tipping

yeah but it's been made clear that tipping is not about giving money in proportion to work done, it's about giving money to compensate for fucked up wage laws. do you tip your airplane pilot?

― br8080 (dayo), Friday, April 29, 2011 12:19 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

this is not an either/or proposition. it's primarily to compensate for fucked up wage laws and partially to reward for extra work well done--this is why there's a social 'standard' of 15%--to compensate for wage laws--while plenty of people tip more to reward a job well done.

*tips you 5% for that post*

do you tip your library circ counter worker when they track down a particularly hard volume to find for you

do you tip your subway sandwich artist

ill tip fast food workers sure

dudes have p much the worst jobs in the service industry so

do you tip your library circ counter worker when they track down a particularly hard volume to find for you

― br8080 (dayo), Friday, April 29, 2011 6:30 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no, because they're volunteering--first part of the two part compact doesn't apply.

do you tip your subway sandwich artist

― br8080 (dayo), Friday, April 29, 2011 6:31 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

have you noticed they have a tip jar? and yeah i have used it

library workers are volunteers???

where do you draw the line

THIS IS MADNESS, MAN

MADNESS

I don't think library employees are necessarily going to be volunteers. Maybe in small towns?

it 100% depends on the library/library system; my mom's library used to turn away volunteers because a short-lived experiment with using them showed they couldn't grasp the concept of shelving books (! btw, as an employee's kid I often got roped into shelving books when I was in grade school and it was the easiest fucking thing to figure out) but, more importantly, most of them thought "working in the library" meant "curling up in a corner with their favorite book and reading"

i tip my priest tbrr

yeah for some reason i misread dayo's post as "library volunteer," that was my bad, but it didn't reg as weird cause where i grew up the library staff was half volunteer & half paid

i tip my priest tbrr

― So seveir, no more beir (darraghmac), Friday, April 29, 2011 3:16 PM (7 seconds ago) Bookmark

i mean dude is delivering yr salvation imo

Weird thing is going to Australia and paying fucking $11 for a sandwich (vs $6) or $4 for a coffee (vs $2). Tres expensive, but also fine UNTIL Australians come to the US and wonder why American sandwiches and coffee are cheap!? Cos the cost of labor isn't factored in! So just pay proper tips and shut up.

Well, we know this now we've all read the ILX threads, but it's not always easy for foreigners to know that kind of thing. Especially coming from an Anglophone country so you don't even need to buy a phrase book which might have tipping info in.

Plus I think Britishers and Australians both have an idea that everything is unusually expensive in our own countries - I know Aus can be pretty expensive with the cost of importing so much, and the UK always used to be a lot more expensive than other European countries, not so much these days tho - so when we go abroad and everything seems ridiculously cheap we're too busy going "well of course it is, this is awesome" to think about it much.

(I went to the US pre-ILX and tipped my usual British 10-12% and not at all on drinks - not that I spent much time in bars without eating - so god knows what was said about me behind my back. Sorry to the good people of California, 1999)

dad tipped me off on tipping bartenders when i was over there- result was instant & copious buybacks.

Priest never even threw me a free confession tho so f/that

is it customary in Australia to tip cows?

only in their individual units of steak

Well, we know this now we've all read the ILX threads, but it's not always easy for foreigners to know that kind of thing.

yusss. things are often bizarrely differently priced in different countries for no immediately apparent reason, so an Australian's first thought in America would probably be "Strewth, coffee is very cheap here, wonder what it's like with beer".

a friend's father was in the USA for some kind of work exchange reasons and he started hanging around in a bar and chatting to the friendly bartender. On the second or third time he was there, the bar tender said to him "Listen Bob, there's no easy way of saying this, but in this country people tip bar tenders".

Ordering an $11 sandwich in Australia, but not having to tip gave me the same comfortable feeling of going to a liquor store in my state and seeing that sales tax is already figured into the listed price. Everyone getting paid + me not having to do math in my head = always a good thing.

(Sales tax also already in the price in AUS. No pennies either. I could do math in my head all day long down there.)

I suspect this was discussed already upthread, but how do you deal with tipping on alcohol with a meal? Confusing because you could drop 20 bucks on a bottle or 200, and it is the same amount of work, but if you tip based on total dinner bill wtf to do here.

I mean I am always afraid of undertipping so I just do 20% on the full bill.

I think the idea is 20% on the full bill, which is why my Mormon mom would push drinks harder than anyone back when she w3aited tables.

yeah I agree, but hard to justify the tip differential on a 20 vs. a 200 dollar bottle of wine! There is one cork to open, period! I mean maybe your server brings you fancier glasses for the pricier bottle. . .

it's definitely the full bill, that's why we were always asked to offer margaritas at every table, because it benefitted "both of us"

also I think this thread is now breaking down into a "tip for specific function" discussion which is overanalyzing it a bit.

I've never tipped bartenders a dollar or more a drink just because of our national situation paying wages to food and drink service people, but because of my selfish desire that they notice me the next time I go up for another round of drinks.

Sorry, to answer:

$11 sandwich? Some cafes in inner Sydney. (As a random thought, I expected meat pies to be...$2?, like picking up a pizza slice in NY. They were double that! Soda was often $2-3!)

I've never experienced a buyback. Not once in 11 years. Maybe I don't stay at the same bar long enough? Usually only two drinks or so? I tip normally (dollar on beer, two on cocktail)... maybe bartenders just don't like the look of me? Do you have to strike up a conversation?

yeah I agree, but hard to justify the tip differential on a 20 vs. a 200 dollar bottle of wine! There is one cork to open, period! I mean maybe your server brings you fancier glasses for the pricier bottle. . .

― quincie, Saturday, April 30, 2011 5:01 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah but again tipping has little correlation with amount of actual work done. like no matter what main dishes you order, the waiter is gonna expend the same amount of energy/effort bringing that to your table, yet the final tip will be different. so *shrug*

That's a good point, dayo. Like, you don't tip on the cheapest entree on the menu if you ordered the surf and turf under the reasoning that it's no more difficult to bring a plate of steak and lobster to your table than it is to bring you a chicken caesar salad.

Exactly. I mean, if a food runner brings your food to you and not the waiter, you don't deduct 2.5% from the tip.

as evidenced by the yelp thread, caring too much about service makes you a YELPER. just pay 20% and be done with it

That's a good point, dayo. Like, you don't tip on the cheapest entree on the menu if you ordered the surf and turf under the reasoning that it's no more difficult to bring a plate of steak and lobster to your table than it is to bring you a chicken caesar salad.

― phantoms from a world gone by speak again the immortal tale: (Jenny), Friday, April 29, 2011 7:48 PM Bookmark

Funny thing: chicken caesar is more work at my place! Servers have to chop up the romaine, toss with dressing and parmesan, plus sprinkle with croutons. I take pride in not making 'em too goopy.

in vegas last year, won $50 on a slot machine, figured I'd celebrate by buying three shots of Crown for myself and my brothers, only to find out that while alcohol was free in the casino, the bar prices were ridiculously expensive, and it wound up being $42 for the three shots, which kinda shellshocked me and I only ended up tipping the three extra bucks, to which the bartender said "not cool, man", was I justified in taking my tip off the table then?? because I'm still iffy on it.

http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/49/dawson_crying.gif

frogbs is about to officially become an ilxor

taking the tip away: not sure if it's right, but it sure is funny!

i guess he can complain because i only tipped like 8% but really the interaction was like this - we sit down, wait a few minutes while he chats with other customers, order the shots, bartender takes like 20-30 seconds to fill the order, goes back to talking with other customers, then tells me off. in the local bars here a shot of crown is like $3-4 so tipping $3 on that is quite good, even though they do the same amount of work.

I'm wondering on what planet 42+3=50

um I don't think you get the point of celebrating a win

Considering you gave them the money right back, I'd say the only 'winner' was the casino

But hey, get that 8 bucks invested in a CD fast!

cmon, you're not talking to captain lorax

I'm more of a downloader at this point

do you think I'm "just now figuring out" how casinos make their money

I think you're right and the bartender did not deserve more than $3 for pouring 3 shots but otoh you should be more mad about wasting $42 and less mad about the bartender

CD=certificate of deposit xxpost

bartenders are horribly spoiled, overpaid people

just in general

yeah Neanderthal I got that, thanks for the heads up