Your thoughts on Tipping

[Puddy_Tat]

Does anyone give Christmas tips to postie, bin men, etc ?

must admit i don't - i don't often see either (i'm in a first floor flat and can't see the path to the door / where the bins get put) so wouldn't know if it was the regular ones / holiday relief or what.

think when i was a kitten in 1970s SE London suburbia that the postman, bin men, paper-boy would knock on the door 'to wish you a merry christmas' with the expectation of getting something. the milk-man would call on a friday anyway to settle up for the week.

(gender specific terms of the era used intentionally)

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

I had a paper round.
For which I earned 11 quid a week.
The Christmas box of giving cards out to all houses on my round would earn me about an extra 100 quid so was well worth putting the effort in.
My dad gave me advice though, he said the big houses would give you less. Because that’s how they get big houses. I have not found this to be untrue yet.

 

[hash tag]

Just wrong. Puts places on ignore and tipping in cash.

Gig economy firm under fire for telling restaurants they can avoid UK’s new tipping laws

Temper Works has promoted its gig workers to clients, saying they fall outside the legislation

www.theguardian.com

 

[newme]

If I want to, yes, that is not common tho. I find it odd where some jobs gets tips and some don't. I don't expect tips for mine, we haven't got the US system of fuck all money (well below min wage) with the expectation of tips. I've worked in pubs, restaurants, cafes and it was a bonus sure but not much and I didn't expect it to be. It makes no sense to tip for some things and not others. Give me the final price and I will decide if I want to pay it.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

If I want to, yes, that is not common tho. I find it odd where some jobs gets tips and some don't. I don't expect tips for mine, we haven't got the US system of fuck all money (well below min wage) with the expectation of tips. I've worked in pubs, restaurants, cafes and it was a bonus sure but not much and I didn't expect it to be. It makes no sense to tip for some things and not others. Give me the final price and I will decide if I want to pay it.

Although I find it helpful if a restaurant/cafe puts a suggested service charge on the bill, because it saves me from doing the sums.

I find it annoying, though, that in eg Pret sandwich shop iirc they had a suggested tip option on the card payment gadget, and I think I came across it in another shop recently. I mean, you're literally doing your job as a cashier, that's what you get paid for, ringing up my order, giving it to me, taking my money/card payment, it takes seconds. It's not like table service.

I think table service arguably deserves a tip, they might be looking after your table for half an hour in a cafe or a couple of hours in a restaurant, answering random queries about the menu and ingredients, tailoring orders (where possible), running around bringing water, condiments, more bread, a clean fork after you've dropped yours on the floor, oops! I think there is more of a service element with table service.

 

[newme]

Although I find it helpful if a restaurant/cafe puts a suggested service charge on the bill, because it saves me from doing the sums.

I find it annoying, though, that in eg Pret sandwich shop iirc they had a suggested tip option on the card payment gadget, and I think I came across it in another shop recently. I mean, you're literally doing your job as a cashier, that's what you get paid for, ringing up my order, giving it to me, taking my money/card payment, it takes seconds. It's not like table service.

I think table service arguably deserves a tip, they might be looking after your table for half an hour in a cafe or a couple of hours in a restaurant, answering random queries about the menu and ingredients, tailoring orders (where possible), running around bringing water, condiments, more bread, a clean fork after you've dropped yours on the floor, oops! I think there is more of a service element with table service.

I had one come up on a uk website when ordering a rubix cube.

Yes a waiting sit down meal is more work per person than say in mcdonalds. Since I've worked doing both.

Care work however is way more intense effort per person and no one expects a tip there. Think a lot of people think they should be paid considerably more certainly but it just seems odd that me serving a table attracted a tip. Whereas looking after someone's health doesn't and it would seem a bit odd if it did? Tipping a care worker could even get them in trouble in some if not all cases.

 

[furluxor]

I find it annoying, though, that in eg Pret sandwich shop iirc they had a suggested tip option on the card payment gadget, and I think I came across it in another shop recently. I mean, you're literally doing your job as a cashier, that's what you get paid for, ringing up my order, giving it to me, taking my money/card payment, it takes seconds. It's not like table service.

That annoys me as well. I already tip waiters, hairdressers, taxi drivers, food delivery drivers + often bartenders & grocery delivery drivers, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. Some of it is about special service, but some is just "this job is poorly paid". At the same time, the expectation that on top of paying customers should subsidize low wages, is infuriating.

My favourite situation is when I tip and the person steals from their employer to give me a good deal. It feels conspiratorial and just plain nice.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Just wrong. Puts places on ignore and tipping in cash.

Gig economy firm under fire for telling restaurants they can avoid UK’s new tipping laws

Temper Works has promoted its gig workers to clients, saying they fall outside the legislation

www.theguardian.com

Today in capitalism. What utter cunts.

 

[Chz]

It's the one thing that never caught on over here... Tips on the card machine, by %age or entered amount. Yes, it does exist, but I find it's quite rare. Which I find really odd, because when I moved from Canada 22 years ago, pretty much every card machine in a restaurant had a tipping option there. But then Canadians were always card-happy and cash was already on the way out.

Aside from restaurants, I always tip the barber. Always want to be on the good side of someone who stands behind you with sharp objects.

 

[stdP]

Pre-career I made ends meet with restaurant and bar work; the other half spent 20 years in hospitality (mostly hotels). We almost always tip; the work is hard, typically poorly paid, and highly prone to the really nasty side of human nature; for me, receiving a tip on a particularly bad week could make the difference in eating that day or not, or thinking that maybe people can be nice and all humans don't deserve to die in a fiery inferno just yet....

Tips are almost always in cash. Most of the places we frequent are little indie places where the staff get all the tips (usually in to a kitty to be shared with the back of house too); if I'm aware I'm at a place that takes a cut of the service charge (did this very recently become illegal in the UK?), I ask to have it taken off the bill and tip the staff directly (may be an arsey way to behave but I don't see the point in tipping at all if the offshore edifice behind most hospitality outlets is sucking the small change out of their worker's pockets). I've been told several times that the younglings behind the bar/restaurant door hate cash and don't know what to do with it; experience disagrees in that I've had plenty of personal thank-you's (as in not just a "ta, mate" on exchange, but other staff members come up afterwards and say thanks when they've heard some moolah went in the kitty) from whatever students are on shift that eve.

There are material benefits as well as the feeling you might have made someone's day a little better, as furluxor refers to above. Whilst as regulars we'd always been on good terms with the staff, one christmas I chucked a twenty in the bar kitty at our work local off the back of a round of about £100 and their "accidental" generosity ticked up significantly; their arm will slip and they'll accidentally pour a triple, or they'll be so flustered or distracted by background noise that they pour three G&T's instead of two ("didn't hear you, sorry! "). They'll take our order at the table whilst on a fag break and it'll magically appear regardless of how busy the place is. So SOP has become rounding up to the nearest fiver or tenner and them putting the change in the kitty.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Have booked an Easter break, the hotel has a spa that Frau Bahn likes the look of, the spa menu has this fucking gem...




Seeing as a facial is $220, maybe not...

 

[abe11825]

Round the holidays (Christmas, mostly), my mother leaves a gift card in the box for the postie (with his name on it, so if he has a sub, they don't nick it). She started giving him specific gift cards (like Dunkin Donuts for coffee - she asked him once about it), but went to a generic Visa card so he can do what he pleases with it. She doesn't put much on, but it's enough to sort him out for a few purchases if he chooses. He's a super nice guy and always giving her extra coupon mailers when he has them.

When I was in college, there used to be a taxi stand outside one of the train stops, which happened to be the stop nearest my school. School was about a 10 minute walk, up a steep hill, and there were times we didn't feel like walking (snow, rain, dead of night) and would hail one of the cabs. Since we knew it was a short drive, we'd always tip the driver like 20-25% because he wasn't making anything from us. But that stopped the day one of the drivers told us to "fuck off" because "it's not worth it". It was after 10pm, bitter cold, and no one else was around. We asked him "even if we gave you a generous tip?" and he said "hell no". My friends and I ended up walking back to campus and told everyone we knew to not use that brand of taxi anymore back to school.

It's weird to tip more than 15%, but in general it's hard to tip at all. Like others have stated, you just don't know where that money is going, but I think it's regardless of using cash or card. I think the federal wage for servers is under $5 an hour, but because they rely on tips, they can easily make $10+. I used to live next to a woman who worked at a chain restaurant. I would babysit her kid every week, and saw she had left a pay stub on the table. I feel bad for looking (I was working with the kid on his homework), but she was making $2 an hour on paper, but knew she was bringing in more than $100 a night because of tips. She was the most friendly, bubbly person you'd ever meet and was so gracious to everyone. She had a mean streak, but that didn't show its head often. I miss her (she passed before I moved to Florida).

Still - knowing what servers make an hour, it really comes down to service. If it's fast food and all a person is doing is giving you your food at a counter (McDonalds), then no, no tip. If you are sitting down at a restaurant (better dining than fast food but not elegant dining... more casual dining), then service and food get a percentage. I've not tipped a few times because service was crap for the place being empty and other issues. I've also over tipped because the staff was more than accommodating.

When I go get my hair cut (at a chain place), I tip 15% to the person who did my hair. Same with a different place I go to for eyebrow waxing. But.. because I use cash, sometimes it ends up being 20% due to not having the coins that make it 15. It's usually a win for them and me because the job well done.

I've read that spa type places expect 20% minimum, regardless of service. That's a hard pill to swallow if the service was poor or they didn't do a job as expected. I'd probably do 10-15% if it wasn't what I was looking for, but minimum 20? I would likely not be back.

 

[MickiQ]

It's the one thing that never caught on over here... Tips on the card machine, by %age or entered amount. Yes, it does exist, but I find it's quite rare. Which I find really odd, because when I moved from Canada 22 years ago, pretty much every card machine in a restaurant had a tipping option there. But then Canadians were always card-happy and cash was already on the way out.

Aside from restaurants, I always tip the barber. Always want to be on the good side of someone who stands behind you with sharp objects.

One of the few advantages of being bald is I don't have to worry about the last

 

[kabbes]

I went to a cafe this week whose card machine offered me only the choices of tipping 15%, 20% or 25%! You could also pick “other” to then type it in yourself, but who wants to start faffing with it while everyone is watching you? Cheeky bastards.

 

[abe11825]

The other challenge I'm finding with tipping is when you've got a store app on your phone (like Starbucks) and you pay via the app (because you've got money loaded on it) and it automatically asks you if you want to tip 15, 20 or choose your percentage. I want to know if that's included with the cash tip you might give them ("might"). Because they ask for it anyway in person.

 

[Dr. Furface]

It's the one thing that never caught on over here... Tips on the card machine, by %age or entered amount. Yes, it does exist, but I find it's quite rare. Which I find really odd, because when I moved from Canada 22 years ago, pretty much every card machine in a restaurant had a tipping option there. But then Canadians were always card-happy and cash was already on the way out.

Aside from restaurants, I always tip the barber. Always want to be on the good side of someone who stands behind you with sharp objects.

The first time I was presented with one of those machines that gives you a 15/20/25% tip option was at Toronto airport - and there was no get-out. Thankfully all I was buying was a beer, which already cost more than I’d ever paid anywhere else.