Monday, July 07, 2003
I don't have a lot of time to give today the credit it deserves. Too many people are waiting to use the computers for me to upload pictures and write all of the HTML tags and whatnot. It shall wait until tomorrow.
Japanese Restaurants
They be illin', yo. No, seriously. Every meal I have had in a restaurant in Japan has been very pleasant, the staff very polite, I felt very relaxed. How many times have you been to an American restaurant and had a 2.5 hour long dinner without being constantly harassed by the service staff? Not very often when business is good, right? Not so here. The service staff doesn't bother you at all unless you request their service. Everything is at your pace, your call. The reason the dining experience is literally hassle-free and, in my opinion, far more relaxing and enjoyable than most American restaurants: no tipping. Yeah, it is not necessary to tip anyone, anywhere, at any time. Not wait staff, bellhops, taxi drivers. Imagine that, good, no, GREAT customer service without extortion.
In the Japanese system, workers feel that they are compensated well by their employers and take pride in doing their job well at no extra cost to the consumers. What a damned novel idea. You do your job well, people notice, they come back as regular customers, your employer makes better profits as a result which they ideally pass down to their employees in wages and benefits, the worker keeps doing their job well, other people notice, etc. No bribery involved, no phony-ass facades from wait staff and other tip earners looking to earn better tips, no pretending you like a jerky customer, just good, old fashioned, hard, honest working people. I like it a lot. I hated my job as a tip earner at TGIFinally-the-end-of-my-shift, mostly because I had to act like someone I wasn't just to be able to bring home enough money to justify the hours spent on the job. I hated being nice to rude people that I knew were going to stiff me when it came time to settle the bill, sometimes giving me less than I had to 'tip out' to the bartender, bus boys and hostesses, meaning I was losing wages by serving them! I hated the way that other servers weren't very helpful because helping you meant that they were not helping themselves. I hated refilling the fucking ketchup bottles and salt shakers every night and rolling silverware before I could clock out because it drove down my hourly wage because I wasn't receiving tips during that time or an increased hourly wage. Don't ask me how old some of the ketchup and salt in the bottom of some of the containers was, you probably don't want to know. I could go on, and I only worked there for about a month, but I think you get the point. If the damn employers would actually do what they should do from the beginning, compensate employees well, treat them well, train them well, reward good employees often, fire bad employees instead of keeping them on just because it is more trouble to replace them, maybe the employees could actually take pride in their work and perhaps we could stop using a variable ratio reward system.
The slot machine of customer service. It pays well when you win, but unfortunately the odds are often stacked against you.
You want happy lay down dancing?
Muddy
PS - Sorry, this somehow detoured into Negativity Land, but I've always felt that the whole tipping process was a load of crap. Service should be good because people take pride in their work that they are compensated well for regardless of the number of customers that came in that day, regardless of the whims of stupid people who were never taught good tipping manners, regardless of the people who think that $1 per person is fine even when you are not at the Waffle House, regardless of the countless number of people who are bad at math. (countless, it's a joke, see?) Japan is enough evidence to me that it works. The problem is, the tradition is so deeply instilled in our tradition that I don't think it would ever take on fully.
At Publix supermarket, the employees are not allowed to take tips, even for going above and beyond the call of duty. They actually send out, I forget the correct term for the people, but people who are supposed to test the employees by offering them tips. The reason they can ask this of their employees and their employees are still good workers?? The starting pay rate is around $7.25. Kroger's starting wage? Last I heard it was minimum wage. Why do I go out of my way to shop at Publix? Well, besides the fact the Kroger wants me to take an active role in helping them to track my purchases.
They be illin', yo. No, seriously. Every meal I have had in a restaurant in Japan has been very pleasant, the staff very polite, I felt very relaxed. How many times have you been to an American restaurant and had a 2.5 hour long dinner without being constantly harassed by the service staff? Not very often when business is good, right? Not so here. The service staff doesn't bother you at all unless you request their service. Everything is at your pace, your call. The reason the dining experience is literally hassle-free and, in my opinion, far more relaxing and enjoyable than most American restaurants: no tipping. Yeah, it is not necessary to tip anyone, anywhere, at any time. Not wait staff, bellhops, taxi drivers. Imagine that, good, no, GREAT customer service without extortion.
In the Japanese system, workers feel that they are compensated well by their employers and take pride in doing their job well at no extra cost to the consumers. What a damned novel idea. You do your job well, people notice, they come back as regular customers, your employer makes better profits as a result which they ideally pass down to their employees in wages and benefits, the worker keeps doing their job well, other people notice, etc. No bribery involved, no phony-ass facades from wait staff and other tip earners looking to earn better tips, no pretending you like a jerky customer, just good, old fashioned, hard, honest working people. I like it a lot. I hated my job as a tip earner at TGIFinally-the-end-of-my-shift, mostly because I had to act like someone I wasn't just to be able to bring home enough money to justify the hours spent on the job. I hated being nice to rude people that I knew were going to stiff me when it came time to settle the bill, sometimes giving me less than I had to 'tip out' to the bartender, bus boys and hostesses, meaning I was losing wages by serving them! I hated the way that other servers weren't very helpful because helping you meant that they were not helping themselves. I hated refilling the fucking ketchup bottles and salt shakers every night and rolling silverware before I could clock out because it drove down my hourly wage because I wasn't receiving tips during that time or an increased hourly wage. Don't ask me how old some of the ketchup and salt in the bottom of some of the containers was, you probably don't want to know. I could go on, and I only worked there for about a month, but I think you get the point. If the damn employers would actually do what they should do from the beginning, compensate employees well, treat them well, train them well, reward good employees often, fire bad employees instead of keeping them on just because it is more trouble to replace them, maybe the employees could actually take pride in their work and perhaps we could stop using a variable ratio reward system.
The slot machine of customer service. It pays well when you win, but unfortunately the odds are often stacked against you.
You want happy lay down dancing?
Muddy
PS - Sorry, this somehow detoured into Negativity Land, but I've always felt that the whole tipping process was a load of crap. Service should be good because people take pride in their work that they are compensated well for regardless of the number of customers that came in that day, regardless of the whims of stupid people who were never taught good tipping manners, regardless of the people who think that $1 per person is fine even when you are not at the Waffle House, regardless of the countless number of people who are bad at math. (countless, it's a joke, see?) Japan is enough evidence to me that it works. The problem is, the tradition is so deeply instilled in our tradition that I don't think it would ever take on fully.
At Publix supermarket, the employees are not allowed to take tips, even for going above and beyond the call of duty. They actually send out, I forget the correct term for the people, but people who are supposed to test the employees by offering them tips. The reason they can ask this of their employees and their employees are still good workers?? The starting pay rate is around $7.25. Kroger's starting wage? Last I heard it was minimum wage. Why do I go out of my way to shop at Publix? Well, besides the fact the Kroger wants me to take an active role in helping them to track my purchases.
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