The Art of Tipping...

As a person that works in a tip oriented industry, I have come to the conclusion that good (generous) tippers are hard to come by. I've been very frustrated with I'm not sure what the reason is that most people tend to be bad tippers but I believe, and co-workers agree, that it's one of the following reasons:

1. Ignorance - People were not taught how to properly tip.
2. Greed - People are tight with their money and don't believe they should tip.
3. Inability - They can't afford to tip.

I've decided to address all three of these issues one at a time and offer a solution to the problem.

First, I know that some people are ignorant to tipping in general. I've heard from a couple of people that they didn't know they were supposed to tip. These individuals simply weren't taught by their parents, or anyone else, during their life to tip or how much.

The Solution - spend time in school, that's supposed to prepare you for life, teaching kids the art of tipping.

Next, are are greedy people. These are the people that didn't share their toys as kids. It's their money and they're going to do with their money as they please.

The Solution - Pay these greedy people in tips based on their job performance, so that they'll learn what it's like to work really hard and get little or nothing for it.

Finally, people with the inability to tip. These people don't make a lot of money, and that's fine neither do people in the tip industry, but that's the point!

The Solution - If you're going to go out for dinner, or order a pizza to be delivered, you know a tip is involved as part of the process. Enjoy dinner out, or staying in and having your food delivered, but allow for the tip within whatever budget you have.

The main reason I decided to talk about tipping is because I'm a pizza delivery guy. I enjoy the job because I get to be out of the store for periods of time during the day, or night. The problem is whenever you drive 15 minutes to a persons home and they tip $1.79 on a $24.21 order, it happens more often than not. It's a slap in the face as well as highly offensive. Anyone that delivers RISKS THEIR LIVES so that they can bring you food to stuff your face with. We could have a car wreck and die en route to your home. None of us do the job for the joy of meeting you and your dogs.

Now you may be asking yourself, what should I tip? Well, the answer is easy to follow. 15% used to be the standard for someone that does an adequate job. The amount you tip fluctuates up, or down, based on the persons (server, delivery person, bartender) performance. The standard is now 18-20% and follows the same guideline as before. Thus, the $1.79 tip I received was a 7.39% tip, which is horrible. I failed to mention she lives 7 miles from my store. Even if she was across the street that's a horrible tip.

The moral of the story is! Anytime you deal with a person in the service industry please take good care of them. We're all there for your benefit and, as long as you're taken care of, you should take care of them by tipping appropriately!