91–100 of 456 posts
> When I was a 16 year old kid working as a “Courtesy Clerk” for Albertsons Grocery store, we got a 15-minute break for every 4-hour shift and an hour lunch for an 8-hour shift. Shouldn't this be enforced by law?
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It is belittling, and almost nobody except restaurant owners likes it. It's sort of a game theory problem - if we could coordinate everyone to stop tipping, then restaurants would be forced to pay their workers normal wages, and almost everyone would be better off. But if I stop tipping, I'm just an asshole making no impact on society. I guess the only practical approach is to simultaneously keep tipping and push for…
I think you'll find that servers and bartenders are the most adimant supporters of tipping. They make a killing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its weird who is "supposed" to get tips, too. Someone who brings you a plate is supposed to get 15% of the bill for doing their job; but an auto parts store clerk who chases down something weird for you over 2hrs of searching may well be forbidden to accept any gratuity, and possibly even disciplined for spending too much time on a small sale.
And the idea that the gratuity should be a percentage of the selling price of the goods is also weird. Someone makes more money if they did the same work but handed you more expensive food.
It's a shame that the comments here are laser focused on the tipping parts of the article, and not the bigger picture items. The author outlines the struggles of getting service jobs filled in high CoL areas, the vicious cycle of turnover in these jobs, and all the commenters here want to discuss is the 2 paragraphs on tipping.
Sounds to me like a lot of "customers" in the US are just a55holes and anyone who has to work with them regularly is right to just stop. I'm sure a little common courtesy in everyday interactions is all it takes to make workplaces enjoyable; and a wage that allows you to stay warm and fed while working a _single job_ will get most people back to work. It's really a very low bar to set, I'm surprised this is even such…
I am always baffled when I read about the tip culture in the states. I find it so belittling for workers. It seems to incentivize a mentality of "the customer is always right", with workers putting an extra effort to always smile and be nice in the hope for a fair tip.
Restaurants can really barely afford to stay open in my (small) region, frankly they are seen as a service to a town not a net extractor. I know the finances behind my locals and can tell you they would not be able to stay open if workers were not also compensated via tips, and workers would not be there without the requisite pay. Tips end up being the difference between having a restaurant or not.
I forget the name of who put this idea forward, but businesses that barely break even when paying the absolute minimums, don't necessarily do worse if labor costs go up universally in an area, and everyone can begin to afford to use the services.
> Places like this rely on high school students for jobs like working the counter and delivering food. This sentence should be amended to “Places like this rely on people to accept low wages and low quality of life at work”. The whole article can basically be cut down to that sentence.
Well, the point is that these jobs don't create that much value. They're only worth so much, and the only skill required to do them is to put up with the misery. If you argue that all jobs must pay a "living wage", then jobs like this will just cease to exist and high-school kids won't be employable.
I'm not sure how you get to the takeaway that a bartender job will "cease to exist" if a bartender is paid a living wage? There's clearly a market demand for, in this case, alcoholic drinks in a movie theater. Labor prices are seeing upward pressure. Seems to me that if you got rid of the bartender because they cost too much, you wouldn't have a bar at your movie theater anymore.
Sure, you could talk about robotics replacing low-wage workers, and in some instances that may happen, but you're also now dealing with needing to have a robotics tech available during the Spiderman rush at your movie theater where the machine that makes the drinks is a core part of the draw. So I'm skeptical of the economic argument there as it is -- you're going to replace one or two bartenders making a living wage of $20-25/hr with a robotics tech who makes the same or less?
Sounds to me like a lot of "customers" in the US are just a55holes and anyone who has to work with them regularly is right to just stop. I'm sure a little common courtesy in everyday interactions is all it takes to make workplaces enjoyable; and a wage that allows you to stay warm and fed while working a _single job_ will get most people back to work. It's really a very low bar to set, I'm surprised this is even such…
She was fortunate, in having a good manager (the franchise owner). Some local franchises actually got busted for using slave labor.
There’s a site on my regular rounds, that has stories about bad customer (and staff) interactions, called Not Always Right: https://notalwaysright.com/newest/
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It dismays me how many wealthy people I know that flat our refuse to tip. I end such friendships, as those people are monsters, waiting for an excuse to toss others away.
Any chance they're trying to end the practice of tipping for the betterment of workers in the long run?
You can tell whether people complain about tipping because of fairness or just because they want a discount by whether they also complain about mandatory, fixed percentage tipping, which is really just a service fee under another name.
Yes, he talks about the tough conditions of the job and customer behavior and other things, but nothing about how MAYBE legislation should change for wages (hourly service workers relying on tips in the US actually make well below the hourly minimum wage).
Sorry, for once I want to throw some outrage around about this.