Could someone explain to me what's up with those tips? If I'm doing a job I expect to be paid a specific amount. Tips to me seem like pittance which you would give to someone who at least can't work or something, for services you just pay a normal price which the owner of the place needs to calculate with. I'm often thinking about Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs [this video] he makes the point I'm also trying to make. People should get paid for doing service and not need to rely on pittance of the customers because their bosses don't calculate the real cost of doing business. If it were up to me tips would be forbidden. In Japan (as far as I understand) it's an insult to tip, it's almost like: "This business probably isn't doing well enough to pay you a proper salary, so here's a little something extra."
If a business is pushing for tips (those dumbass Toast POS consoles that now often start tipping at 20% ), the workers are underpaid. Tipping is getting out of control, and businesses just need to pay more. Tipping is a stupid concept. Japan has the number three economy in the world and they'll refuse tips. Watch [this video] and tell me that he's wrong.
Cited as an argument that tipping is a stupid concept.
I can tell from experience if you come from a non-tipping country you can really have some negative experiences before you realize what's going on :) That said, the "need" for a tip does make the waiter/ress a lot more pro-active and helpful than in my country where waiter/ress's can be cranky even. In the US they introduce themselves ("Hi I'm Jerome, I'm excited to be your waiter today!" Made me smile every time), make sure you are ok, the level of service is pretty high. We do tip here (Netherlands), but it's more when service was really good. But personnel won't bat an eye when you don't. Of course, we learned from Reservoir Dogs [0] that tipping is basically part of the income in the US. Is that still true? In the Netherlands we generally agree with Mr. Pink, minimum wage is higher here though (I think). [0]: [this video]
It seems rather logical to me that a person that believes in tipping also cares about the tips going to the right person. Also, obligatory Reservoir Dogs tipping scene (warning, NSFW language): [this video]
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