A tip is supposed to be a little extra bit of money, often given to reward good service,
but nowadays in some industries in the U.S., such as restaurants in particular, tipping
has stopped being a little something extra and instead it has become the customer actually
paying most if not all of the employee's earnings.
So is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Hey everyone, Dana here!
And I think tipping is good. And bad. Hmmm, okay wait, let me start over.
When I lived in the U.S. I did work as a server for a little while.
And let me just start by saying that I'm very sorry to anyone out there who had to
have me as their server, I was not cut out for that job and it wasn't one that I enjoyed at all.
But I did like the idea -- in fact I loved the idea that what I earned each day or evening
was based on my performance, and perhaps a little bit of luck as to who I got as customers.
I would go into each shift feeling like the sky was the limit for how much money I could make.
If I could just smile and really hustle and get to as many tables as possible without
spilling or dropping anything, who knows how much I could earn.
Maybe there would be someone really generous who would come in that evening and they would
leave me a huge tip that I was probably not so deserving of because I had probably forgotten
their drink or messed up their salad -- like I said, not a good server -- but sometimes
people were just super generous.
Sometimes customers just out of their kind hearts left me a very nice tip.
But sometimes they didn't.
I was left just thirteen cents one time, and, oh boy, was that a sad moment.
I had worked and worked and worked, so hard.
I was really trying my best.
And then I got just thirteen cents because the customer decided that I didn't deserve
to earn anything more than that.
The customer made that decision, that I didn't deserve to earn my wage for the work that
I had done.
Which when you think about it, is actually a pretty strange thing.
That doesn't happen at the movie theater.
The customers at movie theaters don't get to decide how much the person who sold them
the ticket should make that evening based on how much they smiled or how many mistakes
they did or didn't make.
Or what kind of a mood the customer is in that day.
No, that is between the employee and the employer to work out.
Not the customer.
But well, I mean, whatever, this is just how it's done at restaurants everywhere around
the world, right?
Wrong.
And I had no idea before leaving the U.S. for the first time, but no.
It is not the case everywhere in the world that the customers at restaurants are expected
to pay most or even any of the server's wage at all.
Here in Germany it is customary for a little tip to be left, usually I would say around
ten percent, but here this is a tip in the actual sense of the word, a little something
extra on top of what the server is earning.
But, for example, in Sweden from my experience, that's not the case.
We went to Sweden a few years ago and tried to leave a tip at the restaurant, but they
expressly said no, they would not take the tip.
They said that they had just been doing their job.
They wouldn't take it.
Even though out server had actually gone, as far as I'm concerned, above and beyond
her job that day.
The restaurant that we had gone to had just recently gotten a new menu and hadn't yet
had the chance to translate it into English, so it was only in Swedish.
So our server stood there and read through the whole menu to us, translating it into
English for us.
And still she would not accept a tip.
She said no, it's just, that's part of my job.
I've also heard that there's no tipping in restaurants in Japan too.
I don't know first hand, but that's what I've heard.
Okay, fine, but still this is how it's always been done in the U.S., so just leave it be.
Nope! Wrong again.
And first of all here, even if something had always been done a certain way somewhere,
why in the world would that be a good reason to keep doing it?
Just because something has "always been done a certain way," if we realize that now it's
not actually a good way of doing things, or maybe it was a good way of doing things at
one point, but now it's not anymore, then it should be changed, regardless of how long
it's been done that way. Right?
But anyway, no, it hasn't always been done like this in the U.S.
According to several articles that I read, which I will link to down below, America actually
got their tipping practices from Europe in the latter half of the 1800s.
And actually, at first, when tipping was first introduced from Europe into the USA,
a lot of people in the U.S. did not like it.
Being able to buy better service was actually considered anti-democratic at first in the U.S.
But, obviously, over time that changed.
Whereas in Europe some of the countries from whom the U.S. had actually first gotten the
idea of tipping, had, by the middle of the 1950s started scaling back their tipping,
either with mandatory service charges on the bill or mandatory wage minimums for the employees.
Which brings us to where we are today.
So is tipping like this in the USA bad?
Well, as someone who has worked as a server in the U.S., and as someone who has experienced
basically mandatory tipping in the USA, a little tipping in Germany, and from my experience
no tipping in Sweden, I have to say that I personally prefer the whole no tipping thing.
As a server in the U.S., yes, it was kind of exciting to think that the harder I worked
the more money I could make.
But for one, that made it all the more devastating when I didn't get a good tip, or any tip
at all, especially if I had done everything "right" and to the best of my abilities.
Just because the person eating forgot or didn't feel like tipping or whatever, just because
of that I didn't get paid for my work?
Come on, like I said, that doesn't happen in other jobs.
Sometimes at restaurants in the U.S. people don't like the food they ordered and then
because of that they don't tip the server.
Going back to the movie theater example, it's like, you can't go out and see a movie and then
if you don't like it, well sorry the person who sold you the ticket doesn't get paid that night.
But also, because of the tipping system in the U.S., when I was a server everything,
and I mean everything about my evening, became solely focused on making as much money as possible.
Because like I said I knew the sky was the limit.
So I focused so razor sharply on that bottom line that it really felt like any other measurement
of success, like enjoying the evening or making a fun connection with other people just disappeared.
Later when I worked as a hostess in a restaurant, where my earnings were the same no matter
what, I got paid per hour by the restaurant, I felt like I was finally able to enjoy my
job and enjoy the evening.
And for a while, yeah, I did think, like, well but the tipping system in the U.S. incentivizes
better service at restaurants, doesn't it.
But then I realized that actually makes no sense.
If I didn't give good customer service at the restaurant that I worked at as a server, yeah
I guess I wouldn't have gotten good tips, but I also probably would have been fired
for not doing my job because giving good customer service is a part of the job of being a server
in the U.S. Customer service is important in America, and I get good customer service
in the U.S. in places where there's no tipping at all, like at the grocery store.
Or when I worked as a hostess at the restaurant, I wasn't getting any tips, but I still gave
great customer service because that was a part of the job.
And actually I felt like I was able to give better customer service as a hostess because
I didn't have to worry about those tips.
And lastly, as a customer going out to eat, I personally would much rather just have a
set service fee that I need to pay, automatically added to my bill or, you know, just have the
server's payment included in the price of what I'm buying, just like at other places,
like at the movie theater or the bowling alley.
The cost of paying the employees is just added into the price that I have to pay when I go
do that activity.
This system seems to work just fine at other places. Why not at restaurants?
But that's just me.
So my question for you is: Do you think that tipping like this is good or bad?
Would you prefer to live in a world without tipping?
Please let me know in the comments below.
Thank you so much for watching.
I really hope that you enjoyed this video.
If you enjoy these videos, please don't forget to subscribe and hit that like button.
And also a really, really, really, really, really, really big thank you so much to our patrons
on Patreon who help make these videos possible.
Thank you so much for your support.
If you would like to check out our Patreon page, you can find a link to that down in
the description box below.
Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
Which brings us to where we are today.
I'm hungry!
Then it should be changed, regardless of how long it's been done that way. Right?
Like we can learn from the past and change the way of doing something.
Yes?
That's the wonderful thing about humans. I think?
Until next time...I'm waving way too soon! Auf Wiedersehen! Okay, I'm done!
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