Comment: to tip or not to tip
29th February 2012
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Imagine you are a customer in a popular restaurant. The waitress comes over and introduces herself, talks through the specials board and takes the order for your drinks. The drinks are served quickly, but she doesn’t come back to take your food order for a while. The woman is really busy - there’s only one other waitress working, and the restaurant is full. When she finally comes over to take the order, she is apologetic and rings your food through straight away. You have your children with you, who aren’t particularly impressed by the wait; they're tired after a long day and bored of colouring in. When the order arrives the chips have been missed off, but you don’t complain. After the gelato and coffees, the bill arrives. The question is: do you tip?
Now imagine yourself as the waitress. You are a part-time employee, trying to pay your way through university and you have been called in last-minute to fill a shift on your night off. The restaurant is full and you are responsible for half of it. A family with children come in, so you decide to get them drinks before you visit other tables and give the children something to colour in to keep them occupied. On you're way to take the family's order you are trapped by an elderly couple talking to you about their first date at the same restaurant, you’d love to stay and listen but you have to get back to that family. They aren’t impressed with the wait. Ten minutes after the meals have been served you remember that they asked for chips but that you hadn't brought them so you go and take them off the bill. After they've finished their coffees, you bring them the bill. The question is: do you expect a tip?
It is an age old question with many possible answers. If you’re dining out and your waitress is terrible, it’s not that she gets everything wrong (because that’s always correctable) she is just miserable and clearly doesn’t care. Do you still leave something? A gesture? The obvious answer is no, a tip usually connotes that the waitress has impressed the customer in some way, and signals that the customer has had a good time. On the other hand, there is an argument for the fact that as wages in the service industry are typically low, waitresses often rely on tips to boost their income. Though surely this is the company’s problem and not the customer’s?

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