MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. How much should Nigella tip?

pineapple

I think the tip system is emotional blackmail. Some restaurants pool tips anyway.
And what if the service is excellent but the food dire?
While customers continue to play ball, restaurant owners will continue to give low pay.
You might look at it as rewarding a good worker. But good service should be a given anyway.
It is not my job to make up someones low pay. What about the rest of us on low pay? You could also look on it as subsidising the owner's profits.
That said I will continue to be a moral coward. In this instance I would pay 10% max on the actual price paid - providing both the service AND food are OK..

RascalRose

I agree with lots of the comments here - both for and against tipping. In answer to the dilemma, the tips should be for each person to decide after the split of the bill - after all, it's their cash! I'm moving away from tipping in restaurants and feel mostly we do it because there is an embarrassment in not doing so. I think if you receive exceptional service from ANY situation then you should try to show your appreciation. In a restaurant where the server personally received the tip it would be monetary, in shops I make a point of speaking to a manager and I know that a letter I wrote to a branch of John Lewis praising a member of staff led to them being awarded partner of the month purely on that basis. Where there is a relationship being built from which you could benefit then I think some tipping is appropriate - I used to tip my hairdresser when I felt she'd done more than I would have expected for the price or thrown in treatments, but as I now travel right across London I feel my continued business is tip enough. This is all after the fact that I expect to leave feeling happy or else I wouldn't offer repeat business in the first place. Ultimately, I feel the expectation of reward is what should be changed - do your job and do it well whether you enjoy it or not and if some further gain comes of that then great. Everyone at all levels within a business needs to perform in order for it to succeed - great food terrible service/great service terrible food - could leave a lot of people without jobs at all.

katehesk

thisuseridistakenagain wrote: »

I'm with you here, I make minimum wage as an admin, I never get a tip. Why should I give someone else one. Unless someone has really gone above and beyond, i never do.

Why is it that only a few occupations get tipped? Why should we tip hairdressers but not the lady in boots who helps my gran choose shampoo?
Taxi drivers but not bus drivers, inspectors, airline stewards.
Waiting staff but not the chef, or the bar tender. Who made those rules up?!
(waitresses, taxi drivers and hairdressers i'd immagine lol)

Note to my hairdresser, I pay £20 for a haircut that you take literally 3 minutes to complete, don't give me a dirty look when I dont give you an extra quid!!

People do tip bus drivers and bar tenders.

I think that it is often those who can least afford it who leave tips. For example, we have a lot of older people who come in for a value menu we offer prior to dinner, and they always leave something, even if it is only a small gesture. My partner's dad is a bus driver and gets tips all the time, but these are not always money and he often gets cans of drink, sweets, and other bits and bobs in lieu of money, mostly from older people again, but not only that client group.

Aldahbra

russeta wrote: »

To say tipping is outdated is to say that the minimum wages doesn't exist. I work as a PA during the week, I also work in a restaurant in the evening to pay off the bills - don't do it for the love of it having to serve ignoramuses who don't have the courtesy to tip. I get paid minimum wage for this and have to do it in the evenings as my little ones are asleep. I am also pregnant so tipping goes without saying, me having to lump your dinner in and out, get your sauces, get your drinks, please sir thank you sir, deserves reward. I assume that you also don't believe in bonuses being paid for good service at work? This is one and the same thing. Have a little respect for your fellows who are trying to bring themselves back to normal financial situation - show me a waitress who loves her/ his job because of minimum wage.....tipping is polite, otherwise stay at home and get your own dinner.

But most people work hard and don't get bonuses or tips. Lots of people have two jobs to make ends meet. Why are waiters/waitressess a special case?

No sorry I just don't buy into your argument. I don't think that we should tip at all in this day and age.

Don't you find it demeaning people giving you money in this way as if you have a begging bowl out. I would feel demeaned giving it to you.

katehesk

Aldahbra wrote: »

But most people work hard and don't get bonuses or tips. Lots of people have two jobs to make ends meet. Why are waiters/waitressess a special case?

No sorry I just don't buy into your argument. I don't think that we should tip at all in this day and age.

Don't you find it demeaning people giving you money in this way as if you have a begging bowl out. I would feel demeaned giving it to you.

No because it is a perfectly normal, acceptable and customary thing to do.

A waitress will never ask for a tip, so your analogy is totally off the mark, we provide a service which people may or may not choose to reward us for.

To be honest, I find your post the most insulting of them all.

I think some people are just trying to justify their tight fistedness to be honest, after all we are on a money saving forum, and I am very careful with my money myself or I probably wouldn't be here, I have to be.

As I have already said, I am happy to say that in general non tipping customers are the exception rather than the rule, and long after I leave the hospitality industry I will continue to do what is customary in restaurants in this country if I receive good service. :beer:

irishwench69

gomeraman wrote: »

Tipping is an embarrassment tax. It relies on you feeling uncomfortable. When you wish to thank the staff for good service then please do so with well-meant words and a smile rather than with dane-gelt. Tipping is demeaning for both parties. If we perpetuate this outdated custom of tipping then we ensure staff stay on subsistence wages rather than being paid a fair wage in the first place. The price you see on a menu should be what you pay.

Totally agree with this ^^^^^

Think Gordon is right in terms of the original situation!

I'd rather say thanks to all for the meal than pay a tip and not be sure it will go to the right person.....

I don't understand why people who tip often only do it with wait staff and possibly hairdressers. Why not elsewhere?

And I say the above having been a waitress (when I was a student). I didn't mind not getting tips - you're getting paid (and there are some places that don't pay absolute rubbish!).

IW x

Icey77

I'm usually quite happy to tip if the service has been great or at a push acceptable, if it has been poor, slow, grumpy or unprofessional etc then no chance.

The group service charge thing I feel is OK when there is groups of 6 or more as usually we end up being more demanding than three tables of 2 people. However, a restaurant that simply charges you 10% as a service charge regardless of the number of diners infruriates me.

Last week a restaurant added 10% to the bill for dinner for my mum and I. After the 241 voucher the service charge might only have been £2 but I did not like having it forced upon me especially as the service was mediocre at best and unprofessional at worst - when paying the bill with a £20 the waitress asked me if I had change to pay it instead because they were short. The cash situation of a restaurant is not my concern, I wish to pay with an accepted method at the particular establishment and this should not be queried. As a result that waitress did not get any tip from me bar the £2 service charge that was added to the bill and if I could have taken it off I would have but it would have made us late.

Snowden_2

The point of tipping is to supplement the miserable wages paid to waiters. Obviously the tip should be 10%.

yorkshire_laura

RubiconCSL wrote: »

A few thoughts and responses to previous posts....

as it would all be taxed (most tips I believe aren't taxed).

all tips should be taxed - they are a form of income.

If I leave a tip i leave 10% but it depends on the service - been given the wrong order at frankie and bennys then it taking ages to sort isn't my idea of good service!

bumpoowee

Snowden wrote: »

The point of tipping is to supplement the miserable wages paid to waiters. Obviously the tip should be 10%.

Also to the point is to encourage good service. I wouldn't blame waiting staff who do not get tips for not being motivated to do the job and give a lower standard of service.

Out of interest, what do the anti-tipping people do in scenarios such as making voluntary donations for school trips or to museums - and if they think this is a different case, why?