RE: Re(2): Tipping in restaurants - a small experiment

From: Phillip Capper (phillip.capper@webresearch.co.nz)
Date: Tue Aug 21 2001 - 13:17:05 PDT


Thanks Eva,

Yes, I think you are correct in that I naturalised it too much.

Here is the result of a small experiment. I conducted it in the coffee shop
I mentioned yesterday, about an hour ago.

I spoke to the owner and asked her if I could spend five minutes with each
of her six on duty staff. It also transpired that she is married to A
Californian and spent a number of years managing a cafe in Sausalito. I
asked her view of tipping/US v. non tipping/NZ. She observed that in a well
managed establishment it need make no difference to what people do. She said
'In NZ it puts more onus on me to create a working environment that people
feel happy in. In the US a lot more of the buzz for the staff comes from how
much in tips they take home. Here it's basically ME that does the tipping -
by giving lots of positive feedback, bonuses from time to time, and so on.
It certainly isn't so that the restaurants in this town that pay the most
necessarily get the best staff. It's more the reverse - the one's that try
to rip off their staff don't get good people.' I told her about Rose's
mother. She responded 'You'll find that sort of person in American diners,
but nowhere here in this industry - well maybe in small town cafes. People
in that situation do different sorts of jobs. The money in waiting may not
be great, but it is nevertheless a job with a bit of status. If the
workplace is fun people want to work for you. Some people work here just
because of the cool music we play." I asked her if she put pressure on for
throughput. 'No - my customers want to take the time they want to take. If
they felt they were being pushed through, they wouldn't come. They are self
organising. A lot of them push themselves through. So my philosophy is get
the food and drink out fast, then leave them alone.'

I asked the six staff four questions:

1. What makes you want to try and be cheerful towards customers?

ANSWERS.

" They don't come here for the coffee and cake, they come here for the total
performance."
" I like most people."
" Because that's what the job is."
" It'd be a pretty miserable day if you were fighting all the time."
" What a stupid question - you must be a sociologist."
" Cheerful is what I am."

2. Do you stay polite and cheerful with customers who are rude to you?

" It depends - if it's me that screwed up, yes."
" I change from cheerful polite to icy polite."
" Grovelling makes the world go round."
" No."
" Yes."
" I try to model better behaviour for them. "

3. Why do you do this work rather than any other?

" The hours fit."
" The money's not great, but it's great fun being in a fun team."
" I prefer to work with lots of people around me."
" It's what I could get."
" It's a buzz environment, unlike most."
" There's a kind of special spirit in a good cafe."

4. Does anyone ever tip you?

" The tourists - it's embarrassing."
" When a cruise liner is in it's awful."
" Locals never. Foreigners try often."
" It's weird. I feel quite insulted. but the people who do it think they're
being nice."
" I just start talking in an American accent and try to look as though they
haven't given me enough. I couldn't believe the taxi drivers in New York."
" I'm not sure whether it's more embarrassing to keep it or to give it
back."

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: Eva Ekeblad [mailto:eva.ekeblad@goteborg.utfors.se]
Sent: Tuesday, 21 August 2001 21:26
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: RE: Re(2): Tipping in restaurants

I agree, Phillip:
the Rose paper does contribute nicely to the production of a complex enough
description of the formation of skilled job performance, identity formation
on the job, and the satisfactions of work (even as work also hurts and
cripples).

The matter of tipping or no tipping looks like an interesting point of
entry for exploring cultural difference in how our culture informs our
research. However, I'm an absulute ignoramus in the specifics of tipping
from either end, so I'll pass it over.

Just wanted to add that as I read Rose he also has a section where he
observes how much of that waitressing cheerfulness is a PERFORMANCE, and
how it is LEARNED. In your phrasing that cheer got a bit too naturalized
for my taste. But that it is "made" rather than "born" does not necessarily
make it less pleasant - I just love the way Rose uses "flow experience" as
a framework for his mothers work memories.

Eva



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