 35% is usually the ceiling. Anyone who has worked in the food industry knows how hard it is to fill the expectations of customers. Some customers don't want to be bothered. Some want something new every two minutes. If someone's doing a great job, they should be rewarded for that. And not just with money. Being nice to your wait staff should be your first big tip.
ReplyDeleteYou might be thinking that bit about waiters not being paid is total B.S. It is. They get paid. Not much as tips are figured in but they do get paid. Don't believe everything you read. That douchebag was just trying to put one over on you.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever seen Reservoir Dogs? There's a great bit about tipping early on in that movie (which is a vastly underrated classic).
ReplyDeleteYes, I was thinking about that scene in connection with this. Classic Tarantino dialogue.
ReplyDeleteI was interested to read he (and sometimes the actors, like Travolta) will work very deliberately with the *rhythm* of the dialogue.
I hope he'll return to this quality some day. Like Frank Miller he seems to have abandoned it for action and horror.
We don't agree at all on that. I loved Kill Bill. There are examples of the dialogue he's known for in that movie. I especially liked Bill's Superman speech from Volume 2. Visually both parts were great, and I loved the action.
ReplyDeleteWhat horror has he done?
I also loved Death Proof, which had some great dialogue too, and also the best car chase scene since the 70s when, as Stuntman Mike says, "Real cars crashed into real cars - with real dumb people drivin' 'em." That is, before CG. The days of Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry and other stuff like that.
Robert Rodriguez's half (Planet Terror, which bored me) was the horror half of their Grindhouse collaboration.
I consider Death Proof a horror film, though clothed in different trappings.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good movie, though, and best car chase ever, almost too scary.
I liked Kill Bill, but maybe the hype of the violence overshadowed my appreciation of the dialogue, I'll give it another chance.
I think horror must have a supernatural component - zombies, psyhic powers, etc. Death Proof was (partly) about a serial killer but there was nothing supernatural there.
ReplyDeleteI guess they tend to have it, but I never thought it was a requirement. Halloween and that ilk often doesn't. Maybe people call those "thrillers" instead? Never really thought about it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not exactly a horror aficionado myself, but that seems to be the case.
ReplyDeleteThrillers seem to usually have a sort of "international intrigue" angle going on - The Hunt for Red October, The Bourne Identity. I'm not sure if you can pigeonhole Tarantino films that way as they have always drawn from several genres. Death Proof is inspired by several kinds of exploitation films.