5 ms·
As a Western European, American tipping seems out of control and arbitrary. I tip the waiter but not the cook or the cleaner. I tip the cab driver but not the
by sigwinch28 3y ago
As a Western European, American tipping seems out of control and arbitrary.
I tip the waiter but not the cook or the cleaner. I tip the cab driver but not the bus driver or the train conductor. I tip a bell boy (maybe a maid too?) but not the front desk. Do I tip a barista but not a McDonald’s worker? Don’t tip the cashier at the big box store?
15%? 20%? Why should someone’s tip depend on the price of the bottle of wine that I had them open and pour, especially if it was equal effort for each bottle?
Absolutely bizarre to me.
I just booked a cruise with a Norwegian operator and this is their tipping policy:
> On board Hurtigruten Expedition Ships, it's not common practice or expected to tip. However, we have learned that many of our guests wish to give special thanks to our service crew on board. It is at the individual's discretion to honour the service provided by the crew in the bars, restaurants, cabins, and behind the scene.
> The money collected […] will then be divided equally among all crew members after the voyage, we ask not to tip individual crew members during the voyage to ensure the people behind the scenes also are included.
> Please Note: Officers and Expedition Team are not included in this breakdown.
- throwaway5959 3y agoI mean, you pretty much figured it out and explained it in a paragraph. It's not that hard.
- jrajav 3y agoThe point was that it's arbitrary, not hard.
- JellyBeanThief 3y agoIt absolutely is arbitrary. The idea is that, if you like the service more, you'll tip more, so service providers are incentivized to give you better service. But how it is that you like your service is completely up to you. You can tip more or less based on speed of service, accommodations of personal preferences, server's skin color, advice on which dishes and drinks are best, whatever you want.
- jfengel 3y agoYeah, it's weird and arbitrary. It wasn't always "out of control". There was a fairly well defined set of tipped employees. It was a legally recognized category -- they were usually paid almost entirely in tips. It was weird and arbitrary, but controlled. You just memorized the custom, like other mandatory social customs. Tipping got "out of control" during the pandemic, when we realized that a lot of face-to-face service employees were absolutely essential, and had to take their lives into their hands. People understood and wanted to do something. The existing tipping system was easily co-opted. It made sense, except that it steps right into the ugly "tipping is optional except that it's not" problem. Now that people aren't really risking their lives any more it should just fade out. That won't resolve the underlying weirdness, but it'll at least revert to the status quo ante.