I haven't read all the notes on tipping but having just returned from
spendin four months on sabbatical in NZ, I can say that we didn't tip, or
did to rarely, and the by and large the service was excellent. It may be
that the economics of resturant work is very different in NZ. Perhaps they
are paid a more decent wage and so may rely less on tips. I do seem to
recall someone saying to me, or maybe this is just something I seemed to
pick up, and that is a different way in thiking about work and service. All
in all I found it a much better way than the tipping in the US. I would
rather pay more for the meal than be expected to tip. I mean think about
it. You go into a diner and have a meal and perhaps leave a $2 or $3 or $4
tip - which may be reasonable. Then, you pay much more for a nice meal and
are expected to leave a larger tip based upon the cost of the meal. What
always bothers me is that the person working in the diner seems to be
working just as hard as the person in the 'fine' resturant - yet the latter
receives a MUCH larger tip. It seems we somehow value their work
differently.
Cary
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Nelson
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Sent: 8/19/2001 11:54 AM
Subject: RE: Tipping in restaurants
Phillip asked:
>So if, as Rose suggests, American restaurant staff work for speed of
>throughput plus happy customers at least partly because of the prospect
of
>the amount they will take home in tips, what is it that causes most NZ
>waiting staff to behave in broadly the same way?
This sounds like normal human behavior to me. That is, people's
happiness levels are affected by their expectations. Perhaps along
similar lines, there's the research showing that rewarding students
for their work, usually in the form of grades, dampens their
motivation for learning so that without continual rewarding, they
lose interested in what they are doing. So, NZ restaurant staff who
aren't tipped continue to enjoy what they're doing, while U.S.staff
who are tipped require a continuation of tipping to enjoy their work.
Charles
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 01 2001 - 01:02:12 PDT
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