There was this one time, my Australian friend told me he finally gets tipping. Tipping is not the custom in Austrailia, yet having visited the US and travelled

There was this one time, my Australian friend told me he finally gets tipping. Tipping is not the custom in Austrailia, yet having visited the US and travelled around the world for years, tipping mystified him. He told me he finally got it when he used tipping to establish better service for future interactions. Unpacking it, it’s really about the relationship. What makes those tip fields feel like an imposition and a violation of social customs is because it shifts this from developing a personal connection with a service provider into something transactional. I’d say that, if you feel it is like emotional blackmail, it probably is — the business is exploiting both worker and customer. If you feel that personal connection and sense of community, then tipping is a way of helping support the well-being of someone in the community.