Ok, maybe this isn’t a “Great” debate, but I know everybody has differing opinions on the subject.
This time of year, there are often questions about who we should tip. The paperboy? The garbage man? The babysitter? I was wondering what everybody else thought. Yeah, I know, it’s a little late now, but still…
We used to tip our garbage men because, in our old house, they had to come to our back yard to get our garbage. Yes, we paid extra for this service, but not much. Now they just grab 'em off the street.
We tipped our main sitter last year – gave her an extra 10 bucks, I think. This year, though, she has only sat a few times and our secondary sitter has only sat a few times. Plus, none of them have been recent. So I hadn’t really thought about it.
Our newspaper carrier attached a holiday card with her name and address earlier, and then attached another note to today’s paper. I have never tipped the newspaper carrier, but she does do a good job, I guess.
Overall, I guess the question is one of what a tip is for. In restaurants, I tip 15%, plus or minus how they did their job. If it was average, they get 15%. If much better, they get more. If worse, they get less.
icelanders are strange, if not rude. the never tip when they are here in iceland, but somehow remember their etiquette when they are out of the country. i find it strange, cause people generally give me a strange look when i tip the waiter or cab driver. somebody thought i was hitting on the waitress once…for crying out loud, what a stange pickup line!!!
bj0rn - alone in an alone country(something like that)
I tip only if the service is good. 15-20%. A bad waitress gets nothing. In fact, my husband and I were at a restaurant at a mall once and the waitress was lousy and rude. We paid the bill and left, and she CHASED US OUT INTO THE MALL AND ASKED US WHY WE DIDN’T TIP HER! We told her. I’m sure she’ll think twice before insulting a customer again!
I never know how much to tip the other service folks in my life. But I almost always tip too much, according to my husband, who thinks no one should ever be tipped at all. He’s of the mindset that the cheapskate employers should pay the employees’ salaries. I agree, but until our system changes, I will continue to tip.
Speaking of babysitters, I saw a thing in the news about Y2K sitters getting $100-$300 for the night. Makes me want to cancel my plans and find some kids to hang out with!
I leave a smaller tip to be sure they didn’t just think I forgot or was too stupid to know better. I’ve been known to leave a nickel or penny. When I said I tip less, I meant for service that isn’t up to snuff but isn’t so horrible that she was worthless either.
In any event, I knew I shouldn’t have put in that part about waitresses. I really am more interested in knowing about the garbage man/paper carrier/etc. for this time of year.
Whoops! Simulpost. Ok, thanks for answering the other part of my question. Sometimes I find myself on the same side as your husband. Other times, I think, more practically, “If I don’t tip the paper carrier, will it still be right at my doorstep every day?” In other words, I wonder about it more as a modest form of blackmail.
I always tip the hairdresser extra good so she won’t wreck my 'do the next time I go in. A woman with scissors and dye can ruin ya for months on end if you piss her off!
Waiters/waitresses are easy; it’s all the others that make life complicated. Hairdressers, bellboys (where they still have 'em), baggage handlers in airports (ditto), newspaperboys/girls, mailmen/personpersons, and so forth.
Even if I had somewhere where the rules were all written down (and I’ll bet there’s a Web page devoted to it; there’s one for practically everything else), I’d still have forgotten half the rules when I was in the situations they apply to. As a result, I have no idea whether I’m being a generous tipper or a skinflint.
This is what burns me about tipping: the point of having people serve us is to reduce our stress. But the confusion around tipping puts it right back in there. My $ .02: with the possible exception of restaurants, where we more or less know the rules, we should get rid of tipping. What we’re tipping for, most of the time, is the job itself, not for any extras. So the tip should be included, by implication, in the customer’s bill.
I tend to agree with RTF. I mean, I don’t get tipped for doing my job properly, why should the woman who delivers my newspaper? Nobody has ever said to me, “David, you wrote a great report. Here’s a sawbuck.” I’m expected to do my job properly, or I get in trouble. The same should, it seems to me, go for these other folks.
And www.tipping.org/tipping/tipping.html confirms his psychic abilities (.org yet!
Well I guess it is more of a public service than many other sites with the suffix)
I agree that the uncertainty (excepting restaurants) is a bummer. Like the guy who drives the minibus shuttle to the airport - am I supposed to tip this guy? I have no idea.
I tip in restaurants (obviously), at the barbor, and also I tip my piano tuner. I’m not sure the later is customary, but he goes way beyond the call of duty on a regular basis. He’ll spend 30 minutes hunting down some little problem he noticed and then not charge you a dime for it, or spend an hour on the phone with somebody who’s looking to buy a piano without asking to be payed for his time.
At a restaurant, I’m told to pay the 15 or 20% on the WHOLE bill including tax. I don’t see why one should tip on the tax portion. Also what is the proper tip for the taxi driver based on the fare?
Thanks, nebuli; I was just too tired to bother typing in one more search last night.
Having looked at the page, it’s reinforced my attitude: “why should I have to remember all this shit?” And some of those rates they give are ridiculous: $5 to a bellhop for taking 5 minutes to open and show you your room? ROFL. Am I going to tip the shampoo person as well as my hairstylist? Hell, no. And how do I leave a tip for my garbage collectors - tape an envelope to the top of the garbage can? Forget it.
My suspicion is that tips originated in an age when only the rich had to worry about such things, and this stuff was the sort of stuff you were simply supposed to know if you were rich. (Not having to work freed up the time for this nonsense.) After all, part of the old-fashioned obligation of being rich is knowing how to treat the hired help.
Most of us who find ourselves having to tip nowadays are not exactly living the life of leisure, with the time to pay attention to such minutiae. It’s time to throw off the yoke of this antiquated custom, IMO.
I really am more interested in knowing about the garbage man/paper carrier/etc. for this time of year.