Thursday, August 12, 2010
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About Me
- Pretty Lady
- Darlings, where to start? Sometimes I feel as though I have lived a thousand lives in this one, dewy and unlined though my complexion may be. To Tell All may be to intimidate; thus I maintain, at most times, a discreet reserve. But here I share my musings, perhaps revealing the secret to my exquisite poise and charm.
9 comments:
To take the other side, not for any really good reason: Some of the people I've known who work in tipping industries make much, much better money through tips than they could ever hope to make if they were paid an hourly wage. One friend waiting tables in an admittedly high-end restaurant was bringing home over $200 per night. Now, the work for that pay was serious work -- memorizing the menu and wine lists, being capable of making wine recommendations, knowing the ingredients of every dish -- but it was well-paid.
Why does it have to be either an hourly wage, or a completely random income which fluctuates according to the generous impulses of strangers? Aren't there any other paradigms to choose from--for example, profit sharing among salaried employees?
Our economy is structured on the basis of the idea that the hope of winning the lottery trumps the right to respect, dignity and a living wage. Sure, you can make beaucoups bucks working at a high-end restaurant; you can also work your ass off at a diner for 40 years and drop dead in the walk-in freezer at 70 because you can't afford to retire.
In my book, a chance at the brass ring should not have to come at the cost of irremediable poverty for the majority.
Despite the fact that something like 60 percent of the Forbes 400 were born wealthy -- or at least were able to borrow enough money from family to start a successful business -- we persist in believing in the American Dream. As George Carlin says, it's called a dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
However, when you say "random income which fluctuates according to the generous impulses of strangers", I could say "income based largely upon one's competence and effort". It's accountability, pure and simple. If the waiter doesn't perform well, he doesn't get paid well. Sounds better than a lot of jobs I've worked at, where lousy workers got paid the same as good ones. (You can guess which one I was.)
What I'd like to see -- and you probably would, also -- is a world where people are guaranteed a certain minimum -- perhaps something like a "minimum wage", and "universal health care", just throwing out some ideas -- and then if they can and will work beyond that, then good for them. Unfortunately we don't have a meaningful minimum wage and as for the other thing, well, you know.
People would argue that this is what they have in Europe, and that Europe proves this is unsustainable -- that you simply cannot spread money around that way. There's not enough to go around, they say, and so we need to reward only those who deserve it.
I happen to think this is arrant nonsense. The fact that Europe has been mismanaged -- and I'm not entirely sure it has, and that the stories of European insolvency aren't myths -- doesn't mean this can't be done. Only that, perhaps, it hasn't been done.
If we had enough money to blow up Afghanistan and Iraq the way we did, it seems to me we had enough money to put them together properly. What we lack is the will. Or anyway the people with the money lack the will. They'd rather run off with ill-gotten gains.
If the waiter doesn't perform well, he doesn't get paid well.
Except that it's been proven that there is a weak link between competent performance and the size of tips--see the Beato article for the citation. My personal experience bears this out. I am regularly stiffed by people who proceed to re-book, asking for me by name, the next time they come in. That's not 'accountability,' that's 'taking advantage.'
I'm with you on the rest of it.
The argument would probably be that first, on average people tip properly; and second, you'd start treating poor tippers worse as time went on, until they got the idea or stopped patronizing you.
That's the argument I'm guessing. Personally I think tipping is bothersome all around; I don't like having to do it because I always feel uncomfortable. Should I tip this person? How much? I have to balance my own financial situation -- never good -- with that of someone who has worked for me. Personally I'm a fan of price stickers: You pay this much. The end. No haggling, no tipping, no messing around. But we're stuck with it, I suppose.
At least I'm not living in an Arab country where I'd have to haggle over everything after pushing to the front of the market mob.
Also, you could always hope for a customer like my father, who's been known to tip a hundred percent.
I used to work on a cruise-ship (in a non-tipping position, thank God). Some cruise lines have a system where a room steward who cleans up the cabin, washes and scrubs the bathroom, cater to every need of the cruisesr etc for the duration of the cruise is automatically alloted a certain amount of tip per day. You have to remember that these stewards have no salary, just tips. But get this: even if the steward has slaved for him the entire trip, the passenger can refuse to have the tips deducted from his bill, no questions asked, leaving the steward nothing for his efforts. And this has happened over and over again.
I am regularly stiffed by people who proceed to re-book, asking for me by name, the next time they come in.
That is about the time you remind them that you are paid largely by tips and that their continued lack of proper compensation will likely result in crappy service going forward.
I don't know if you can really afford to do that, but I think non-tippers (except for those ignorant that a tip is appropriate) are despicable. I always "round up" on the tip when dining out, and it would take notable inattention for me to even cut back the customary tip percentage.
This has some cogent non-political tipping thoughts. I was a waiter several times in the past, and have my own horror stories!
http://aardvarksplumbline.blogspot.com/2009/06/it-has-been-frightfully-busy-few-weeks.html
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