dear God when will it end?

[PokerFink]

Where do we stand on tipping caterers?

A) If you hired them?
B) If you're a guest, but the waiter goes out of his way to serve you?

Just curious,
Fink

[GuyOnTilt]

[ QUOTE ]
Where do we stand on tipping caterers?

A) If you hired them?
B) If you're a guest, but the waiter goes out of his way to serve you?

Just curious,
Fink

[/ QUOTE ]
The same way all tipping should be handled: it's completely up to you. There are no right or wrong occupations or serivces to tip. If you appreciate something they're doing for you to the point where you want to show them monetarily above their normal pay, then tip them.

I have a busted back window on my auto due to a break in and had to call in and schedule for it to be done today at a shop in conjunction with the insurance. I absolutely have to have it done by tomorrow morning and because of something with the glue that needs to sit for several hours, I had to call around to four different places before I found a guy who reluctantly agreed to help me out instead of closing up shop early for the Christmas weekend as he had planned. I plan on tipping him well, which isn't the "correct" play for this industry, but who cares?

"We"? Screw society's rules; it's your money to tip, not theirs. Tipping "rules" are dumb. Tip for things YOU care about, and tip generously for those things.

GoT

On of my cute female friends works at an independent starbucks-type coffee shop. She says she can make up to 40 bucks in tips per night on top of her wages.

Gunny,

You keep talking in circles. You say they shouldnt beg for it. I say they're not, people want to give it. You say, hey, they shouldnt beg for it. If you don't want to tip, no one's saying you have to tip a barista. Or a bartender. Or even a waitress - though, that would make you an ass.

But if you were working a $7/hr job, I don't think you'd be looking down on an extra 20%, simply by putting a cup on a counter. Maybe you would. Maybe your morals are just that strong, and your view of it as begging is just that solid. At least you're consistent.

But I don't think you'd turn it down. Its easy to look down on it, and call it begging, from afar. I don't even think twice about it, and neither do 95% of our customers. The rest - like you - probably don't go to Starbucks enough to matter. Who wants $5 coffee anyway, right?

yasher

[Gunny Highway]

No. You're the one talking in circles. When a bum puts a tin can out, is he begging?

A waiter or bertender doesn't have to put out a tip cup because tipping is a normal part of his job and people know that and will tip him because it's appropriate to do so. Tipping counter help is not normal so they have to beg people to do it by sticking a little cup on the counter.

By the way, I have no idea what a barista is.

[Meech]

I wonder if you conducted a survey, how many people tip for the sheer enjoyment of tipping -vs- the pressure they felt to tip.

Personally, I think it's silly to see tip jars at starbucks & subway. Using GoT's logic, perhaps they should put a tip jar in the crapper since my morning dump is one of the more enjoyable parts of my day.

[ QUOTE ]
When a bum puts a tin can out, is he begging?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure.

When a street musician opens his guitar case, is he begging?

[ QUOTE ]
A waiter or bertender doesn't have to put out a tip cup because tipping is a normal part of his job and people know that and will tip him because it's appropriate to do so.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you think it began as part of the job? You tip bartenders so they give you better/stronger drinks - or, so they don't give you crappy drinks - depending on where you are. You tip waitresses because society has deemed it okay to pay them horrible wages, because, hey, people tip now. So, now you're falling back onto a very basic and inane premise. Society says I should tip X, so I tip X, but it says I shouldn't tip Y, so I don't tip Y. As has been said many, many times before, you should tip whom you want to tip - not whom society tells you to tip. Is that so difficult to grasp? If you're tipping a waitress because society says so, and not because you want to, you're much more of an idiot than I ever made you for. I'll be honest - I tip my change at places because I don't like to carry it around, and I tip an extra dollar to counter help if they're nice, polite, decent people. Because nice, polite, decent is not the standard in the industry. Its above and beyond.

[ QUOTE ]
Tipping counter help is not normal so they have to beg people to do it by sticking a little cup on the counter.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tipping counter help is becoming more and more normal, my shortsighted friend. How is not a "normal" thing if you see the tip cups at more places than you don't see em? Burger King, McDonalds, and the like - I believe - have rules preventing those tip jars. Starbucks doesn't, and even encourages it. The tip jars are the stores I've worked in - and 90% of the stores I've been in - are very bland, small, plastic, unmarked things. They strike me as being the least intimidating, most unobtrusive way to encourage tipping. If you equate "encouraging" tipping with begging, then I don't know where else this conversation can go. I don't really like the huge, in your face, HEY TIP ME jars with big signs that say TIPS on them. But that's bias.

Oh, the barista is the dude behind the counter making your drink, exactly the way you want it, everytime you order it.

I think GoT hit the nail squarely on the head.

[ QUOTE ]
Just because you don't care and personally would never find this service tip-worthy does not mean nobody else does. Having the cup out does not necessarily equal begging or intrusive or entitlement or whatever.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why would I want to deny people the ability to tip me? Even if it means slightly suggesting it? There's certainly a line that's drawn... I don't ever suggest people tip, I don't expect tips, and I don't find ways to nudge the tip jar or whatever... that's just debasing yourself. But the act of putting the tip jar on the counter doesn't constitute begging, in my world. The choice to not put it out is a choice that cuts my coworkers salaries by 20%. Easy choice.

yasher

[StacysMom]

My first job in HS was at tacobell. I got one tip in 6 months and I had no idea if I was even allowed to accept it.