Tipping in the service industry

[outtathereligioncloset]

My mother was ADAMANTLY against tipping waitresses. I was unaware of this until after she died and my father told me the many times and clever ways he managed to tip behind her back. She firmly believed that the restaurant should pay the staff like anywhere else and not tipping was her way of protesting the system, I guess.

I guess partly because of that, I grew up entirely unaware of whole categories that I should have been tipping. I was well into my thirties before I realized I needed to tip my hair stylist.

I am a good tipper since realizing. I never reduce a tip at a restaurant based on anything that's remotely beyond the control of the waitress. I tip in tip jars at the counter. I leave cash rather than credit cards because I know some places can be bad about not getting credit card tips to the waitresses. I even tip at the take out pizza and Chinese food counters, though not as much as if I'd sat there and been waited on.

I've never tipped my mailman anything but a plate of cookies and I've never tipped the people who pick up my garbage. The garbage pickup staff is surly and sloppy and tend to block my driveway in such a way that I have to stop and put the emptied can back in place before I can drive into the driveway.

To anyone thinking I might get better service from them if I did tip---they've been this way since day one. And I happen to know they are paid well. They especially irritate me by the fact that we are among the few who actually take our rolling can (which, yes, does belong to them) to the car wash in the stinky summer and hose out all the ants and stench and put it back in place. I keep a small band of yellow painter's tape around it to show it's "our" can. But despite that, and polite requests to please give us back the same can after emptying, they consistently shuffle it around with one or the other of the half dozen or so at my corner and I wind up with somebody else's nasty can while they get my nice clean one. We just LOVE getting the one with litter box crumbs on the bottom.