The Tipping Point
An eye opening experience! why do people tip so sparingly?
So there we were all getting along well, my wife’s family, both lawyers, one a partner at a firm, my wife works for a marketing regulator and I am a writer. We keep up with current affairs and have children so there is always animated conversation, My brother in law has a great sense of humour, All well and good. Then, the bill arrives. Okay, so we have been on holiday before with them, We have a card that we preload and agree spending.
Of course my brother in law always chooses the most expensive item on the menu and we agree to go mid-range on the wine. All as expected. At the end of the meal, the waitress leaves the bill.
“Is service included?” I ask,
“No, it’s up to the individual.”
Tipping Point
Oh my goodness, she is relying on my brother in law to be reasonable, His friends would call him so, He has a three figure salary, he is a partner in a law firm, surely he will want to share some of his good fortune with someone on the smallest of wages? There is a cost of living crisis, her bills are rising, she works in a country pub, she might have to drive to work.
Not a bit of it.
“Just round it up.”
That’s why he suggests to everyone. It’s 66,00 and he wants to give her a 4.00 tip, Now, I am no mathematician but that is less than ten per cent, Our waitress poured our wine, brought all five us our meals on time and together and brought a jug of tap water and glasses unasked. In short, she did nothing wrong and everything right.
Even my son who is a student tips 12.5 per cent when and if he goes out and he insists we do the same, too, as a minimum.
My brother in law missed the memo – humanity binds us – we should do our best and utmost to help one another in small and large ways, do whatever we can. Do we really need to insult people by being so mean with a tip.
My mother in law.
“It’s difficult to know what to do isn’t it?”
“Well, if you can’t afford to pay a decent tip maybe you should eat at home,” I replied.
I could understand her at 86 and, being a lawyer’s wife from the age of eighteen, never working, that she might not understand how the world works but my brother in law, could he really be that self-centred?, I was stunned.
Don’t get me wrong, from then on we ensured that we tipped 12.5 per cent everywhere we went, even tough he made barbed comments about groups being charged ten per cent. There were five of us. He still ordered the most expensive item on the menu but at least he reformed when we explained that his nephew who worked delivering pizza in his university holidays always tipped 12.5 per cent, at least.
I really enjoyed their company and it was a good holiday. Five days we were together and each evening I offered my brother in law a drink and each time he accepted knowing it was not on the holiday card, but it was my money, not on one, single occasion did he offer to buy me a drink. I do well as a tutor and author but I am not a partner in a law firm. His kids are grown up, we are still supporting one of ours. To him I say, if you cannot afford a decent tip, stay home, eat at home, save money that way.
What do you think?
Tipping Point
Written by Michael Fitzalan
About the Author
Michael Fitzalan has been writing adventure stories since he was fourteen. He lives in south London, where he was born. His Irish parents were doctors and they settled on the West Side of Clapham Common and had six children in quick succession. The youngest started writing thrillers at fifteen. He published his first fiction book, a romance, The Taint Gallery.
The book is now out of print. However, Michael went on to write: Switch, Waterwitch, Major Bruton’s Safari, Innocent Proven Guilty, Half Past Kissing Time, Seveny Seven, Carom and Ad Bec, a children’s book, all considered entertainments, a phrase coined by Graham Greene.
