Karen and diane,
My instinct is to agree with you, but Rose's paper gives some powerful
reasons for thinking that it is much more complex than that. I myself know a
person who has absolutely no economic reason for working as a waitress -
indeed there is an economic cost to so doing - and yet has continued to do
so for many years. Why? 'A sort of companionship that my day job does not
provide me with.'
Now that may well be a window on to a bleak soul, but Rose's mother - driven
relentlessly by economic imperatives as she was - nevertheless describes in
retrospect complex and multiple reasons for wanting to do a good job. In
this respect I am still mulling over the possible meanings of the beautiful
closing image of an elderly frail woman, her body broken by her hard working
life, watching a History channel documentary on the building of the Brooklyn
Bridge, and saying to her son that there should be more programmes like that
about ordinary working people.
The reason I raised the question in the first place was because of my doubts
about the obvious answer. Outside my building there is a coffee shop with a
busy all day trade. Every day I am here I go and sit at a sidewalk table,
read my paper while sipping a coffee. There is an extraordinary turnover of
staff mainly because it employs primarily students. But they are very
astutely selected for their personalities. Almost all of them have a
predisposition to be cheerful. Almost invariably they remain cheerful and
pleasant to customers, even in the last minutes of their last day on the
job. That is their nature. In such circumstances there is no economic
imperative (often they return months later as customers - now young lawyers,
accountants and computer programmers) but they keep on doing it.
I do not deny the economic factors, I merely draw away from single factor
explanations. For some people at least there are clearly higher level needs
met by trying to ensure that one's social transactions - whatever they are -
are as pleasant as possible.
From my cultural standpoint tipping clouds this issue. Anywhere else in the
world but here (as far as I am aware only Australia and New Zealand do not
have tipping as a normal part of their culture - is that correct?)I can
never know whether this person I am expected to tip is doing something a
little bit extra for me in expectation of the tip I am likely to give or
because that is their nature. You, diane, suggest that I may be deluding
myself, and that when I experience outstanding service in NZ I am merely
observing the action of someone who wishes to keep their job. Well, maybe,
I'll have to reflect on that, but I don't think so.
However - to provide a counterpoint, it so happens that the day before
yesterday the latest edition of our local food and wine monthly had an
article in it on standards of New Zealand service. While containing only one
paragraph on tipping (concluding that we are better off without it, but will
probably end up crumbling before the global onslaught of tourist practices)
it starts off by quoting an American colleague of the author, who observed
"I am always impressed in New Zealand restaurants at the cheerful enthusiasm
with which the staff display their incompetence."
Phillip Capper
WEB Research
PO Box 2855
(Level 9, 142 Featherston Street)
Wellington
New Zealand
Ph: (64) 4 499 8140
Fx: (64) 4 499 8395
-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Hodges [mailto:dhodges@ceo.cudenver.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, 21 August 2001 16:36
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re(2): Tipping in restaurants
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
>Phil, it's all very simple.
>
> It's good for the owner's profits, and if you don't do it, *he'll fire
>you.*
>
>How's that for motivation?
here here!! huzzah!!! salary and tips are connected more powerfully than
ideals of service and beliefs about relative tips with meal costs.
diane
"I want you to put the crayon back in my brain."
Homer Simpson
diane celia hodges
university of british columbia, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction
vancouver, bc
mailing address: 46 broadview avenue, montreal, qc, H9R 3Z2
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