In this episode, Waseem and Majid explore the complexities of tipping culture from a third culture kid’s perspective. They discuss the varying expectations and practices around tipping in different countries, questioning whether tipping truly improves service quality or just reflects a deeper issue with wages in the service industry. Join them as they invite listeners to share their own experiences and thoughts on the subject and consider the challenges that third culture kids face when navigating tipping etiquette.
Transcript
Waseem: Welcome back to Third Culture Convos. I’m Wasim your host for today’s episode, and today I’m joined by Maji and we’re exploring another fascinating aspect of the third Culture kid experience. In today’s episode, we’re going to dive into the complex and often confusing world of tipping etiquette across different cultures.
As third culture kids, we’ve navigated the. Varying norms and expectations surrounding tipping. And we’re excited to share some of our stories and insights with you from the significance of gratuities to the unspoken rules governing tipping practices. We’ll discuss challenges and amusing experiences we’ve encountered while adapting to different tipping cultures from around the globe.
So let’s just jump right in. Maj, I know you were very excited to have this discussion and to talk about tipping and the world of tipping has changed a lot and we’ve all had our experiences, so hit me.
Majid: Yeah. It’s just, there’s been a rash of recent posts on Reddit related to DoorDash and GrubHub and these delivery companies, and it has to do with tipping.
People are very confused with. How much they’re supposed, are they supposed to tip the driver? How much are they supposed to tip the driver? Why do they have to pay extra on top of the service charge? What’s the service
Waseem: charge for? And the service charge has gone up and the service charges have gone up.
And so service charges have gone, tipping has gone up. And restaurant you’re talking about the driver and so deliveries and Ubers but also in restaurants. So when you go to restaurants especially post pandemic. In North America, tipping went from, let’s say a range. And I remember when it wasn’t this range.
I remember when the range was like 10 to 15%. So I remember when I first came to North America, probably 20 or when I first. Had money in my pocket to tip the tipping was 10 to 15% and 15% was like, Mike you, people are incredible. And
Majid: 10% is the, like your good job, 15% is your excellent job.
Exactly, yes. Excellent. I’ll be back again. 12% is if I’m feeling generous and I have some
Waseem: loose change. Yeah, I’ll be back. And then slowly the it, I think it went up at some point and it became 15 to 20. And, that was the, range, the new range, and then post pandemic. Also on Reddit it went from, it’s 18 to 25 now.
It’s like something like 18, 25%. And, a lot of the argument. That is so I’ll, re I’ll go on Reddit and I’ll look at a picture of a tip or expectation of a tip. And especially I think what has also created more of the expectation of tipping in North American culture is, when you put in, like you pay by tap or you pay using the, machine.
And so the machine then will it’s not just immediately just tap and go like you’re in a grocery store. It’ll be like, Do you wanna add a tip? And then it’ll give you suggested amounts. And the suggested amounts are were 10, 12, 15, then became, maybe the machines weren’t around then, and then it became 15, 18, 20, and now it’s 18 20, 22, 23.
And, that number just starts to creep up. And in those arguments you have a couple of things. On the one side, like on, on Reddit, you’ll have people going I’ll hear it being like, you gotta give the, these service workers a wage. They lost so much money over the pandemic.
It sucked that this job sucks anyway. Everything sucks about everything. And like you’re an asshole for not giving them any a higher and higher tip. And then on the other side it’s man, isn’t it my, the employer’s job to figure that shit out? Isn’t it that not, that’s not the customer’s job to figure out how much to top up a your salary.
Your salary is not my business. I don’t know how much you make. I don’t know how whether it’s a lot or a little or enough. I don’t know how many hours you work. Like I’m not in a position to judge your, whether you’ve made enough today or not
Majid: like post pandemic. There’s also been restaurants that have openly said, Hey, tip our people because we don’t pay a fair living.
We expect they need these tips to live people, so please tip them really well. They’re very open about it and yeah. The, with the second person’s argument that you just mentioned, the two people, the second person, there’s also the statement of Isn’t that why we have a minimum wage so that everyone knows that if they work a guaranteed minimum hours, 40 hours, they’re going to make X amount of money.
Like how in the restaurant industry, which is huge, especially in North America, take out in lunch lunches and work lunches and stuff, how is it that like, This entire industry is not subject to labor laws and labor rights. Like, how did we miss
Waseem: that one? Because they’re, a crazy corporation, right?
I can
Majid: pay you $3 below the minimum wage because you’ll make it up in tips if, because you’ll make it up in
Waseem: tips. Yeah. Yeah. And then, but then also every employment like area every, thing, they gotta figure out how they’re gonna split the tips. So let’s say like the what about the back staff?
What about the kitchen staff? What about the cleaning staff? What about all these people that are on the same sort of pay grade? As the servers, but the only people that are in a position to collect the tips or to push for higher tips, right? Would you tip more if the food was spectacular?
Yes. Would you tip more if the food was spectacular, but the service was horrendous? I don’t know. Prob would you be more in, in a position to be like, oh, you know what? I’m going out. I’m, tipping. And, but and now we’re not just talking about the tipping that we’re talking about the amount to tip.
So I think there’s multiple parts of this discussion. It’s a to tip or not to tip because that’s not standard operating procedure all over the world.
Majid: Because Europeans is Germans especially, are very awkward when they visit America. They’re very put off by this concept of tipping. Apparently in Germany they don’t tip like that.
And so like they, exactly. The first question is even just to tip or not is it the employers prerogative to get to have you as a working person stable working person? Yeah. Or is it the customer’s? Is it coming out of the customer’s
Waseem: wallet. Yeah. And I think. There’s a bunch of things here.
So let’s talk about the first part, which is to tip or not to tip. I remember when I was in in Korea. In Korea, there’s no tipping culture. So like you don’t tip. And I remember going to a restaurant once with with, a friend, and we ate and then we left a tip on the table. It it was nice, lovely people, da We left a tip on the table and we left the restaurant, and then I, kid you not two minutes later, the woman that served us, chasing us down on down the street and said, you forgot your money on the table. And we were like, no, this is for you. And she said, oh no, This is for you. I got paid.
This is for you. I have money. I don’t need this like, the my, the cost is in the service. It’s done. You’re we’re, good. This is my job. I don’t need extra. Yeah. And, like the fact that she ran down the street, the fact that she gave it and it’s oh, like not only that, like it’s it, almost felt.
That we were insulting her by giving her a tip. And that blew my mind, right? Like it was the first time that I had been in a situation where and different, like in the Middle East, there is a tipping culture. It’s called like in the in you, gratitude.
It’s, that might be the, word like you, I breath the Lord. Yeah. Sometimes before. So that the person like knows that you tip it’s like when you go to a hotel and you tip the bellboy like right up, right As soon as you get there because, and you give ’em a nice big tip because then they, they’ll take good care of you for the rest of the trip.
Because oh yeah. And then when you’re leaving you give an ice big tip as well. And then like you, set it up and if you, don’t tip, you don’t get as nice of an experience, right? So it’s not every culture in the world, but in certain, I remember just in Korea, it was like there was just no tipping.
You didn’t, like it was and, the further you left cities or like bigger restaurants, like where it wasn’t like a big restaurant that like the smaller, like family owned places. You definitely didn’t tip, which seems counterintuitive to what you would normally think. That you would do you know
Majid: that
is very counterintuitive to usual.
Yeah, Like a
Waseem: small family place would be like no, You don’t tip us like, like That’s rude.
Majid: That’s cool. That’s very good. Yeah. It’s the same here in Pakistan in general. In Pakistan, people don’t tip, but that’s more out of culturally that like they don’t tip. So when I do give people money here, they’re more than happy.
They remember you because they’re like, oh yeah, This is the guy who actually gives like, Yeah.
Waseem: Yeah. And, so there is like a place, all this is interesting. When I’m putting myself in the, as a service worker position, I’m in the service worker’s position. Now I would, what would I prefer?
Would I prefer to have it like a good wage, and this is my job and this is my service job, whatever it is. If I have to carry things, if I have to like this, whatever I’m doing in service or hospitality or whatever would I prefer a job? Like with that hat they gave me, like a sal, like this is my salary and I know how much I’m getting at the end of the month for the hours that I’ve worked.
And that’s that. Or do I prefer a, like a, scale based on like multiple factors, half of which aren’t in my hands, right? They’re not yes, sure, I can provide better service. I can do that in both scenarios, right? In the other it’s, not if I don’t have the incentive of a tip, I’m going to do a bad job, right?
Like, I don’t necessarily think, I think they want you to believe that right? Because then that makes it easy. But I fixed, I think people will choose stability. Over. Not even like I’m having a bad day, but maybe this person can’t afford the tip or this person is, or this customer is from a culture that doesn’t do tipping.
Majid: Can I be a service worker who understands the place of a customer and says, yeah, it’s not the place of a customer to pay my salary, it’s my boss’s job to pay my
Waseem: salary to collect it. Yeah, The person who’s sitting at the collecting the money. For this, for the overall service that’s being provided, which is if it’s in a restaurant, it’s the food.
And like even in service industries, right? Like I think about the number of service industries. That there, that exist. Like you don’t tip your doctor, you don’t tip your nurse. Except I in Saudi sometimes, like you would people tip the nurse like there are plenty of times where somebody will tip the nurse.
Even though I think as in terms of hospital policy, it isn’t allowed. But if a nurse has taken real good care of your your father or your, somebody in your family, people will be like here’s the ti. Thank you and.
Majid: What, you are calling a tip in this case is more of a gift.
Yes, I understand it’s a technical, like linguistic difference, but it really is different. That’s a gift versus a
Waseem: tip. What, because it’s, I think it’s coupled with lack of expectation. What makes it a gift there is that there’s a lack of expectation of it and the, probably the whole issue with tips is the expectation associated with it.
And so that there’s an expectation that there’s a tip. And so therefore you cannot gift, therefore, you cannot gift good service. Be like, oh, here you, just, you’ve been incredible. And, even that person can say, no, I got paid enough. It’s cool. No, you don’t really, I really don’t need to.
You can do that dance. You can do the dance for No, please. No, Please take it. No, I don’t want, like No please, Just take it. No, I can’t. I really can’t. All right. I you’re, as I put it in my pocket, you really, I really can’t do this. I really I really can’t accept this.
So yeah, it’s a very nuanced type of thing and it’s, it seems to me it’s the expectation and as the expectation goes up of, like even what their tip requirement is. The more, let’s say, the whole culture of tipping comes to question, comes into question, comes into debate.
Majid: That’s why I started with the app.
Is because the app is one of, I think, the most extreme cases of this tipping thing because it’s crazy that there’s companies out there that have an entire, they’re functioning and they have investors and stuff, and they haven’t figured out this major part of their business. Like to tip or not to tip or how to deal with drivers who want more tips and they’re holding the food hostage.
And what’s
Waseem: so funny with this particular thing, I think as well, is that these big Uber companies, they’re like huge. And they came under a lot of scrutiny for the fact that the workers were gig workers and not employed workers. So they get no benefits. And like how that comes into contrast with driving companies and taxi companies where there may be benefits involved, there may be there, there are things in maybe, I don’t know.
About with the taxi companies, but there may be benefits. There’s experience involved. There’s not, there’s anybody with a car can just get the job. And and to, remedy that, what the. It’s, a sinister and genius at the same time that instead of going, you know what, we’re gonna set up a program, which they may have, we’re gonna do this.
Which they may have, which they may have they may have done all these things. What they did was they introduced the tipping feature, and then they kicked the problem down the line so that it’s your problem now. Like, it’s and, whose problem is it? It’s the wor the, gig worker and the customer.
So it’s no longer and cause Uber’s oh, I like you’re the one’s not paying him, you asshole. It’s, the customers that don’t like,
Majid: look, I put it on. I find this incredible that they manage to just like you. Two, find it out and we, figure it out. Put our fees from both sides. Both of you just keep giving us money.
And you two keep fighting.
Waseem: Yeah. The service fees is clear. So that’s coming to us, right? And so the rest of you guys figured out and if you really, and I’ve, I even heard if you, I’ve heard this man from people, but and, it, so it, pits people against each other. Because then people will be like, if you’re too lazy to pay, if you’re too cheap to pay a tip, then don’t order Uber and go get the food yourself.
And then so then you’re like, huh? What? Like, how did that happen?
Majid: I’ve just worked six days in a row. This is my one day off. I just wanted to sit at home and get some food. Why is this like philosophical, like now? Now I’m
Waseem: responsible for the. The, ails of the American worker, right?
Like, I’m responsible for the, tech companies letting everybody off. Like now I’m responsible for all this stuff. Like, me individually. Personally, right?
Majid: Like you are taking it out on me with my order. I’m trying to give you money, but you’re still taking it out on me. What to do here?
Yes. And then, by the way, so there’s the to tip or not to tip, but then there’s this amount that you’re absolutely right. Went from eight. Eight was like I spit at you. I didn’t like your service, but I’m still like in public, so I’m giving you something. 10 is your standard, like solid, decent service.
12 is your like above average. And then 15 was like exceptional. Those figures. 8, 10, 12, 15 has gone to 1820. Keep going up 22, 25 or like 15, 18, 20 and 22. Like somewhere there, like it’s just jumped over. What? Like it’s still the same service. You’re not like, you haven’t enhanced the service at all. You haven’t become more efficient or anything.
I’m getting the same product.
Waseem: And I was also thinking Other people in the service industry that don’t get any tips. So rash, it isn’t here, but we have like flight attendants, right? And, they like, I nev you don’t tip the flight attendant, right? You don’t, and even though, and even having.
Like having a friend like Rashid, who is a flight attendant and who said, explains like he only gets, like their payment structure works where they only get paid once the doors of the plane close. So getting like the two hours it takes to get to you the, commute is on your time. And, then you still can’t get a you’re still not, like not in the line, let’s say, or in consideration for tipping.
It’s that doesn’t seem fair. And, that’s probably where as a, a third culture kid who’s experienced a bunch of tipping cultures from across the world, that’s probably the whole problem with tipping. I find like the, intellectual problem, at the very least, like everybody, everybody loves to receive a tip.
I don’t, I like unless you’re paid really well and you don’t need a tip. And like it still might feel nice for you to get a a token of gratitude. So tokens of gratitude, and that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about financial tips.
Majid: That’s where token of gratitude for me is what I call gift versus
Waseem: tip.
Yes. Versus tip where the expectation, but then it seems like there’s a bunch of people in the service industries in, in, different aspects of a service industry where it is either hospitality or service or care. That aren’t eligible for these tips and have just as much of a claim as a, driver that delivers as and the reason why they like, it’s like tipping is like the crutch that the, in that industry, let’s say the restaurant industry and the the, like the delivery industry And the transportation like, like the taxi driving industry, that’s those industries, it’s the crutch that allows them to make their profits to like, I want, I don’t want to be too cynical, but it’s the thing that allows ’em to not really clean up their act.
In terms of how they, compensate their, workers and how they properly monetize their business. How they properly value their business, how they properly cost their business, and like how much it costs to actually do the work. And, that’s what leads to the, situation of exploit exploitation.
And the tip and tipping is like the bandaid. That goes on top of that, says, okay you could tip more, right? You could do more as a, because you’re not gonna solve this problem. And it, and here’s, and lo and behold, another problem that. That the, politicians that the government, that the business bureaus another problem that nobody can solve, but you similar to all the other problems that nobody can solve, but you, are you been recycling lately?
Have you been walking less and walking more and driving less? Do you take your bike? It’s, more and more big ticket problems. Get pushed down to, you when the biggest, the 80% of the 20% that create 80% of the problem. Wait, what? What am I gonna do? Hey you’re often
Majid: devils you’re,
Waseem: often devils.
Yeah. Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m trying to solve world hunger here. Yeah. Like really,
Majid: Yeah. Yeah. I’m talking about you trying to solve the world hunger that you are causing.
Waseem: Yeah. Yeah. You are causing you, and the problem is, that there’s too many people on the earth. That’s the problem.
We gotta find some yeah, that’s the problem really. There’s just too many people. There’s too many people and I want way too much.
Majid: And, by the way, that’s why I wanted to just talk about tipping. It’s like this really small, minuscule kind of thing that like no one really. This is the thing, why don’t we wanna talk about it?
No one wants to talk about problems anymore, really. And it is a problem that appears for the third culture. I think third culture individual, more often than not, they travel more. Generally speaking, they’re around different places and It’s something that seems to arise more often than not, and it’s the same thing what you’re saying.
Where does it start and where does it end? The cab driver who did not get up to move my suitcases into the back, I had to move those. Do I tip him or not? I did all the work, like the, little marginal places that you could have serviced me. You didn’t. So do I owe you something now, or not?
Waseem: Yeah, and even, I think even in that, right? So I, could I’m the driver, so like part a, part of a, I think a, civil society that I want to be a part of. Is where people do helpful things for each other without an expectation at, the very least, a monetary expectation in return.
So I’m, standing at the example I’m, standing at a traffic light. And there’s a I’m walking and then there’s an old lady and it looks like she’s carrying a big bag. And I offer to help her, and I carry her bag and I carry it across the street so that she can just hustle across the street or I stop the traffic or I, or I do one, two, or three things.
I I, don’t want to live in a world where I go, okay, now you can tip me. For that. Okay. And why I put my hand out mommy, please. Yes, please. I was just trying to help. And I, wanna live in a world where somebody sees someone that needs help. A mom, she’s carrying three kids and she’s got this and she’s got that and, she’s pregnant and she’s, and I wanna live in a world where people get up.
Like people get up and they help and they notice, right? And I think that’s what I wa a kind of world I would wanna live in and I want to contribute towards. That’s a communal type of world. Even as, the ENT catalyst that I am a communal type of world where there isn’t necessarily that expectation of there isn’t that expectation like of, me helping.
So if my job, if I’m in a position where my, in my, in a job that I, have to help people. I’m not doing it just so that you give me money. And actually I, know in the, like in the Middle East and in Saudi, when there are people that are like that, won’t do anything unless there’s something in it for them.
Like financially, monetarily, they’re rep doesn’t, they don’t last very long. Like they’re sidelined. Yeah. Yeah, People note that person is like that. And it’s, a negative it’s a negative connotation. So they go, man, this guy’s like this. And Oh, okay. And then, and people choose not to work with them.
And obvi, I think, obviously I, say that obviously as a T C K obviously that, you would prefer to have people that you know, help from the goodness of their heart, right? I’m in a position to help you, and if I am in a position to help you, I’m gonna help as many people as I possibly can.
And even like religiously, like I I think even like on a sort of a spiritual level, and I would hope that, there’s this base is that it’s because the more people I help, I even, I know even Christ like Christians and stuff that will have the same type of thing. It’s like I’m helping children of God, right?
Like you are also a child of God and so I’m helping you, and by doing that, I am helping God. Like I’m, making it good with God by doing this with you and also I’m doing this so that in the hope that God helps me. So that I do want something back, but I don’t need anything from you. What are you gonna give me?
Five bucks, 10 bucks, 20 bucks? Forget that, man. That’s not what I want. I want some good stuff. Can you tweak karma? Yeah, Exactly. I want some of that good stuff. Don’t forget it, man. You keep it. That and, even in that, even though it’s, selfish, like there is an element of selfishness in, your helping.
Maybe that’s something that you simply cannot escape, right? That is something that’s always in there. Yeah.
Majid: The thing is, the help you are talking about is generally speaking, not tied to your work. The reason why this is so interlinked and confusing is because it’s a career, it’s part of your career income.
It’s part of the job, but it’s also not, yes. And so that’s what makes it very the servers, most of them will tell you, we go out of our way regardless. We will go out of our way to help whether the tip is coming or not. We’re good people, we’ll help regardless. But we would, we’d just like to know what we’re going home to in our wallets.
Like that same, it’s that same argument and that’s totally
Waseem: fair. That’s totally fair. Can fair, can I just make
Majid: $12 an hour at a steady rate versus $7 and $10 in tips or 17 and not have a living
Waseem: wage, but work the same like, work full-time and not have enough, and not have enough to have my own place to live in?
To have a place to live, to have food, to eat, to have to, have a family. And it’s that
Majid: same thing again. What about the whole ecosystem? The busboy or bus girl who does, who cleans up the plates and makes sure in their own way they’ve contributed to your food, getting there in some way, shape or form by keeping the restaurant clean.
The janitor has made your food hygienic in some way. Don’t they deserve some of that tip then? And there are restaurants that pool tips and stuff, but those are like, You have to be very well organized and very well managed, and be honest to have that system. Yeah. Yeah.
Waseem: Because you gotta give somebody the pool and you and some and, there are some like restaurant owners that are just garbage, right?
Like you, you’d be like and, you’ll see turnover’s really high there. Like they never
Majid: the same person. Remember a ABC Amy’s baking company, the one where Gordon Ramsey the first Kitchen nightmare, I think that he walked out of, he just couldn’t work with them anymore. He couldn’t handle this.
They’re definitely also T C K’s. The husband was like a Lebanese American guy and she was like from there and it was a disaster of an episode. But they were also like that, they were owners that kept all the tips. All the restaurant servers were telling the documentary that like, yo, they take all the mo our money.
We get our basic minimum wage or less than minimum wage.
video1600916650: And
Waseem: that’s it. Yeah. And as soon as you work and these are the kinds of places where like when you quit, you give them no notice and you don’t, you shouldn’t give them notice. Fuck, fuck them. Like, you shouldn’t, you don’t have to tell them shit.
And, but the, but again, the debate comes on not just I think consumer protections, cuz I think what we’re talking about is not just that, but it’s also worker protections. And Right, like for some reason this popped into my head, I saw a, little thing of with Oprah on with about Oprah.
So Oprah apparently was, shitting on gen Zers. And she was like, you know what the problem is with Gen Z ears is that they want success just like that. They don’t wanna work for it. They don’t wanna, and there’s a cringe factor when it comes from su Uber billionaires sitting there saying, oh, gen Z ears, they wanted success just like that.
They’re like, no, they don’t like, they don’t want success. They totally understand that they need work. What they do want though is like all that education debt that you told them that all that education debt you put on them. Yeah, that remember that lie the, lie, the great lie that you, did with them.
And now even if you have a job, you get a job and it’s making, and it’s paying you decently. You still don’t have enough to live in a city like with, dignity, right? Like you still don’t have enough to, move outta your parents’ house. And I thought you said that like they would move out. So please be quiet.
Please be
Majid: quiet. Don’t good. Just enough to pay your property tax.
Waseem: Yeah. To pay your taxes and, maybe service your debt. And maybe, but not too much because we need that debt to keep growing.
Majid: That’s the thing. Not service your debt. Service your, like interest payment, but not work on the actual debt.
Waseem: I don’t, yeah, we don’t.
Nobody wants that to go down. So I think all of it when it, like, when we talk on a grand scale about tipping and like tipping culture and I, feel like in society and, in cultures where there isn’t tipping, it’s not like the service is shitty, like service does not suffer when you remove tipping.
And from my experience now in, in like the Middle East, like in the Middle East and in North America and in Europe, right? I mean though Europe, like the I’m not sure, I can’t remember about tipping. But in terms of service the Middle East where it’s at. Like you go place, like people don’t say no.
They say yes. How can I help you? What more can I do for you? What more can I do for you? What else do you need? And like even in when I’m going to buy something in a store there’s like the salesman is good. Like the salesman is what do you need? What else can I get you? They, end at what else they don’t like.
It’s always please just leave me alone. I don’t wanna sell anything. Which is how I feel a lot of times when I’m in in North America where maybe there’s least like salespeople in, in, or what do they call them? Like store what you did. Yeah. Yeah. Twin seals. Yeah You’re working there, you’re not, no one’s ever gonna offer you a tip, right?
And so you’re not like
Majid: And there’s a little bit of yo, this person’s out here spending hundreds of dollars and I’m making 10 bucks. And I,
Waseem: yeah. So yeah, there’s that as well. And so you’re like oh, sorry, you don’t, you didn’t get the one you wanted. I. And you know the other ones down the hall
Majid: in the Gulf, they’re happy when you’re like, okay, I want $10,000 of this, 20,000 of this.
They’re like, oh, cool. What next? What next? Yeah, over here it’s yo, okay. Can you stop spending your money in front of me? Can you go to the other store
Waseem: please? Yeah. This is disgusting. You should be ashamed. I’m like
Majid: Yeah, What would Greta think? I’m gonna take
Waseem: my phone and record you now and post you on the internet and shame you virally.
Majid: We need the cancel Maia.
Waseem: Yeah, You’re probably also a racist.
I don’t know, man. I dunno.
Majid: Yeah. Yeah. I Tipping. I don’t know. It’s just weird. It’s just weird that again, it’s it hasn’t really been addressed. And Canada’s also like American now where people are wondering what’s going on. Is there an answer to this? Or they’re very confused over there as well.
Waseem: So here’s where I’m gonna shoot it back. I’m gonna shoot it back to our listener. I want you to like, what do you think? Are we totally off about this? So like we cl we are clearly on the side of, you gotta be done with this tipping thing. I don’t want anybody to judge people because they don’t tip enough.
And I think that all of that is a sideshow from the actual problem, which is an economic problem and a a wage problem and a I think that’s where the problems exist. I don’t think the problem is that people aren’t I think people want a gift. I think they, they would love to, and I think they just have problems with the expectations of it, at least not their culture kids, but like us in the east and stuff.
Like we just have an issue of the expectation. I think, and I think that They’re, this is a tough topic, but I think they’re more and more advocacy and work can be done towards this. I think it’s happening Starbucks workers unionize and then see what happens to them.
And, so I think this is a, bigger, more complex issue than just, now just start tipping 25%. And stop doing 30%. And then, so my question is like, where does it end, Karen? Where does it end?
Majid: Do you hear the ice cream machine, the ice cream guy outside? I just wanna say he doesn’t get tipped ever.
He he sells his ice cream. Yeah. He goes from every block to block street to street. He gets his money for the ice cream and that’s it. And, there’s this
Waseem: idea, I think also where there’s a like an idea of like risk. Risk is, what you get. Like, what? Like any money that you get.
That you earned, but you were owed Cosmic. It’s not it’s not for you. It’s e it is not because you did such an amazing job. It’s because God has graced you. Because so every, buck is, a, is grace. Is grace. And that, thought makes it very or believing that when you believe that it, it makes you very grateful for the things that do come your way.
Like it, it’s a feeling of which also makes you. A bit more content with whatever it is. And, that’s part of what I was saying is that a lot of these things are outside of your. Y outside of your control, like the thing, the person that’s coming the day that they’re having, the day that you’re having the, situation most of the time is outta your control.
And if your, salary or your wage is, the up and downs of of those things, it would make it very difficult, I think for you to do to perfor perform at a high level in your service job. Cuz you’re worried about your compensation and what’s gonna come and you’re trying to get out of it or trying to get a better job or trying to do something different or trying to move.
And so it doesn’t necessarily reward good work. I think even tipping, I think actually even tipping doesn’t necessarily reward and improve the service industry and. So that’s what I, that’s the claim I’m making. I’m open to changing my mind. I’m, spreading it out there. Do you think it’s the same like not just, yeah.
Yeah. You guys
Majid: let us know your thoughts about all of this tipping. Is it,
Waseem: are we totally off? Are we assholes? Which c countries do you live
Majid: in? And do they tip there? What’s the tipping etiquette there? Is it like, yeah, are we completely off base here or are we, have we hit a home run and like we’ve bullseye kind of thing?
Waseem: And that wraps. Up our conversation. On tipping etiquette and third culture kid experience. As always, I’d like to thank our listeners for tuning in and being part of the third culture convos community. As we continue to explore these unique challenges and opportunities that come with being a T C K.
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And this is em. This is .
Majid: Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace.