What's the point of tipping?
Perhaps it was my failure to touch the diners lightly on the shoulder or entertain them with games or jokes that accounted for the paltry tips I received as a waiter all those years ago.
The tip prospects looked promising when I started out. This was, after all, the Carlton Hotel, then Johannesburg's poshest, where the customers had plenty of change to spare. One of my fellow-waiters, an Angolan refugee, advised me to lower my expectations. "The richer they are, the less they give," he told me.
I do recall receiving one tip - from a family friend who was astonished to find me serving him - during the 1970s summer that I worked there. If I had hoped to add to my wages, I had probably chosen the wrong part of the hotel. My job was in the banqueting hall, which hosted wedding receptions and corporate dinners, rather than the restaurant.
Because the guests were not paying for the meals themselves, they may have felt no obligation to tip. The other possible reason I left empty-handed after each function was that I was the worst waiter in the hotel, or possibly in the world.
My accomplishments included dropping a glass of beer in one diner's lap and eliciting a squeal from another by dripping some hot coffee down her back. My colleagues used to load dozens of empty glasses on to huge round trays that they effortlessly swirled through the swing doors into the kitchens - where they would pause to cheer the crash of glasses that invariably marked my arrival.
My day job that summer, selling food and drink from a stall at the Wanderers cricket ground, was far easier. There was less to drop and the days were enlivened by the banter of Jan, the anglicised Afrikaner I had been told to work with. "Have you got anything hot?" a customer would enquire. "Only the Cokes," Jan would answer cheerfully. No, seriously, the customer would persist. "The steak and kidney pies are quite hot," Jan would say. "Can I feel one?" the customer would ask suspiciously. "You can do what you like with it," Jan would reply, "as long as you pay for it."
We got no tips there either - but then you don't when you serve in a stall, which people think of as being different from a restaurant, which is, in turn, different from a banqueting hall. Why people tip in one environment and not another has long puzzled those who have studied the matter.
As Michael Lynn of Cornell University's school of hotel administration notes in a review of the research literature*, tipping habits differ widely between cultures. Any traveller knows that the US is the world's most tip-happy country. I could have done, in my waitering days, with some of the methods that, US researchers have found, make customers more likely to tip. Apart from the light touch on the shoulder and the games and jokes that I mentioned at the start of this column, waiters are advised to introduce themselves by name, squat down next to the table when talking to customers and give "big open-mouthed smiles".
Prof Lynn's paper also explains why, when in the US, I often get as frosty a reception as a customer as I used to get as a waiter: my tips are too small and I do not give them to enough people. In Europe, I tip taxi drivers 10 per cent of the fare and waiters 10 to 12 per cent of the bill (unless there is a service charge, in which case I do not tip) and leave a pound or euro in the tray of the cloakroom attendant who returns my coat to me.
Prof Lynn informs us that the expected restaurant tip in the US is 15 to 20 per cent. Many more people expect to be tipped in the US than anywhere else. Apart from taxi drivers and waiters, they include bartenders, doormen, restaurant musicians and swimming-pool attendants (even, apparently, if they do not have to pull you out of the water).
Why do we not (as far as I am aware) tip plumbers, bus drivers, teachers or conference speakers in any culture? Why do we tip at all? As Prof Lynn says, economists regard tipping as irrational behaviour. It makes some sense to tip those we expect to serve us again. Tipping generously at a restaurant you use weekly provides a possible guarantee of good service, and a table away from the door, on your next visit. But why do people tip taxi drivers they are never going to see again, or leave gratuities in restaurants in cities they rarely visit?
One possible explanation is that tippers take a longer view: they may not return to the same taxi or restaurant but others will. In some faraway place, someone else is tipping a driver or waiter in a city they will never visit again; but you will benefit from his generosity, as someone will benefit from yours.
Prof Lynn is sceptical. Tipping is more prevalent in countries with a culture of individualism than in those with a more collectivist spirit. If tippers really were motivated by a desire for a better world for all, it is the collectivists who would be more generous.
Service providers like tipping, of course, because they can offer lower prices and pay their employees less. Most of us, however, wish they would incorporate service into their prices, pay their staff higher wages and eliminate their customers' uncertainty about whom and how much to tip. Surveys cited by Prof Lynn indicate that up to 34 per cent of Americans wish they were not expected to tip.
Until it is outlawed, however, most of us will continue to tip, never quite sure whether we are tipping the right people or offering too much or too little. I suspect most people will carry on doing it because they cannot face the embarrassed, or antagonistic, atmosphere that follows a failure to tip, or because it seems mean to deny people who earn less than they do. And I will continue to tip waiters because I know that balancing all those plates and glasses is a lot harder than it looks. 为什么要付小费
当年在我作侍应生那会儿，或许就是因为没有在餐客的肩上轻拍两下，或是和他们玩个游戏或讲个笑话什么的，导致收到的小费只有一点点。
当我刚开始干时，拿小费的前景似乎光明一片。这毕竟是卡尔登饭店(Carlton Hotel)，南非约翰内斯堡最豪华的地方啊，这里的客人有的是用不着的零钱。但我的一位侍应生同事，一个安哥拉难民，劝我降低期望值。"越是有钱的给的越少，"他告诉我。
我至今还记得收到小费的那次，是从一个亲友的手里，他很惊讶地发现是我在伺候他。那是在70年代的一个夏天，我在那儿打工。要是当时我是想多挣些小费，增加工资的话，那可真是在酒店里挑错了地方。因为我的工作是在宴会厅，那是举办婚宴和企业宴会的地方，而不是餐厅。
由于客人用不着自己掏钱，他们可能就觉得没有给小费的义务了。另一个可能是因为我是酒店最差的侍应生，可能是世界上最差的；所以在每次宴会结束后，我都是两手空空。
我的本事包括，把一杯啤酒撒在客人的大腿上，并且把热咖啡滴在了一位女士的背上，引得她厉声尖叫。我的同事则能把几十只空杯子叠放在巨大的圆托盘上，毫不费力地一个转身，穿过旋转门，把它们送到厨房；然后驻足迎接挑战我的到来，为乒乒乓乓摔碎的杯子喝彩。
那个夏天，我白天的工作是在Wanderers板球场的一个货摊卖食物和饮料，那就要简单多了。没了那么多可以被摔坏的东西，而且简（Jan）的插科打诨也让日子生色不少。简是一个英国化的南非人，老板让我和她一起工作。"有什么烫的东西吗？"一个客人问。"只有可乐，"简会快活地回答。嗨，是说真的，客人会坚持。"牛肉腰子派还挺烫的，"简说。"我能摸摸吗？"客人会怀疑地问。"随便你拿它干什么。"简会说，"只要你付钱。"
My day job that summer, selling food and drink from a stall at the Wanderers cricket ground, was far easier. There was less to drop and the days were enlivened by the banter of Jan, the anglicised Afrikaner I had been told to work with. "Have you got anything hot?" a customer would enquire. "Only the Cokes," Jan would answer cheerfully. No, seriously, the customer would persist. "The steak and kidney pies are quite hot," Jan would say. "Can I feel one?" the customer would ask suspiciously. "You can do what you like with it," Jan would reply, "as long as you pay for it."
在那儿我们也没有小费，但在货摊上卖东西是得不到小费的。在人们的观念里，货摊和餐厅不一样；同样地，餐厅和宴会厅也不同。可为什么人们在某些场合给小费，有些则不给，这个问题一直令这个领域的研究者很困惑。
We got no tips there either - but then you don't when you serve in a stall, which people think of as being different from a restaurant, which is, in turn, different from a banqueting hall. Why people tip in one environment and not another has long puzzled those who have studied the matter.
美国康奈尔大学酒店管理学院的迈克尔#林在评论某个研究文献时*写道，在不同的文化中，付小费的习惯大相径庭。任何一个旅游者都知道，美国是世界上最爱给小费的国家。美国研究者已经发现了一些更能让顾客付小费的方法。我真该在作侍应生的时候用上这些招数。除了我在本专栏开篇即提到的肩上轻拍两下、做个游戏或讲个笑话之类，侍应生还被建议向客人介绍自己的名字，和他们说话时挨着桌子并伏下身子，以及"咧嘴大笑"等等。
林教授的论文还解释了，为什么我作为客人经常在美国碰上冷若冰霜的前台，就像我以前作侍应生那会儿的遭遇一样。那是因为我给的小费太少，而且给的人也不够多。在欧洲，我给出租车司机车费10%的小费，侍应生账单的10%至12%(要是餐厅收取服务费，那我就不给小费了)，并在更衣室的托盘上留1镑或1欧元，给递还我大衣的服务员。
林教授告诉我们，在美国，餐厅的服务员一般期望15%至20%的小费。期望得到小费的人在美国要比在世界上任何其它地方都要多得多。其中不仅有出租车司机和侍应生，还包括酒吧服务员、门卫、餐厅的演奏师以及游泳池的服务员(很显然，他们并不需要把你从水中拉出来)。
为什么在任何文化中，我们都不给管道工、公共汽车司机、教师或会议演讲者小费，至少我目前知道的情况是如此。正如林教授所说的，经济学家认为付小费是一桩非理性的行为。给那些我们期望会再次服务我们的人一些小费还情有可原。在一个我们每周都去的餐厅出手大方，可能会确保我们得到良好的服务，以及下次光临时一张远离大门的餐桌。但人们为什么要给不可能再见的出租车司机小费？同时又为什么要在难得踏足的城市，给餐厅留下赏钱？
一个可能的解释是，给小费的人看得更长远：他们可能不会再坐这辆出租车或去同一家餐厅，但其他人会。在某些偏远的地方，一些再不会光临这座城市的人向出租车司机和服务员付小费，但你却会因他的慷慨而得利，正如其他人会因你而得益一样。
林教授却很怀疑这种说法。有个人主义文化的国家比那些更有集体精神的民族更盛行给小费。如果真是为大家创造一个更好世界的欲望激励了付小费的人，那集体主义者应该会更大方。
提供服务的企业当然喜欢小费，这样他们就能降低价格并减少工钱。但我们大多数人都希望他们能把服务并入价格，提高员工工资，并消除客人不知该向谁、该付多少小费的疑虑。林教授引用的调查显示，高达34%的美国人希望，服务生并没有寄望他们给小费。
除非给小费被定为违法，我们大多数人还是会继续给人小费，虽然自己也不能肯定是不是给对了人，给的太多还是太少。我疑心大部分的人都会持续这种状态，因为他们没法面对不给小费所会遭遇的尴尬或敌意；或是因为，拒绝那些挣钱比他们少的人似乎显得很刻薄。而我也会继续给侍者小费，因为我知道，要将那些杯盘盏碟保持平衡，可比看上去难多了。
