Who am I tipping?

Stepherunie

When I worked in the states, tips were divided in our place according to how many hours you worked, which was fine until I realised that quite a number of staff were dipping into said tips and if they got bigger tips they would pocket it for themselves.

I came to the conclusion though that many people tipped, not because of the service, but as they hated carrying change. 7/10 when you gave people back change it went into the tip jar.


To be fair to the bosses though, they never dipped into it, and if they were handed a tip it would go into the pot, which they didn't take from.

cast_iron

axer wrote: »

Someone went in and changed it the other day.
Wonder who that was...:rolleyes:

Well whoever changed it, that's a pretty accurate description of the Irish tipping situation. Personally, I've never been in a restaurant with anyone who didn't tip at all.

Shelflife

My arguement with tipping is this, taking the low paid arguement then why dont people tip shop staff.
just because someone does their job properly shouldnt mean that we should be expected to add on another 10% on to the bill.

i personally think its a practise that snuck in from america.

if you take an average server waiting on say 10 tables with the average table bill being €100 then tips on average per night would be €100. which would be 500 per week tax free on top of their wage.

MOH

axer wrote: »

Someone went in and changed it the other day.
Wonder who that was...:rolleyes:

Heh, wasn't me, though oddly it had crossed my mind before I even read the link that someone could update it.

MrVestek

axer wrote: »

and it is not in Ireland either (except for a few idiots).

+1

Colonel Sanders

I've never been given a valid reason to tip in irish restaurants. I've had the following:

1. "Waiters etc earn earn crap money" (so do a lot of shop staff in the likes of spar etc, they don't tip them)
2. "You get personalised service" (a travel agent or insurance broker also gives you personalised service but they aren't tipped). Also i lived with a girl who worked in a cafe and said that 40% of all tips went to the others who didn't wait tables, hence you're tipping these people who haven't given you said personalised service.
3. "Everyone tips". WTF? If everyone jumped over a cliff would you do the same?

I remember being called stingy in one place coz I didn't leave a tip. i was out with the same person (work colleague) about 2 weeks before this and ate in a pub. We sat down, ordered and were served food the same as in any restaurant but paid at the till in the bar. No tips were left and no one felt guilty. Whats the difference? They got the same service they got in a restaurant yet didn't tip because the bill wasn't handed to them at the table.

I've forgotten a few others which i can't think of

Shelflife

youve hit the nail on the head there colonel saunders, i couldnt have put it better myself.

poolfan

always give the tip to the person serving you, or one one of the waiting staff. not management. where i work some people sign the bill to the room and also tip is signed to the room also, these tips go to a management account where some of it is divided up amongst employees and the rest is put aside for stuff like dishwashers and mangers having meals with clients. so we never see all of these tip. cash is always the safer option

Slice

If you're concerned about who your tip goes to you can always ask the waiter serving you if they receive the tip directly - I've done this lots of times before.

Generally speaking I would never pay a service charge unless it's stated on the menu beforehand. If it's added on at time of payment then I would choose to tip instead. This is also because a service charge liable to VAT. I would usually also ask the manager if a service charge stated on a menu goes to the staff and what portion. I wouldn't pay a gratuity / service charge by any other means other than in cash.

dudara

I never leave a tip by credit card. it's cash or nothing. I just don't trust thats tips left by credit card actually get to the staff.

Raiser

Climate Expert wrote: »

Do you give money to the man stacking the shelves in your supermarket?
Or send on money to the person who answered you in a call centre?

I tip a small bit 'cause I can afford to, I get well looked after as a regular and because I too have worked low paying jobs in the past.

- I pointedly don't tip ignorant staff or crap service ie. where its obvious the person themselves isn't arsed.

So what are you saving for - another Yacht, a gold-plated, ivory inlaid back-scratcher for that unused shelf in your weekend Jaguar ?

axer

Raiser wrote: »

I tip a small bit 'cause I can afford to, I get well looked after as a regular and because I too have worked low paying jobs in the past.

- I pointedly don't tip ignorant staff or crap service ie. where its obvious the person themselves isn't arsed.

So what are you saving for - another Yacht, a gold-plated, ivory inlaid back-scratcher for that unused shelf in your weekend Jaguar ?

Why not give that money to charity instead?

Raiser

axer wrote: »

Why not give that money to charity instead?

Who are you to assess this in accordance with your own odd, flawed criteria, then pass poor judgement and subsequently earmark portions of my personal finances for certain targets in keeping with your own stilted sense of justice?

- If some hard-working person works 9.5 hrs carrying, fetching, explaining, TOLERATING, restraining the urge to punch and generally suffering the public at large in order to make ends meet in some sweltering restaurant full of pretentious Axers who are devoid of any feeling of reciprocal decency while they study or perhaps simply strive to put food on the table for their kids or whatever - yeah, I'm happy to leave them an appropriate tip. Sorry, if you still don't get it I'm not going to give you this time again......

P.S. Are you confusing Charities with Restaurants/Waiting Staff? Or are they both just foremost in your mind generally as financial liabilities that might only serve to delay the delivery of your 5 series?

axer

Raiser wrote: »

Who are you to assess this in accordance with your own odd, flawed criteria, then pass poor judgement and subsequently earmark portions of my personal finances for certain targets in keeping with your own stilted sense of justice?

ah...hm...where am I passing judgement...or...ahhm...earmarking any of your money? I merely asked a question.

Raiser wrote: »

- If some hard-working person works 9.5 hrs carrying, fetching, explaining, TOLERATING, restraining the urge to punch and generally suffering the public at large in order to make ends meet in some sweltering restaurant full of pretentious Axers who are devoid of any feeling of reciprocal decency while they study or perhaps simply strive to put food on the table for their kids or whatever - yeah, I'm happy to leave them an appropriate tip. Sorry, if you still don't get it I'm not going to give you this time again......

How will you recognise this person who is

carrying, fetching, explaining, TOLERATING, restraining the urge to punch and generally suffering the public at large in order to make ends meet in some sweltering restaurant full of pretentious Axers who are devoid of any feeling of reciprocal decency while they study or perhaps simply strive to put food on the table for their kids.

Do you follow them for the day around work or maybe follow them home to assess their family needs or do you just take a look and see if they are in need of extra money or do you get them to fill out a questionaire or something? I am just trying to figure out how you know this person is suffering from the public and is restraining the urge to punch people? or that they are even striving to put food on the table for their kids? or do you ask them for a copy of their bank statements? or by any chance are you just assuming that they are in need of you extra money i.e. prejudging them without really knowing.

Does that only apply to restaurant workers or would you tip the follwing person aswell?
A supermarket worker who is

carrying, fetching, explaining, TOLERATING, restraining the urge to punch and generally suffering the public at large in order to make ends meet in some sweltering supermarket full of pretentious Axers who are devoid of any feeling of reciprocal decency while they study or perhaps simply strive to put food on the table for their kids

P.S. Are you confusing Charities with Restaurants/Waiting Staff?

No, do you generally treat people unequally? Are those who work in restaurants more worthy of your extra money than those who, for example, work in a supermarket? Did you perform or read an indept study into how much harder working in a restaurant is than other occupations? or find a source for the average wage for restaurant workers to conclude that they are more worthy of a tip than any other workers out there? or again, do you just think people are unequally worthy of your tips?

Or are they both just foremost in your mind generally as financial liabilities that might only serve to delay the delivery of your 5 series?

...Are you ok?

Raiser

Nonsense in volume Axer.

I think most people recognise that to tip some token amount is a decent and thoughtful thing to do.

If I ever can't afford to tip then I imagine I'll eat out a lot less and the massive quandaries you've wonderfully conjured up will cease to trouble me.

- Get out more, why not try and find things and people that interest you

axer

Raiser wrote: »

Nonsense in volume Axer.

Sure...don't answer any of the questions I posed to you even though I answered yours.

Raiser wrote: »

I think most people recognise that to tip some token amount is a decent and thoughtful thing to do.

My point (which seems to have flown over your head) is that you would tip whilst eating out because you think those working in the restaurant are going through such hardship (even though there is minimum wage in Ireland - @ €8.65 it is pretty high) but you would not tip the person stacking shelves in a supermarket etc even if they could be going through at least the same if not even more hardship. They experience the same problems and hardships that you listed for a restaurant worker as the reasons why you give them a tip. Care to explain why the restaurant workers are more deserving?

I am all for tips if they are given out equally to those who deserve it but this attitude that only restaurant workers deserve it for just doing their jobs and even though they are on at least minimum wage is ludicrous. It is asking for the prices in restaurants to increase.

Raiser wrote: »

If I ever can't afford to tip then I imagine I'll eat out a lot less and the massive quandaries you've wonderfully conjured up will cease to trouble me.

Good for you.

Colonel Sanders

axer wrote: »

My point (which seems to have flown over your head) is that you would tip whilst eating out because you think those working in the restaurant are going through such hardship (even though there is minimum wage in Ireland - @ €8.65 it is pretty high) but you would not tip the person stacking shelves in a supermarket etc even if they could be going through at least the same if not even more hardship. They experience the same problems and hardships that you listed for a restaurant worker as the reasons why you give them a tip. Care to explain why the restaurant workers are more deserving?

this is pretty much my stance on tipping too. By all means if someone goes 'above and beyond' but just automatically as it seems like the 'done thing'? Not a chance

As i said earlier in the thread no one has ever given me a satisfactory reason for tipping waiting staff and not other low paid workers.

taram

Why tip some token amount to people for no reason? I work my ass off and I don't get any tips. Don't even get commission. Frequently when I eat out I have no contact with the serving staff apart from 'I'd like blah blah' and when they give me my food. They're getting same wage as me, probably more, so I'm not giving them any tips. I get annoyed at 6 person + service charges, got this recently in Wagamama, came to 2.20 euro a person, and the person who'd organised the get together then wanted us to throw in 2 euro more each as a tip. Insane!

The only person I tip is the pizza delivery people, 9/10 they offer to help me carry my order up the steps to my house (30 odd steps) often getting drenched in the rain. That is beyond the call of duty, not just doing their job.

Raiser

axer wrote: »

Sure...don't answer any of the questions I posed to you even though I answered yours.

Nor would I have engaged in protracted discussions with you should your topic have, for example, been on the merits of inserting crayons in ones orifices; and for precisely the same reasons.

Colonel Sanders wrote:

this is pretty much my stance on tipping too. By all means if someone goes 'above and beyond' but just automatically as it seems like the 'done thing'? Not a chance

I would never, ever tip for poor service, some restaurant staff are really bad and its sometimes nice to leave the cnuts 2c on the table and walk......

Anyway folks - if ye don't want to tip then don't.
If ye don't want to let other drivers into a flow a traffic don't.
If ye don't want to help someone across the road then you simply don't have to.

An illustration of Modern Irish Apathy:

- I drop two children into a city centre Crèche each morning where the only parking is on the opposite side of the Street with no traffic lights or pedestrian crossing.

Now the traffic is quite slow-moving, but the amount of people who car after car after car [X~30] will happily leave you stand in the wind and rain with an infant in one arm, 3/4 bags in the other and a two year old at your side while all the time avoiding eye-contact is breath taking.

- But then they don't have to do the right thing either.

P.S. Our foreign visitors will almost without exception stop immediately and let you cross safely with a smile and a wave..........

Colonel Sanders

Raiser wrote: »

I would never, ever tip for poor service, some restaurant staff are really bad and its sometimes nice to leave the cnuts 2c on the table and walk......

I would never ever tip for decent service, that their job and what their employer pays them for. I will only tip if I get exceptional service

axer

Raiser wrote: »

Nor would I have engaged in protracted discussions with you should your topic have, for example, been on the merits of inserting crayons in ones orifices; and for precisely the same reasons.

I would never, ever tip for poor service, some restaurant staff are really bad and its sometimes nice to leave the cnuts 2c on the table and walk......

Anyway folks - if ye don't want to tip then don't.
If ye don't want to let other drivers into a flow a traffic don't.
If ye don't want to help someone across the road then you simply don't have to.

An illustration of Modern Irish Apathy:

- I drop two children into a city centre Crèche each morning where the only parking is on the opposite side of the Street with no traffic lights or pedestrian crossing.

Now the traffic is quite slow-moving, but the amount of people who car after car after car [X~30] will happily leave you stand in the wind and rain with an infant in one arm, 3/4 bags in the other and a two year old at your side while all the time avoiding eye-contact is breath taking.

- But then they don't have to do the right thing either.

P.S. Our foreign visitors will almost without exception stop immediately and let you cross safely with a smile and a wave..........

So basically you are trying to say that those that do not tip are not good people or are not considerate. That is just stupid. I would think that those who think that restaurant workers are more deserving of a tip than other professions are the ones not being considerate.

I agree with Colonel Sanders on this, you should at least expect decent/normal service for what you are paying. Anything above normal service that is wanted deserves a tip but normal service alone does not. This applies to all occupations - not just restaurant workers. It is no wonder that this country is so expensive the way people want to pay over the normal price for normal service - that tells the restaurant owners etc that they are just not charging enough.

taram

There's a big difference between being a kind, decent human being, and tipping for service. I try my best to be a good person, but not tipping makes me an @sshole apparently? Really doubt this. Maybe when I'm earning even cents more than someone in a resturant and have gotten great service I'll tip, right now I can barely afford to eat out never mind give away money to people who are earning the same, or higher wage and doing a medicore job of it.