Tipping Culture
This is not about leaning.
First of all, let me say that I’m pro-tipping. I tip 20-25% because, frankly, most service workers are screwed by their employers, even more so in states that allow them to screw them even more. (In California the minimum-wage laws apply to everyone; in some states “tipped workers” get shafted and their cash wage is less than $4 an hour. Honestly, fuck those states. Here’s a list of states and how they screw their tipped workers.) (In California they screw their employees in a different way by switching up schedules, not giving enough hours to get benefits, etc.)
What’s bugging me of late is places that ask me to tip before I’ve even received service or a product.
I recently went into a bagel place with my daughter and we ordered 3 bagels. My daughter ordered a plain bagel with lox schmear, red onion, and capers. Her partner ordered a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich on a jalapeño cheese bagel. I ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a jalapeño cheese bagel. On ordering I had to pay and tip. So I tipped somewhere between 20% and 25%.
Then we waited a long time to get our order.
When we got our order it was a plain bagel with lox schmear, red onions, and capers; a jalapeño cheese bagel with sausage, egg, and cheese; and a jalapeño cheese bagel with avocado, arugula, prosciutto, and Sriracha.
The attentive reader will notice that this is not what we ordered. 2/3 of them are what we ordered, but the final third was about as far away as you could get from the order, but they did get the bagel right. As a bonus it included an item I abhor — avocado. So let’s give them a C- for overall delivery. They confirmed that this is what I ordered. This is not what he read back to me when I ordered. But I didn’t want to wait another 20+ minutes to get my bagel right, so I took it, flicked the avocado off, and ate it. All in all a pretty awful experience.
I really wanted to get a refund of my tip. A tip is a reward for good service. This was not good service. This was slow and incorrect. They were very busy, accounting for the slowness, but the horrifically incorrect was inexcusable. I spoke clearly; he read it back to me. I’m assuming that he then punched it into the computer wrong and didn’t notice. Honestly, I don’t care what happened. What I do care about is that I rewarded them all, in advance, for bad work.
I guess the solution for this is to pay the exact amount and then go back up to tip if you’ve gotten good service. I’m honestly not sure if the new pay-point systems could even handle that. Or carry cash and use the cash to tip after you’ve received good service.
By the way, if you’re in one of the aforementioned states where they screw their employees with a $2.13/hour wage always tip heavily and in cash so that the employer doesn’t know the amount, because I’m sure they’ll use that as a way to screw the employee over even more.