To tip or not to tip
Picture and post have no relation. But this picture of Junebug playing on the floor with her grandparents melts my heart.
After eight months of living in our home, we finally caved and got cable. Or dish. Whatever you want to call it. The black box in our living room now shows television shows.
I don't know why we cracked. I mean, I got to the very end of Bachelor season just relying on bumming off of friends' tvs (Thanks, Sierra!) or waiting until Tuesday to watch it on hulu. But suddenly we could take our tv-less lives no more. I think it might have had something to do with the fact that the Jazz have won six straight games and are 9-1 in their last ten games. (Go Jazz!) Greg couldn't stand to be missing out on the action. And I shamefully admit that I kind of wonder what the Kardashians have been up to.
This means that when I came home from work yesterday, there was a man installing a dish to our back fence post. Greg had beaten me home by about an hour (the endless stacks of papers!), so I walked in just to catch the tell end of it.
The man said he needed to explain a few things to the both of us and then showed us how to work the remote. We said yes, we have used a remote many a times, thank you good sir.
He handed me a sheet of paper, said "sign this please", and waited for me to give him my Hancock. I turned the sheet over to sign and was surprised to see in big, fat letters:
TIPS ARE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!!
I kind of panicked. I was supposed to tip him?! I didn't have any cash on me. And wasn't this guy getting paid a decent wage? I'm paying a pretty penny for the dish every month and I signed a two year contract so I certainly feel like I'm paying enough to pay for the hour this man spent at my house.
I very sheepishly handed the paper back over to him with my signature. He stalled for a minute, and then left, realizing there was no tip.
I felt like such a cheap jerk,
Naturally, after he left, I took to the internets and googled it with a fury. Was I supposed to tip him? What was expected of me? The internets were inconclusive. I felt awful. Had I just totally ruined this guy's work day, the way a family of 23 once did to me at Sizzler when they ordered all you can eat shrimp, had me refilling soda and shrimp for an hour and a half, and left me no tip? Had I become the person I once so vehemently hated?
I guess what really throws me off is that I don't know the rules on tipping. Who in this world am I supposed to tip and who works for a wage? When I called to ask for rates on dish and they said installation was free why didn't they include, "but the installation guys to expect a tip." Some tips are obvious- like waiters and pizza delivery guys. When I waited tables I made $2.13 an hour. I lived on tips. But there are so many tipping gray areas. Was this dish guy living on my tips? Had I just basically made him work for free? Had I known I was supposed to tip him, I would have had cash on hand. But the thought never once even kind of crossed my mind to tip the man who sets up our dish.
Someone just tell me the rules please and I will follow them.
After eight months of living in our home, we finally caved and got cable. Or dish. Whatever you want to call it. The black box in our living room now shows television shows.
I don't know why we cracked. I mean, I got to the very end of Bachelor season just relying on bumming off of friends' tvs (Thanks, Sierra!) or waiting until Tuesday to watch it on hulu. But suddenly we could take our tv-less lives no more. I think it might have had something to do with the fact that the Jazz have won six straight games and are 9-1 in their last ten games. (Go Jazz!) Greg couldn't stand to be missing out on the action. And I shamefully admit that I kind of wonder what the Kardashians have been up to.
This means that when I came home from work yesterday, there was a man installing a dish to our back fence post. Greg had beaten me home by about an hour (the endless stacks of papers!), so I walked in just to catch the tell end of it.
The man said he needed to explain a few things to the both of us and then showed us how to work the remote. We said yes, we have used a remote many a times, thank you good sir.
He handed me a sheet of paper, said "sign this please", and waited for me to give him my Hancock. I turned the sheet over to sign and was surprised to see in big, fat letters:
TIPS ARE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!!
I kind of panicked. I was supposed to tip him?! I didn't have any cash on me. And wasn't this guy getting paid a decent wage? I'm paying a pretty penny for the dish every month and I signed a two year contract so I certainly feel like I'm paying enough to pay for the hour this man spent at my house.
I very sheepishly handed the paper back over to him with my signature. He stalled for a minute, and then left, realizing there was no tip.
I felt like such a cheap jerk,
Naturally, after he left, I took to the internets and googled it with a fury. Was I supposed to tip him? What was expected of me? The internets were inconclusive. I felt awful. Had I just totally ruined this guy's work day, the way a family of 23 once did to me at Sizzler when they ordered all you can eat shrimp, had me refilling soda and shrimp for an hour and a half, and left me no tip? Had I become the person I once so vehemently hated?
I guess what really throws me off is that I don't know the rules on tipping. Who in this world am I supposed to tip and who works for a wage? When I called to ask for rates on dish and they said installation was free why didn't they include, "but the installation guys to expect a tip." Some tips are obvious- like waiters and pizza delivery guys. When I waited tables I made $2.13 an hour. I lived on tips. But there are so many tipping gray areas. Was this dish guy living on my tips? Had I just basically made him work for free? Had I known I was supposed to tip him, I would have had cash on hand. But the thought never once even kind of crossed my mind to tip the man who sets up our dish.
Someone just tell me the rules please and I will follow them.
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