Head Tale

I’m not sure if this fits as a May Day story or not but I like the sentiment – people who do tough jobs for very little reward sometimes deserve to be surprised with some over-the-top generosity (although there’s also a flip side argument that if we paid decent wages to our servers, tipping wouldn’t be required in the first place.)

But anyhow, leaving an unexpected giant tip on a pizza order was the dying wish of a young man.   A video of that initial request being fulfilled by the man’s family went viral and so the family set-up a web site to collection donations ($50 000 so far) to perform similar acts of generosity for others.

At the risk of sounding like Mr. Pink from “Reservoir Dogs”, some jobs are deemed tip worthy in our society and some aren’t.

In high school, I worked a job that *wasn’t* deemed tip-worthy, pumping gas at the local Esso station while many of my classmates who worked at the attached restaurant earned 2x and even 3x what I did because serving food *was* deemed tip-worthy.

It wasn’t a big deal and pumping gas had its benefits that serving food didn’t (working outside much of the time, less being yelled at by angry customers) but it did make the odd tip I got very memorable.  I never got a $500 tip but I have a fond memory of someone who came in right before closing one night, got me to do everything you could possibly do in a full serve station – fill gas, check oil, wash all windows, check tire pressures, maybe even change a wiper blade – but then gave me a $20 tip which, at that time, was probably what $500 would be to me now!

I repay that now in a variety of ways – anytime I see a kid training in their first job at a gas station or a grocery store or wherever, I make sure to give them a small tip.  And anytime I fill up at the Indian Head Esso (who gained a lifetime customer by employing me for three years in high school), I tip whatever high school kid who happens to be working there now.

Tip your servers, folks (and be generous with interpreting who “serves” you – it’s not just about a restaurant meal!)