Tipping
From the author of Waiter Rant, who is writing a book about tipping (and no, this isn’t even a book excerpt AFAIK, just a paragraph from a regular ol’ post):
Tipping, as I’m discovering, is a very strange phenomenon. Existing in a netherworld off human emotions, social utility, and economic theory, it defies easy classification. Tipping is both rational and irrational, self serving and altruistic, a form of freedom and control, and beneficial and harmful in it’s social impact. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. Tipping is a human activity. And. like all human activity, it generates a certain amount of ambivalence. Maybe that’s why people get so hot and bothered when discussing tipping. Deep down there’s no one answer to why people tip. And that lack of clarity is unnerving. Man, I have my work cut out for me.
He can write, that’s for sure.
July 16, 2009 at 9:48 pm
the biggest culture shock for me while in france was both trying to figure out whether to tip and how incredibly long it took to get a check there. being unsure about tipping made us very uncomfortable. it did make us question the value of it in our own strange customs.
l’addition s’il vous plait. ✔