Ireland has still a pretty much tip free culture - I think. You tip wait people - and taxi drivers for some reason. And delivery people. And hairdressers, though I resent that - I can't afford the fifty quid as it is, and lots of people are paying three times that. Why exactly should your tip go up the more you pay, when all it means for most of us is that we can afford it less?
But it's confusing - I think the old Celtic Tiger saw people tipping more. I bought a big pot for the garden last week, and got a small Dunnes Stores' minion to carry it to the car for me. It would have been an appropriate time to give him something, given that it wasn't part of his job spec, but I find it really hard to get it together gracefully. I don't feel grown up enough to tip anyone convincingly. God, I've just had a horrible flashback to the time my mum sent me out to tip the pizza guy and it turned out to be someone I'd had a drunken and misguided teenage dalliance with some years before. Ughhh.
I wonder is it that awkwardness that stops people, or the sense that people don't deserve it? My husband, when he started working in his current sales job, delivered a tv to someone in order to ensure a sale. On his day off. And your man was very grateful, but didn't offer him anything more than his thanks.
I think there should be some guidelines now, when to do it, when not to, and how much, like with restaurants.
When tipping first became vogue in Ireland I admit to tipping generously. However, in recent months, maybe the last year I have been less casual about how I show my gratuity.
ReplyDeleteI found a great hairdresser this year and I give her between 5-8 euro when I visit her. Sometimes this is more than 10% sometimes it's not but it's about an extra half hour pay and I think that is sufficient. This is not the 80's any more. These people earn a decent wage.
In restaurants I generally tip 10% unless the staff are crap, rude or the food is not to standard. regretfully, there appears to be an abundance of dog ignorant staff in Irish restaurants of late- I don't like it - but my wallet does.