> waitstaff gets "extra" tips for working hard All tips are 'extra' that's the whole concept. It's money on top of what I am obliged to pay. > you get good se

> waitstaff gets "extra" tips for working hard All tips are 'extra' that's the whole concept. It's money on top of what I am obliged to pay. > you get good service with good management Good management would pay a good wage and negate the need for tipping. > I also simply just don't enjoy LARPing as a lord of my personal fiefdom. Low blow. You are implying that I am less than you because I have some kind of financial control over waitstaff that I enjoy. A rather bad faith position to be in given how pious and understanding you are striving to come across as. > most places pool tips So now you agree kitchen staff get tipped too > I tip the same if my service is shitty Good for you. I don't think many people operate like this, so I'd say you are an edge case. > it has zero to do with how hard they work, it's simply custom to tip waitstaff, even lazy waitstaff Again, this is how you operate. Wikipedia lays out the common perception of tipping "The customary amount of a tip can be a specific range of monetary amounts or a certain percentage of the bill based on the perceived quality of the service given." I've experienced living in the UK without tipping, and in N.America with tipping. All I can say is it's night and day. Very few make a career out of working as waitstaff in the UK, plenty of people have a career in the service industry in N.America. Working hard for large tips can give you a living wage. In the UK because everyone is treated the same, waitstaff do the minimum for the minimum wage (there are exceptions, of course) and then find a better job. Since I left the UK this has begun to change, it's now reasonably common to tip in nicer restaurants, and guess what? The service is better and the waitstaff I assume are happier with more money in their pockets for their effort.