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Tipping is something completely different. I have come to believe that in America tipping is to recognize acceptable service. It is a feedback mechanism to weed

Tipping is something completely different. I have come to believe that in America tipping is to recognize acceptable service. It is a feedback mechanism to weed out, to mark and penalize undesirable behaviors. The best people to make that determination are the customers themselves. The only time you should not tip is when the service is bad. Do understand that if we did not tip the prices would simply rise, we would still pay the same as with tipping, but it would take away a mechanism by which you can make ourselves heard.

ilkan 7y ago
Imagine if every coder was paid below minimum wage and depended on tips in every paycheck... it assumes a default that the employee needs a daily threat of punishment from moody strangers to do acceptable work. Not a fun environment.
- glofish 7y ago
  it is not a good analogy, you can't immediately tell that a piece of code is good or bad. If you could tell that in 10 minutes, if you could separate a good coder from bad just like that, tipping would improve coding as well. Tipping is not about moody strangers, the vast majority of people eating at restaurants are normal people with normal, predictable and reasonably benevolent behaviors. People will tip if the service is at least average. Won't tip when the service or food is bad. What better way is there to tell how your business is doing? As many others in this thread pointed out, both waiters and customers like tipping. The minority that hates it has various misconceptions about both how it works, what it does to salaries etc read a few very salient replies in this thread.
Gibbon1 7y ago
What I find interesting about these discussions is the servers side is unrepresented as if it's unimportant. I've come around to the idea that the majority of servers like tipping. And most patrons also like tipping. But there is a minority that finds the arrangement somehow transgressive to how they perceive the power structure. The server is supposed to be at the bottom of the totem pole and yet here they are expecting me to hand them some money.
grok2 7y ago
I don't know -- if service at a place is bad, you just end up not going there eventually -- you still can be heard without having tipping as a mechanism to do it. I don't mind that the price is higher and everyone gets a proper wage without having to worry about the variability of tipping.
stronglikedan 7y ago
> The best people to make that determination are the customers themselves. The only time you should not tip is when the service is bad. IME, many servers don't seem to think they got stiffed for poor service, but instead blame the customer for being cheap. That's why I always leave something, but at a percentage relative to the service. It's probably the same outcome in the servers' minds, but at least I know I tried to convince them otherwise.
luckydata 7y ago
if you believe in fairy tales that's the way it works. If you believe in evidence, then... https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=articles https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti...

ilkan 7y ago

Imagine if every coder was paid below minimum wage and depended on tips in every paycheck... it assumes a default that the employee needs a daily threat of punishment from moody strangers to do acceptable work. Not a fun environment.

glofish 7y ago
it is not a good analogy, you can't immediately tell that a piece of code is good or bad. If you could tell that in 10 minutes, if you could separate a good coder from bad just like that, tipping would improve coding as well. Tipping is not about moody strangers, the vast majority of people eating at restaurants are normal people with normal, predictable and reasonably benevolent behaviors. People will tip if the service is at least average. Won't tip when the service or food is bad. What better way is there to tell how your business is doing? As many others in this thread pointed out, both waiters and customers like tipping. The minority that hates it has various misconceptions about both how it works, what it does to salaries etc read a few very salient replies in this thread.

Gibbon1 7y ago

What I find interesting about these discussions is the servers side is unrepresented as if it's unimportant. I've come around to the idea that the majority of servers like tipping. And most patrons also like tipping. But there is a minority that finds the arrangement somehow transgressive to how they perceive the power structure. The server is supposed to be at the bottom of the totem pole and yet here they are expecting me to hand them some money.

grok2 7y ago

I don't know -- if service at a place is bad, you just end up not going there eventually -- you still can be heard without having tipping as a mechanism to do it. I don't mind that the price is higher and everyone gets a proper wage without having to worry about the variability of tipping.

stronglikedan 7y ago

> The best people to make that determination are the customers themselves. The only time you should not tip is when the service is bad. IME, many servers don't seem to think they got stiffed for poor service, but instead blame the customer for being cheap. That's why I always leave something, but at a percentage relative to the service. It's probably the same outcome in the servers' minds, but at least I know I tried to convince them otherwise.

luckydata 7y ago

if you believe in fairy tales that's the way it works. If you believe in evidence, then... https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=articles https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti...