In our house, there is one thing that in 6 years of marriage, my husband and I have not been able to agree completely on. Part of it is because of my Canadian heritage, part of it is just that I'm cheap and expect good service. And that subject (if you haven't guessed by now) is how much to tip.
Greg's point of view is to tip the standard 15%, unless something is extremely good or bad, and then accordingly from there. I tend to disagree. I say tip better if service is better, and less if mediocre, every time. If someone always gets a 15% tip, does that encourage the employee to go above and beyond their normal job requirements? (I say "no" in most cases). If a lesser tip would encourage an employee to work better/harder to please the customer, would we get better service? Isn't that what tipping is all about anyways? If it's not, then why don't they just tack 15% onto the menu prices and then you don't have to worry about it. Or pay their employees more? That would make sense to me.
Anyways, I saw this cartoon, and thought it might give me another valid reason to tip less (unless service is extraordinaire). The Canada part of this lesson is that in Canada, waiters/waitresses make ordinary wages, so tipping is completely optional. You don't have to "guilt tip" if the service is terrible. And that's the way I think it should be. But...when in Rome, I'll do as the Romans...even if I don't agree. (We actually have finally agreed that whoever pays does the tipping, so Greg always tries to pay so that I don't embarrass him by my minuscule tips).
PS if the cartoon doesn't show, you can view it here http://www.reverendfun.com/?date=20040115
Greg's point of view is to tip the standard 15%, unless something is extremely good or bad, and then accordingly from there. I tend to disagree. I say tip better if service is better, and less if mediocre, every time. If someone always gets a 15% tip, does that encourage the employee to go above and beyond their normal job requirements? (I say "no" in most cases). If a lesser tip would encourage an employee to work better/harder to please the customer, would we get better service? Isn't that what tipping is all about anyways? If it's not, then why don't they just tack 15% onto the menu prices and then you don't have to worry about it. Or pay their employees more? That would make sense to me.
Anyways, I saw this cartoon, and thought it might give me another valid reason to tip less (unless service is extraordinaire). The Canada part of this lesson is that in Canada, waiters/waitresses make ordinary wages, so tipping is completely optional. You don't have to "guilt tip" if the service is terrible. And that's the way I think it should be. But...when in Rome, I'll do as the Romans...even if I don't agree. (We actually have finally agreed that whoever pays does the tipping, so Greg always tries to pay so that I don't embarrass him by my minuscule tips).
PS if the cartoon doesn't show, you can view it here http://www.reverendfun.com/?date=20040115
