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Living in a country where tipping is not a big part of the culture, I must admit I've always found it one of the stranger customs in the USA. I found the serie

Living in a country where tipping is not a big part of the culture, I must admit I've always found it one of the stranger customs in the USA. I found the series of articles, "Observations From A Tipless Restaurant" was a really interesting analysis. http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-restaurant-part-1-overview/ http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-...

oarsinsync 10y ago
> 3) The Linkery’s most transgressive act was not in implementing a service charge. Our most transgressive act was refusing to allow our guests to pay our servers anything more beyond the service charge — this is where the angry came out. A certain small number of very vocal men (and it was always men who were vocal about it) resented that we were not letting them try to exercise additional control over our team members. This was true even though compelling research has shown that servers do not adjust quality of service as a result of tips; instead the idea that the restaurant was not offering our servers up as objects of control, was heresy. For these people, the primary service they wanted from the restaurant was the opportunity to pay for favors from the server — much like the patron at a strip club pays the club for the opportunity to dangle bills in front a dancer for individual attention. The idea that a restaurant could legitimately want to be in a different business than a strip club, was not an idea these guests could countenance. Thus, I was ever subject to witty takedowns like you are a douche, along with other well-thought-out gems. That's a very interesting take. Good article, thanks for sharing!
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  This is the real reason I suspect. I worked in restaurants for 8 years as a cook. One place I worked had an admittedly attractive 19 year old waitress on staff. Lines formed in front of her to give her a tip. All these 40+ year old drunks (it was a dive bar) lined up to speak with her for a few moments than hand her a few dollars. She didn't even provide them with anything, they just seemed to revel in the idea that they get to hand this woman a few dollars. Very odd.
- gunshigh 10y ago
  The author makes a huge leap by making assumptions about intention. Some men may have wanted to give tips because they didn't trust management. Others may have done so because tipping is a social norm. And yet others may have not wanted to tip, but objected vocally so that they didn't appear stingy.
  - oarsinsync 10y ago
    Sure, meanwhile in part 4 he makes another leap making assumptions about server intention: > Our sense was that our weak team members looked at their tips — which of course were close to normal since most people don’t adjust their tips much for bad service — and concluded that, in spite of what we were suggesting, they were already doing sufficiently good work. If I’m good enough to make my tips, it’s obvious that I don’t need to improve. Which from the business perspective, is a real problem. Or to break it down without the assumption of motivation > Because tipping correlates weakly to service quality, and because individual tips are always subject to interpretation, tipping removes the incentive for poor performing servers to improve. EDIT: or read part 5 if you want some explanation behind the leap in intention. It helps to read the complete articles! :)

oarsinsync 10y ago

> 3) The Linkery’s most transgressive act was not in implementing a service charge. Our most transgressive act was refusing to allow our guests to pay our servers anything more beyond the service charge — this is where the angry came out. A certain small number of very vocal men (and it was always men who were vocal about it) resented that we were not letting them try to exercise additional control over our team members. This was true even though compelling research has shown that servers do not adjust quality of service as a result of tips; instead the idea that the restaurant was not offering our servers up as objects of control, was heresy. For these people, the primary service they wanted from the restaurant was the opportunity to pay for favors from the server — much like the patron at a strip club pays the club for the opportunity to dangle bills in front a dancer for individual attention. The idea that a restaurant could legitimately want to be in a different business than a strip club, was not an idea these guests could countenance. Thus, I was ever subject to witty takedowns like you are a douche, along with other well-thought-out gems. That's a very interesting take. Good article, thanks for sharing!

cmdrfred 10y ago
This is the real reason I suspect. I worked in restaurants for 8 years as a cook. One place I worked had an admittedly attractive 19 year old waitress on staff. Lines formed in front of her to give her a tip. All these 40+ year old drunks (it was a dive bar) lined up to speak with her for a few moments than hand her a few dollars. She didn't even provide them with anything, they just seemed to revel in the idea that they get to hand this woman a few dollars. Very odd.
gunshigh 10y ago
The author makes a huge leap by making assumptions about intention. Some men may have wanted to give tips because they didn't trust management. Others may have done so because tipping is a social norm. And yet others may have not wanted to tip, but objected vocally so that they didn't appear stingy.
- oarsinsync 10y ago
  Sure, meanwhile in part 4 he makes another leap making assumptions about server intention: > Our sense was that our weak team members looked at their tips — which of course were close to normal since most people don’t adjust their tips much for bad service — and concluded that, in spite of what we were suggesting, they were already doing sufficiently good work. If I’m good enough to make my tips, it’s obvious that I don’t need to improve. Which from the business perspective, is a real problem. Or to break it down without the assumption of motivation > Because tipping correlates weakly to service quality, and because individual tips are always subject to interpretation, tipping removes the incentive for poor performing servers to improve. EDIT: or read part 5 if you want some explanation behind the leap in intention. It helps to read the complete articles! :)