For some reason, I thought I had written on this subject in the past. It doesn’t mean I can’t write about it again, I just thought I had addressed it at least once and therefore would be able to plagiarize my own work, or at least just update an older post in order to satisfy my own need of publishing something, sometime. But no, I don’t seem to have written about this at all, even though I know I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about it and even grousing some whenever I see anything about it posted on social media (X specifically). Yes, if you didn’t get the topic from the title of this piece, its about tipping.

UI’m not referring to tipping cattle in a meadow, but the act of rewarding someone for above and beyond service. It’s what we normally give to a server in a restaurant, or someone that carries our bags in or out of a hotel, or a cab (Uber?) driver for getting us from point A to B quickly and safe. I don’t have a problem with tipping someone for good service. In fact,I ‘ve learned in my life that it is often to my benefit to tip well, forget service, at places I frequent. Why? Because the people that work there know me. At least that I’m a good tipper and in some cases will complete amongst themselves for my particular business.

So, what’s this post about then? It appears I don’t have an issue with tipping. that’s true in one way and it’s not in another. The way I just described awarding someone for great or excellent service is one thing. Even good service: anything above average. But one thing about it is that the amount should be my decision based upon what I thought of the service, not the servers idea of how much their rent is that month, or the restaurants idea of what we, the customer, should be paying their employees. How about going into a place that is completely self serve, and when you’re asked to pay (via a screen, no human involved), asked to add a tip. Yes, that’s real and it makes me wonder who I am supposed to be tipping since I did everything myself. But we see things like this more and more every year. More restaurants are adding a mandatory tip to a customers bill, some as much as eighteen percent! For what? How does this encourage the servers to provide at least good service to their customers when they know they’re going to be rewarded no matter the customers opinion of the service.

Personally, I avoid those places like the plague, because that’s exactly what they are on the economy: a plague of indifference. In fact, if I walk into any business in the hospitality business and I see they have a minimum tip applied to each customers bill, I walk out. I won’t do business there and I tell everyone I know about it as well. Yes, I want to send the message that it[s not their business to tell me how much I’m to pay their employees for services they provide directly to me. Consider some of the social media posts that tell us all that if you cannot afford to tip, you should stay home, then proceed to instruct us on an example bill, how much we should be tipping the server. I’ve seen numbers up to forty percent! the minimum seems to be thirty. Add one third to your bill. For a tip for an average server that hates their job and doesn’t want to be there, refill your water glass or coffee cup, deliver your order in a timely fashion, and then, at the bare minimum, be pleasant towards you. Not friendly, just pleasant.

So yes, I want to start a discussion, across the great divide of the Internet concerning this ridiculous subject. I want to smother it dead as soon as possible. Maybe of enough of us mobbed those that thought they deserved something for nothing and stopped patronizing those businesses that practice playing Robin Hood, then maybe we can all get back to going back to enjoy spending evenings out again.