A Tip

Tip - A tip (also called a gratuity) is a voluntary extra payment made to certain service sector workers in addition to the advertised price of the transaction.

Source: Wikipedia

This has been a subject of discussion amongst myself and my friends for a real long time.

We have discussed this at various points of time, from college days to as recently as today. The concept of tip was always confusing for me.

Here is my point, since tips always deal with Tertiary sector (Service Sector), and the definition is bit vague it states "certain service sector" workers. Who are these certain service sector workers, classic example would be the waiter who served you in the restaurant or a taxi driver who just dropped you off at your destination.

I have worked in the service sector of the economy for the past 3.5 years as an IT worker, so I think I do qualify for a tip, even though I have never got one. I have gone beyond the call of duty many times to get a job done. At the most all I have got is an appreciation mail (and it does not cost a thing) and most of these mail comes in a template these days so fuck that. But then you might say that I get bonus at the end of the year, hey but then which company doesn't give bonus to its employees and more over the company I worked in actually gave bonus as a part of the salary and not as an addition to the existing salary.

In contrast, whenever I went out with my friends to a hotel, the waiter was tipped regardless of the service that was provided. And many times I have asked my friends on what basis you tip the waiter, and even put forward the question why do you tip the guy after such bad service?

Bad service includes (not a complete list)

• Delayed order taking
• Delayed serving
• Not filling up the glasses of water when empty
• Bad quality of food (of course you might think you are doing injustice but hey!!! you ain't tipping for the crap)

Here are some of the reasons that were stated to me on why tipping (in restaurants) has to be done (some of these were quoted to me directly.

• "I want to gain respect" -- Wokay money can buy you anything
• "Next time I come in the waiter will remember me" -- As per Zeigarnik Effect the waiter may better remember customers who do not tip him, in a restaurant were tips are regular.
• "Next time I come in with my Girl friend I will be given the best place in the restaurant" -- Once again depends on the amount of tipping done in the restaurant if there are regular tips the effect could be worse.
• "I get exclusive information about the dishes and specials" -- OK its something like KKK and I wanna be a part of it
• "I may look like I am a miser" -- I just gotta blow the money so that I look like a rich bitch in front of others.
• "It is a norm / etiquette / without tipping I am doing unethical activity" -- My neighbor jumped in the well, so I should do the same without thinking twice.

What is the standard tipping rates? Magical number 10%, so I eat for Rs 5000 in a posh restaurant I have to tip Rs 500, no matter how much crap the service is.

So basically what you are doing is a very diluted form of bribery something that Indians are very accustomed to.

Any established rules, of course not, these are unwritten rules, you do it because you seen somebody else do it and it gets hard coded into your mind, just like how you need to suit up with shoes, socks and tie for an interview, because others do the same (believe me I have done this) and you do not even know if that guarantee's your job.

What is funny is the rule of tipping doesn't apply when you have food from a small side shop where you are directly served and you don't need to pay a lot for the food. But you just gotta tip the waiter who stood there taking away your empty plates in a buffet where you serve yourself. I think in this case the waiter was doing what is expected of him and not something out of the ordinary.

In some countries tipping is expected out of you, so you just got to tip the waiters. I do not completely agree with this rule.

Here are my rules for tipping.

• Service should be above par, only exceptional service quality need to be rewarded. Any service that is at par or below par shouldn't be rewarded.
• If the food is good and not the service tip the chef and not the waiter.

Hence I tip the guys at these small side shop restaurants, because of the value for money in the food they provide and sometimes great quality food. An example being a juice shop in Trivandrum, that gave us 3.5 glasses of "Orange-Lime Soda" when ordered for 2, so for the price of 2 I am getting 1.5 glass extra and this is not an error in calculation, they do it for all their customers and their juice is above par compared with most of the juice shops in Trivandrum.

Today I tipped a waiter in a restaurant, I did this for the first time whole heartedly. This is what happened.

I ordered a cup of black coffee, I was given a cup of black coffee and as soon as I began to sip the coffee after stirring it, the waiter came by and said to me

"Sir, the coffee which I gave has more water and less coffee, so if you hand me the cup I will fill it up with more coffee"

I was kind of surprised, but this statement. He took away the the cup which was 3/4th filled.

After sometime he brought me a cup that was full and had stronger coffee flavor.

It takes a lots of guts to do the action he did and I admire his spirit. "Above par, excellent service", for a bill of Rs 211 (including other food) I added an extra Rs 50 as tip. He deserved it.