A Pizza and a Tip
I went to pick up a pizza for dinner on my drive home. It was a cold night, and snowflakes were starting to stick as they landed on my Jeep’s windshield. I had the Christmas music cranked up and was feeling festive.
Plus, I love pizza.
I walked into the restaurant and approached the pickup counter. The woman working there was clearly not feeling the same holiday vibe as me. She flatly asked what my name was. I told her.
Without looking up, she said, “That’ll be $24.50.”
I took out thirty dollars from my wallet. She handed the change back to me without comment or eye contact. I could see that my pizza was just coming out of the oven.
As I waited for the pizza maker to box it up, I noticed a bowl on the counter: Tips Appreciated.
And the bowl—no surprise—was empty.
I had two conflicting thoughts:
The woman at the pickup counter is a bit grouchy, so it makes sense that the tip bowl is empty, but . . .
Maybe she’s having a bad day. Maybe she hates her job. Maybe this is not “the most wonderful time of the year” for her, for whatever reason.
I took the five-dollar bill and the coins she had just handed me and dropped them into her tip bowl.
A moment later, she came around the corner and plopped my pizza box on the counter. In that same instant, she spotted the five-dollar bill and change in her once-empty bowl.
She smiled wide. Her eyes became instantly friendly. She made direct eye contact and said, “Thanks so much, honey! You have yourself a great night! Enjoy your pizza! I really appreciate this.”
In an instant, her entire demeanor shifted.
Could my small five-dollar gesture have turned her night round? Maybe.
I walked back to my car and continued thinking about her on my drive home. How often do we have an opportunity to positively impact someone with a simple act of kindness or generosity? Isn’t that what the holiday spirit is all about?
This is a great time of the year to think about your tipping philosophy. Are you a generous tipper? Do you leave 20 percent no matter the service? Do you tip solely on performance?
What is your philosophy about this?
People who work in the service industry and rely on tips have a lot of unpredictability in their jobs. They can give a customer their best effort, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the customer is going to leave a tip commensurate with the server’s hard work or attentiveness. A waitress can be excellent, but if the food coming out of the kitchen is subpar, a customer might choose to leave a small (or no) tip as a result.
That’s a bummer.
What if we all shifted our thinking and upgraded our “tip philosophy”?
I challenge you to push yourself beyond your normal tip-giving over the next month and see what opportunities come up to make a bigger difference:
Think about your babysitter and the impact she has on your children all year—what if you Venmoed her a little bit extra this week as a sign of your appreciation, just because?
What about those teenagers bagging your groceries every week? Sure, you get frustrated when they put canned goods on top of your loaf of bread. Remember, they’re teenagers with jobs, which is not common and quite notable. Could you slip them a few bucks and wish them a great weekend?
My friend leaves a basket on her front porch all December with snacks, chips, and candy canes. The sign says: “Thank you, Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and USPS, for getting my packages here! Help yourself to a snack!”
Think about the guy who plows your driveway super-early after a snowstorm so you can get to work on time—what if you paid his invoice, added a little extra, and wrote THANK YOU across the invoice? Better yet, what if you carefully shuffled out to your driveway when he arrived and handed him a hot cup of coffee to enjoy while he plowed? How great would that be?
My friend owns a company, and all his employees have a company credit card. His rule is that if you are ever using the company card in a restaurant, you must always leave a 20 percent tip. He wants them to practice being generous—even if he’s the one ultimately paying the bill.
My mom is notorious for stopping at Dunkin Donuts and getting a cold drink for police officers working road details on a hot day or a hot chocolate for them in the winter. Small gestures = gigantic impact.
A friend of mine has several gallon-size resealable bags in her car. Each is filled with a pair of lightly used gloves, a warm pair of socks, a few snacks, and a bottle of water. She hands them out to homeless people she sees on her commute to work. She does this all winter. Her kind gesture literally warms people up.
What is your kind gesture going? What change could you make in your routine that could put a smile on someone’s face?
Even better, involve your kids or grandkids. Explain to them what it means to tip generously, how to show gratitude, and when to spread extra holiday cheer. Lead by example.
When your drive-thru coffee is $2.50, and you tell the barista to keep the change from your $5 bill, that might not feel significant to you, but it represents a 100 percent tip for her! Imagine the appreciation she might feel from your gesture. Give some thought to your community and the people who have served you in various ways. Do something thoughtful.
And assume the thought always counts.
