4 ms·
This is why the rest of the world hates us in the tech industry. We get to sit in $1,000 chairs, which we easily justify, and in offices where catered food, mas
by jmccree 13y ago
This is why the rest of the world hates us in the tech industry. We get to sit in $1,000 chairs, which we easily justify, and in offices where catered food, massages, game rooms, etc are common. Yet you want to complain about the tip jar for an extra $1 that you've already made in the time you waited in line, for the ice cream scooper who has to stand on their feet for 8+ hours and may be lucky to get a bathroom break during lunch rush, and is going to make less all day than you make in an hour, all while they are just trying to mentally study for their econ 101 exam tomorrow.
It's totally the people making minimum wage working the counters who are happy for an extra $20 per day that have all the gall, not the tech industry folks making six figures complaining about spending a couple extra bucks per day on tips.
- doublerebel 13y agoYep, my tipping habits cost me maybe a few hundred extra dollars per year? But to the worker just that extra dollar or two might make their entire night. Considering the free-market slant of HN, these comments are remarkably obtuse. Let those who do not care to tip choose any of the countless options where tipping is not involved. The rest of us who tip will continue paying a bit more and getting a lot more in return. Tipping makes my life easier and more enjoyable, and continues giving returns, for a very small investment. Compared to the $1000s (millions?) thrown away on kickstarter-startup life-improvement possibilities, tipping should be an easy choice.
- walshemj 13y agoThe counter argument is you are enabling an abusive work environment by coluding with the employer to get away with paying thier emploees less.
- Camillo 13y agoWell, yes, once you accept that they are your inferiors you might even feel good about giving them a little charity. As a European, having to get into that frame of mind is probably the worst part about America's tipping culture.
- tjansen 13y agoI believe it is rather a European thing to think that providing service to others is demeaning, instead of just being thankful for the waiter's service.
- Camillo 13y agoIn Europe it's neither demeaning not something to be thankful about, it's just someone doing a job. It's tipping that makes it weird.
- humannature 13y ago"study for their econ 101 exam" this was their mistake in the first place. What job can you get w/ an econ degree? what companies need econ majors?
- sergiotapia 13y agoI don't live in the US, I live in a third world country. Instead of customers having to bear the weight and 'tip' - restaurants should pay people actual liveable wages.
- mpyne 13y ago> Instead of customers having to bear the weight and 'tip' - restaurants should pay people actual liveable wages. Third world or not, customers would have to bear that weight either way. Restaurants can't pay people 'actual liveable wages' without recouping those costs from the customers in the first place.
- nsxwolf 12y agoI worked food service in the early 90s. I remember a discussion coming up about a local eatery that started emulating Starbucks with the tip jar. We all found it incredibly rude. When you work behind a counter you don't get paid via the weird US minimum cash wage/tip model. You get a full wage (at least in my experience). The idea that a full wage worker should get tips as a matter of course is strange to me. I wonder how young the defenders of this practice here are. My upvotes indicate there are people who agree with me, but not many have said so in these replies. Try to look at it from the perspective of someone who grew up in a world where this wasn't normal. In the case of table side food servers, tips are not charity. They're a customary component of the wage - wether anyone likes this or not - and that's why the government carves out special exemptions and tax rules for that case.