Here's how I have always seen it. I'd be embarrassed to offer a waiter in a restaurant a tip. I have been embarrassed, when out at a restaurant with foreigners and they start tipping the waiters. It just makes me cringe, because of how it must feel to the worker, to have people essentially assume that they need the charity of the customers to get by.
And now I hear that you do this to cleaners and clerks and God know who else! You make me sick to my stomach. Of course they don't get paid a decent wage if this is what goes on, the employers know they don't have to pay a decent wage while this sort of social custom prevails.
I'm curious about one minor detail though. My son used to work at McDonalds (years ago) and he told me that it was their strict policy that staff were not permitted to accept tips. It did happen every so often he told me, that some greasy foreigner would come that caper with the staff, though not very often. But what is the policy in the USA? The same? Or do they conform with local customs and rely on tipping so they can under-pay their staff?
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas
On 20/11/2013, at 8:47 AM, michael yates <mikedjyates at msn.com> wrote:
> My sons are restaurant workers, all in the back of the house. They always leave large tips. They don't do this because they expect great service or to assert control, but because they know that the work is hard and generally not so well paid. They chastise me if they think my tip is too small.
>
> We don't eat in restaurants much, so our tipping occurs in other places. Mainly in motels. I always leave a tip for the cleaning person. Sometimes if they haven't done it for a couple of days, I ask that they vacuum the carpet or change the sheets. I often tip the front desk clerk. I did this work once, and the abuse I took was memorable. The clerks love to get a tip, because they so seldom do. I might ask for a favor (like trying to keep an adjoining room empty if we are staying for a long time), but I do this before giving any tip. Then one day we'll be talking about something, probably their work, and I'll give the clerk ten or twenty dollars and thank him or her for being friendly and helpful. For the cleaning people, I talk to them all the time, practicing my motel Spanish and asking about their work and lives. Most love to talk and appreciate that I know the word for bath mat (tapete). At some point, we give one of the women twenty dollars or so, and ask her to split !
> it with her partner. At Christmas, I often give a cleaning person money for her kids. She may or may not have cleaned our room. We've given workers coats, food, shoes, and many other things, in addition to money. We recently gave a man money to help him and his wife travel to their homeland to see the kids they had to leave there.
>
> It would be better if workers were organized and made good wages and benefits. But they aren't and don't. So we give them money when we can. They need it a lot more than we do. Plus we move on, and they stay, doing shit work, making little money, and taking heaps of abuse. It's heartbreaking really. Any time poor working people revolt, we smile and cheer them on.
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