I got a Princess Cruises brochure in the mail yesterday, offering “free gratuities” if I book a cruise now.
Wow, I thought, that’s a nice deal…it could probably save me several hundred bucks on a 7-day cruise.
But, then, I got to thinking about the concept of free tipping, and something in me was repulsed by the idea. There’s a fly in this ointment, I thought.
The whole tipping thing is cockamamie, of course. I think that, way back when, a gratuity was a voluntary “thank you” for exceptional service or assistance rendered. The person receiving the tip didn’t necessarily expect it, or count on it, so it motivated personal service that was beyond normal. A tippee remembered the tipper, for sure, and could hardly wait to serve that guy again.
Typically, tipping occurred in restaurants, where up-close-and-personal, thoughtful assistance was evident. Most people either have served in that capacity, or have a relative or friend who serves people, and so they know that these folk don’t make a lot of money and that tips are really appreciated. So, a gratuity was a nice way to reward and encourage exceptional service.
Average or sub-par service resulted in low or no tips; a penny tip was very in-your-face customer feedback that the service was crappy.
Somewhere along the line tipping became expected; it was just another part of a server’s income, a way for the employer to pay lower wages. A “recommended” gratuity came with the check at the end of a meal. Guests at a table having separate checks, or splitting a check, were made to feel like cheapskates and misanthropes if they didn’t leave a 10 or 15 percent gratuity, even if service was subpar. At that point, tipping lost its purpose.
Then, we found out about “pooled” tips; all the house’s tips were aggregated and split by the servers. I guess that the idea was to protect the waitress who was “stiffed” by some creep, particularly when that guy is paying for a large party which required a lot of service. Also, pooling would even out server income; some folks tip big, others small, and only chance dictates which waitress or waiter is lucky to draw Mr. Big Tipper.
Some people are averse to tipping for the simple reason that they never got tipped in their line of work. For example, one wouldn’t normally leave a gratuity for a pipe-fitter, a heavy-equipment operator or some stiff working behind a desk.
I was a public employee: like the stiffs above, I never got tipped. Luckily, I was self-motivated. But, the point is that some folks feel offended by the social requirement to tip a person to receive good service, because, as hard as they may work, they can’t earn extra money through tips.
An unfortunate by-product of the “recommended” and “pooled” gratuity schemes is that there becomes little extra incentive for good service. An employee who just puts in a shift and goes through the motions is going to collect gratuities for uninspired service on top of their hourly pay which should cover minimal effort.
Which brings up the question: What are these employees being paid for? Is the base pay earned by just showing up, and the gratuity earned by smiling?
A further complication is the tactic that some business owners utilize wherein they take a management cut of the pooled tips. Supposedly, that money is to reward other staff in the establishment (like the hostess, the cook, the janitor, etc.) for their excellent customer service. But, what if they are just average (or worse) clock-watchers, doing the minimum to keep from getting fired? The customer (the tipper) has no way of knowing whether the janitor used chlorox to clean the restroom or just plain water. But, this guy is theoretically getting some of the pooled gratuities.
And, of course, how much of the pooled tips are actually getting to the workers; only the owner knows, and we all know how he feels about the bottom line.
My granddaughter works as a server in a restaurant. Her boss is one of those guys who rakes half of the gratuities. (Of course, who knows how much the aggregate pool of tips is? He could under-report the total, and put some extra cash in his pocket before dividing in half the “management” and “employee” portions. The feeling is that he, in fact, does this.)
(The boss only knows about credit card tips, though. So, an employee counter-measure is to under-report cash tips. Tit for tat.)
All of this fiddle-faddle brings me back to the Princess Cruises special offer of “free gratuities” if I book a cruise now.
In the old days, let’s say 40 years ago, tipping on a cruise ship was very personal. A passenger could elect to, or not to, give a gratuity. An amount was “recommended” for a week’s services of the Cabin Attendant, and your dining room Waiter and Bus Boy, and an offering was suggested for the Head Waiter and Wine Steward if they had extended to you some exceptional service. During the cruise, or usually at the end, the passenger would personally hand the gratuity envelope to these people. And, I’m here to say…that business model generated across-the-board exceptional service…at least in our experience (many cruises).
It’s not that way anymore.
Most cruise lines have gone to pooled gratuities, with the exception that a flat 15 percent tip is tacked on to all bar service. Also, it has become commonplace for the cruise line to automatically add the “recommended” pooled gratuities to your cruise bill. It then takes a positive action on the part of the guest to alter or disapprove of the gratuity total when the tab must be paid at the end of the trip. Your “servers” on the journey have no way of knowing if you tipped large or small.
(Mr. Skinflint has the theoretical ability to deny paying any gratuities at journey’s end. However, he’d probably have a tough time getting off the boat in one piece, with his luggage…as he would be a marked man. An accident might befall him…like having a large suitcase fall on his as he walks down the gangplank. Things happen.)
(So, it’s really an involuntary “voluntary” tipping program. Much like the Goodfella’s would use back in Philly: pay us our gratuity, each month, or your business might burn down.
Or, the New York cop who is simultaneously “on the job” and “on the take”, expecting an envelope of gratuities from restaurant owners each month to make sure that the Health Inspector doesn’t drop by.)
I would call this the in-advance involuntary gratuity. I’m not a big fan.
Now, in Mexico City, you can park your car illegally on a sidewalk if you’ve tipped the nearest policeman: the practice is called “La Mordida”, and results in excellent customer service. This would be the voluntary in-advance tipping model. You can use it or walk 1/2 mile to get to your restaurant.
Back to the cruise line scheme: Management asks that travelers fill out an extensive “rating” questionnaire at the end of the cruise. This is, presumably, where stand-out employees will surface, actually earning the tips that they’ve received. If a passenger uses the questionnaire to stick the shiv into an employee who came up short…well, maybe that guy gets docked a few bills from the pooled gratuities. Who knows how it works?
Upon reflection, I guess I’m not in favor of mandatory tipping in any of its forms: it doesn’t seem American.
As I looked at the fine print of the Princess Cruises offer, I noticed that this “deal” was only available if one booked a Mini-Suite on a cruise of 14 or more days. So, as I see it, those well-heeled travelers, who can best afford to pay gratuities, have no obligation to do so. Conversely, the run-of-the-mill vacationers, in the small, crowded interior cabins serviced by inferior staff, will end up paying a larger proportion of the overall gratuity pool…thereby subsidizing Princess Cruises’ generous special offer to up-scale travelers.
There we go again: subsidizing those One Percenters!
In the end, most of the cruisers will plunk $300 or so into the gratuity pool whether the service was good, average, or crappy. Of course, the well-heeled travelers in their luxury suites will pay nothing but will, believe me, demand (and receive) top notch service.
Again, something about this seems wrong to me. Involuntary tips, thrown into a pool, management rakes off its share, then the rest is divided and distributed to every joker on the payroll, even if they provided crappy service…and, even if the travelers that they served didn’t kick in to the gratuity pool.
I like the old ways better; you could see what you were paying for.
My Dad showed me the ropes, in Las Vegas. If we were going to a “show” in the casino, my father would stall around until most of the customers had filed into the showroom and there was just a little time before the curtain went up. He would go to the blackjack table, ask for $100 in chips, gather us up (Mom, Charlie and I) and head up to the Showroom. There we would be met by a greasy usher in a fancy suit.
Mr. Joey “Two Times” Scallopini would look out into the room full of choice, empty seats, seemingly trying hard to find something to meet our needs, with his right hand casually dropped by his side, with cupped hand facing backward. Mr. Scallopini’s eyes would be straining, as if he were trying to find an honest man at political convention. At the same time, my Dad would be noisily shuffling $10 chips, and would say, “It’s my wife’s birthday” or some other lie.
Miraculously, the greaseball’s eyesight would improve. “Oh, I think we might have one good one left!”, and he would escort us to our choice table and receive a chip or two in his slimy palm.
Now, that’s what I’m talking about!
(I’ve been to Vegas shows when this technique wasn’t employed, and we ended up sitting at a cramped table with a bunch of noisy, fat corncobs from Iowa in a spot where it was difficult to even see the faces of the showgirls… let alone their fake breasts.)
Needless to say, the gratuity, as properly used in the Las Vegas business model, works very well: there is a direct relation to the tip and the service rendered. “No tickee, no washee.”
Speaking of Vegas (as it was back in the mobbed-up days) and the art of tipping reminds me of the excellent Steve Martin film, “My Blue Heaven”. In this movie, the hero was a wiseguy guy turned snitch, currently in witness protection, hiding out in suburban Arizona. He was a fish out of water…wearing his sharkskin suits in a retirement community, trying to live life large but having trouble fitting in among the old gray-haired farts.
But, one of his characteristics, from his Mafia days, was the habit of over-tipping everyone out of his ever-present wad of cash. It seemed, and it was, over-the-top behavior for Sun Belt living, giving some gal a $100 tip for a $50 meal, but it was his style. He was paying-it-forward, before that term became common. Predictably, people would fall over themselves providing him service; he was a local god.
In the end, all of the folks whom he had tipped extravagantly came to his rescue when he needed them most.
This is how gratuities are supposed to work.