211–220 of 456 posts
I see that many are fixed on tips, but I found it quite shocking to read about long queues of people on the Christmas day and people quitting on the Christmas Eve. In many European cities, the streets are completely empty and almost all shops (maybe a local supermarket would open from 10:00 till 14:00 on a Christmas day after being closed for the Eve) are closed both on the Christmas Eve and the Christmas day.
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He also says it was during "a movie night for kids," and the author thinks people should be paying for normal movie theater stuff, like popcorn: >You want to see Spider Man? You desperately want to bring your kids to Encanto or Sing 2? And you want your popcorn, food, and drinks? Cool. But if you don’t tip... If someone is taking their kids to a movie night, I wouldn't expect them to tip for tickets, popcorn and soda…
If someone brings popcorn and soda to our table, I expect to/do tip for it.
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I was a Starbucks barista for a year (2000), and customer tips were an important part of my take home. I think most people think like you, because at the time I calculated my average tip was 5 cents per customer, but that still raise my hourly to something I could almost afford to live on (I think it took me from $6-something to about $9/hr). I wouldn't consider getting a latte and not tipping after that experience.
Wow, I've never even considered tipping at Starbucks.
I have no fully acceptable-to-me rational explanation for this arbitrary-seeming difference. I can concoct a backwards justification, but I very rarely go to either, so I haven't had to unravel this mystery.
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> 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. There was an early-20th-century movement in the US to end tipping, for that reason. The thinking was that it created too much of a relationship of s…
> The thinking was that it created too much of a relationship of subservience rather than equals participating in commerce, to be compatible with American ideals of freedom. That's my feelings about tipping. The custom feels very classist. Depending on tips creates a social divide between service industries and their customers. I used to work for tips when I was growing up (~2010). My rate was about $15-20/hr which y…
I don't think this is something you can fault tips for. If anything it suggests that tips are working as intended, presumably without tips your employer would bake such expectations into your customer facing role anyway?
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.
Is it the only aspect of the article that most on this site can relate with? I take it most have not worked service industry or it was a very long time ago. I'm interested in what seems to be the growing incivility toward other people. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/us/apt-cape-cod-restauran... > The verbal abuse from rude customers got so bad, the owners of one farm-to-table restaurant on Cape Cod said, that som…
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.
Is it the only aspect of the article that most on this site can relate with? I take it most have not worked service industry or it was a very long time ago. I'm interested in what seems to be the growing incivility toward other people. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/us/apt-cape-cod-restauran... > The verbal abuse from rude customers got so bad, the owners of one farm-to-table restaurant on Cape Cod said, that som…
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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.
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.
Besides the author’s v points about the poor working conditions, I was struck by the points about transit costs. I am curious how much of the current labor situation in the US can be explained by the combination of 1) geographic wealth segregation —- richer consumers clustering together while generally poorer service workers have to live far away —- and 2) high gas prices / underdeveloped public transit. At some poin…
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You have just talked me into tips. I want a server who will entertain me while I'm waiting. There is a line of course, don't do too much, but a bit of make me feel better about it is worth paying extra for. Service with a good bubbly personality is well worth the extra cost in my opinion.
Personally I prefer to be around people who are friendly because they genuinely want to be rather than because I am paying them to fake it.
It's one thing if someone's being friendly and entertaining because they're being paid a salary or ticket price to do so - like a magician or tour guide or something. That's still artificial and potentially forced and stilted, but at least it's a reasonable, tit-for-tat kind of artificiality. With tipping it feels not only artificial but patronizing, condescending, and servile. You're at the mercy of the capriciousness and cruelty of customers. Or, alternatively, in some cases inadvertently thrusting them into a position of guilt and obligation and pity.
It's not that bad since the employee probably knows what they were signing up for before taking the job, and some can make a lot of money from it, but, overall, the whole thing just feels... weird.
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I think he's actually going through the exercise of confirming his prior beliefs with "experience".
Too true! Yes he's now in the workforce, and it's such a shame that he NOW sees how the system works AFTER dictating/enforcing policy about it for an entire state. And there's an implication at the end of the article: tip more, customers. Policy is fine, it didn't cause this problem, customer behavior did. Perhaps he needs more confirmation through that experience.
Experiencing something yourself is very different than simply reading and empathizing about something.