Tip Jar Mania

Oh, I do have a question. Does anyone use the daycare at the gym? (Before I ramble on about the following, I really am curious to know how other gym daycares are and if they're trustworthy).

I thought I might check out the daycare at my gym today to see if I might have enough guts to have the kids go there and play while I work out (I mean, it's only for an hour or so). No, I haven't done the daycare thing yet at all, call me lame, yes, and I haven't done the non-family babysitter yet either because I am probably wayyy overprotective (that's another issue entirely) but my family is usually around to watch them if I need someone and I prefer to have family except out of total necessity if possible. And for the gym, my mother-in-law usually watches them, but I was thinking that on the rare occasion she can't, maybe I could take them with me.

But I was really put off by the giant TIP JAR that was on the desk.

Because I thought, oh, ok. So if I tip, you'll not treat my kid like crap? And it kind of pissed me off. A tip jar at a daycare?

AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE?!

And then it got me thinking about tip jars in general. And how pressured I feel to tip ALL THE TIME, even employees who are getting a regular wage and who don't actually serve me food or do anything, really, other than take my money in the original capacity that is paying for something at a cash register.

In New York, when I worked at one of the news channels, I got so fed up after going to a deli where I bought a sandwich and used my debit card and there was a place to leave a tip and total just above the signature and I wrote in a tip because I thought I had to even though all the guy did was literally hand me the sandwich and I thought, the world has totally lost it and is completely out of control with the tipping.

So I went across the street, back to work with my sandwich and put a tip jar on my desk. Because why not? I wasn't making that much money, either. All my money went to my ridiculous $1000 a month 200 square foot studio apartment that was smaller than my news director's office and I had to eat bologna sandwiches most of the time. Why shouldn't I ask for just a little bit more!

The funny thing was, people actually started putting money in it. But it was usually only change and it was for the Lucky Bucket. I had a little red, tin candy bucket at my desk that became infamous, we called it the "Lucky Bucket" (I even passed it on to a friend of mine in a ceremony before I left the job). But it was always full of some kind of candy and it took on a life of its own; people I didn't even know were passing by to check what was in the bucket, people I knew (and even those I didn't) were even filling it up sometimes. So when I put the tip jar there, people would occasionally put money in there to contribute to the Lucky Bucket which I thought was hilarious. Because it was totally unnecessary and I had the tip jar there just as a joke and a statement. Mostly though, people put smart ass comments on sticky notes in there and that was really what it was there for.

Anyway, I do "get" that anyone can use some extra cash, including people who don't make great wages. I am not totally callous and terrible. But I can't help it. Even when I go in to get takeout wings and the girl at the register literally just turned around, grabbed the white grocery bag full of food and handed it to me, I still end up tipping because I am pressured by that line in the receipt called "tip".

Come to think of it, maybe it is just me. I have always been somewhat confused by tips and who to tip (in New York, it's pretty much everyone, especially around the holidays -- your landlord, your doorman, the person at the salon who washes your hair who is not your hairdresser because they have separate people for that, etc etc). But when it comes to like, furniture delivery or housekeeping, the groomer, or the nurse who waxes my eyebrows at my dermatologist's office (I still don't know the answer to this one by the way), I am always running around in a fury and googling and asking people, "Am I supposed to tip them??"

In instances where I am sure that there is a tip involved, I am an over-tipper. Because I was a server for many moons in my college days at quite a few nice restaurants (I made the best money at Denny's though, but that's another story) and I made a meager $2.25 an hour + tips and there were many times I felt like a servant rather than a server and I understand them well and I want them to feel uber-appreciated. So I tip them rather well and I can't ever bring myself to stiff anyone ever. Even if they hated me.

Anyway, I could just be getting irritable at my old age (although I was 24 or so when I put that tip jar on my desk so maybe I'm always that irritable) that everyone's trying to get in on tips. Including the lady at my gym's daycare. (She even made sure to mention the tip jar even though it was quite large, right in front of my face, and marked in very large letters "TIPS".) So it goes that I no longer know the rules of tipping and I feel like a complete and total schmuck now if I go through the Starbucks drive-thru and don't leave another damn dollar on top of the total for my (delicious) $500 Skinny Vanilla Latte.

Tip Jar Mania

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/08/tip-jar-mania.html