Some of my friends must have quietly branded me a miser.
This is because I am not into the habit of tipping.
I have always felt that there is a thin line between tipping and bribing. The scale tends to skew towards the latter when carried out with an ulterior intention and at an inappropriate timing.
Many years ago, my friend and I drove into a neighbouring country for a family vacation. We booked into one of the many hotels there where parking spaces were limited.
When we reached the hotel, we were lucky to get a spot at the open-air car park manned by an attendant.
After parking our cars and as we were walking out of the parking lot, my friend dished out some cash and handed them over to the parking attendant, pointing to both our cars.
I asked my friend, “ Why are you tipping him so early ? Shouldn’t we tip him only when we check out ? “
My friend winked at me and replied “ We have a few nights here. Tipping him now will give us an advantage to get our parking spots later. “
Clever, I thought to myself but on deeper thought , isn’t this tantamount to bribing ?
The spirit behind tipping is to reward or show appreciation to someone with a good service AFTER it has been provided. But to tip them before that can well be interpreted as bribing.
If this is the case, isn’t the service charge (tipping) incorporated into our restaurants billing system under the same category as bribing ?
Restaurants claim that the service charge collected goes to the staff although no one can really verify this fact.
Whether part of it goes to the restaurant owners’ pocket is anyone’s guess but the fact remains that a service charge is a form of forced tipping.
Coupled with the fact it is spelt out in the restaurant’s menu in advance, it simply means customers are prepared to tip them in advance even before the order is made or the service provided.
And tipping a person even before the service is provided is neither a reward nor a show of appreciation. Then what does it constitute ?
A friend has suggested that the government should abolish service charges.
“ We should follow Japan and China where there's no such thing.
“ Doesn't the company make enough money to pay the workers?
“Isn't the service part of serving the customers? In some countries, the price you see is the total final price you pay.
“ No more plus plus. Add whatever you like to the price and let the consumers decide whether it's a fair value,” he lamented.
Back at home in the guarded and gated community that I stayed in, the residents were often confronted with issues of uncollected garden waste which were left in front of their houses.
Local council workers were saddled with a mammoth task of collecting them in time with the limited space they had in their truck.
Some residents were impatient with the uncollected and unsightly bags of tree trunks, leaves and branches near their house compound which also happened to deprive them of a parking spot.
It was therefore not surprising for some over zealous residents to resort to “tipping” the workers to give priority to their woes.
Apparently, they didn’t realise their actions had deprived their fellow residents of a fair deal where everyone should be treated equally.
Such actions repeated over a period of time tend to pamper the workers who will be on the look out for some goodies before attending to their responsibilities. Their target is usually those who had the habit of tipping them.
As for the tipping resident, he probably didn’t realise that he could also end up as a loser because the workers would likely skip his collection with the hope to “bump” into him to get that habitual tip.
In the various trips I have had to the United States, I have to get accustomed to their tipping culture. On one occasion, my wife and I left a restaurant after paying in cash but forgot to leave a tip.
We were already some 30 metres out of the restaurant when a waiter hastily followed us and shouted “ Hey, you forgot to tip”
Such tipping culture in the United States is still very prevalent today and getting more and more out of hand.
Meanwhile, in Japan the opposite occurred. In our first trip there many years ago, as we were checking into the hotel, a porter helped us with our luggage.
Unaware of their culture at that time, I took out some money to tip the porter. He glared at me with a tint of anger in his eyes and walked away in disdain.
I later learnt that their culture scorned at tipping, taking it as an insult to their integrity.
Integrity is a sensitive topic, yet it unquestionably serves as a cornerstone for a successful and thriving society.
During my early days helming a medium size company, it took a lot effort to institute a culture that emphasised on integrity in our business dealings. More so, if we need to be consistent with the effort.
The Malaysian Institute of Integrity which was established 20 years ago still has a long way to go to instil such a sound value into the rakyat.
In fact, I wonder how many citizens know of its existence, let alone its work.
It’s high time the government make more concerted efforts in promoting integrity in both the public and private sector.
Vincent Lim is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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