feel like I'm encounterimg tip requests with increasing frequency, but not jazzed about the prospect of adding a 20% charge at every point of sale.

  • ChestRockwell [comrade/them, any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Here's my rules of thumb:

    Table service 20%

    Bar: $1 per drink minimum. If I'm ordering cocktails, usually 2 bucks

    Delivery: usually 20%, but with a 3 dollar minimum

    Coffee: tips for drinks that are made (latte). For a carafe pull, if I have change I'll toss it in the jar, but no tip off card etc.

    I should note that citations-needed has a great episode on this. Remember that even though we should hate tipping because it allows the boss to surveil employees and leverage tips against them, refusing to tip is not praxis. We should strive for change where employees are paid more and no longer need tips, but not tipping will not achieve that.

    • sloth [none/use name]
      ·
      2 months ago

      why do you tip the same 20% for someone carrying a tray of food 50 feet as someone who gets into a vehicle they own and maintain and drives 100s of feet while risking their life and spending their own money on fuel and repair?

      • ChestRockwell [comrade/them, any]
        ·
        2 months ago

        The waiter is doing emotional labor/care work in addition to the transport of food. It's a different kind of work but still work graeber

        We should value both. Indeed, that's why there's always. 3 dollar minimum, even if I'm only getting ten bucks delivered - to recognize the gas, etc used.

        Also, remember, in some states those waiters/waitresses make submininun wage and thus need the tip to make up the difference and pay their rent.

        Basically, I value both the care and emotional work of the waiter/waitress and the car costs of the driver. As we should as marxists.

        • sloth [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          I don't disagree, I must have missed the $3 floor. I guess I never factored in the cost of therapy or fancy clothes and only considered how expensive it is to keep a vehicle in working order. What grinds my gears is the people who would casually hand a delivery driver a $5 bill for a large order of pizzas are the same people who painstaking calculate the exact percentage to tip for a large family dinner at a mediocre restaurant. Don't ask me how I know or why I care so much.

          • ChestRockwell [comrade/them, any]
            ·
            2 months ago

            No, totally valid. I used to drive pizzas, so I always make sure to at least fork out $3 because of gas, etc. The nice thing about the job was it was very minimal on the kind of "playing nice" shit - I'd show up, give the person the pizza, get the money. Once I started working as a driver, I realized how much goes into the other tipping professions that I wasn't responsible for (i.e. small talk), so I made sure to take care of them as well. Even though pulling a beer off the draft isn't nearly as difficult as driving to someone's house, the bartender also has to keep an eye on me, make sure to offer a new draft, etc. I think that graeber at the end of Bullshit Jobs really hits things home with the emotional labor/care work stuff. That's the real value of the waiter - a robot could easily move food 50 feet, but it couldn't tell the customer what's good or not, etc.

            • sloth [none/use name]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 months ago

              Sure. Emotional labor also includes hoping your car makes it up that hill in a blizzard (praying like a bastard), and then making it back down again without banging against a curb, at best. All the while knowing before you left on that run the most you can make is $2.