Here's a tip: You have to earn your money

Kelly Kazek

Discussion

October 17, 2009

By Kelly Kazek The News Courier Sat Oct 17, 2009, 05:00 PM CDT

Note: Kelly Kazek was so busy this week, what with all the new fall TV shows and all, that she couldn’t find time to write a fresh column for you good people. Bless her heart. So she is rerunning this column from 2004, which has thoughts in which she still strongly believes. On the one hand, she is hoping you don’t remember it and it seems shiny and new. On the other hand, she’s hoping it was so brilliant you couldn’t forget it, even after five years. Enjoy!

I am now accepting tips and I don’t mean those along the lines of “Your column stinks.”

I mean the green kind. The kind of tip that goes in the bank. The kind that has me eating my protein calories in steak rather than hamburger.

I’ve placed an empty jar beside my computer marked “Tips.” You can stop by the office any time between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. and leave a dollar or 20.

Why should you tip me, you ask?

I ask right back: “Why not?”

I am ready to join the ranks of those people — while doing a job they were hired to do and get paid to do — feel the need to ask the general population to supplement their incomes with an extra buck or two, or maybe just the change from a dollar.

These employees, mostly those at coffee shops, food courts or those mini snack counters in book stores, don’t go as far as standing with their hands out after passing a cup of coffee across the counter. No, the hand-lettered T-I-P-S on the cup or jar by the register does it for them.

I was always under the impression that people were tipped for additional services such as bringing a meal to a table or carrying bags to the car. I never thought sliding my peanut butter fudge cookie across the counter was tip-worthy.

What — if I merely paid the price of the cookie but offered no tip, they would make me come around and get the cookie out of the case myself?

Before all you counter service people start calling me with tips that will likely burn my ears, keep in mind I am not speaking from a vacuum at the bottom of an empty tip jar.

I have worked as a waitress (these days the PC job title is “server.”)

It was hard work. In my opinion, no one should be allowed to carry credit cards, graduate from college or become a parent until they have experienced the joys of serving others their hold-the-onions-medium-rare-minus-pickles-and-could-you-put-the-sauce-on-the-side burgers.

But servers in restaurants weren’t merely supplementing their salaries with tips. Tips were part of our salaries. In 1987, I was paid $2.01 per hour to wait tables (minimum wage was about $4.85). The remainder of my income came from tips — and I paid taxes on them.

That’s not so with the girl behind the counter at Books-a-Million. What she does is called “her job” and she is paid to do it, regardless of tips.

What’s next? A tip jar at the checkout at Walmart?

What about the nurse who takes my blood pressure before the doctor arrives, or the guy who rotates my tires?

Maybe I should ask Tippi Hedren or Tip O’Neal. In the meantime, I do know one thing — I do not like to be asked for a tip.

No matter what the profession, tips should be given as thanks for exceptional service.

And just in case any of you think this column has served you exceptionally well, I’ll leave out my tip jar.

But I will more clearly label it: M-O-N-E-Y-F-O-R-C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E.

Text Only

Kelly Kazek

What are smart phones really planning?
You may think I still use eight-track cassettes and BETA tapes, too, but, no, it’s only with phones that I draw the line. I have my reasons. Hear me out.

January 29, 2012 1 Photo
Twinkies need government bailout
January 22, 2012
Biography of Kelly Kazek
Kelly Kazek was born in Warner Robins, Ga., in whichever year adds up to her being 35.

November 8, 2011 1 Photo
Surreal episode irks orchestra director
When the iPhone’s common ringtone, which is supposed to sound like that well-known musical instrument the marimba, went off during a performance of the New York Philharmonic last Tuesday, the conductor was highly irked, incensed and rankled, or in philharmonic terms, seriously cheesed.

January 15, 2012 1 Photo
Lucy smarter than the average dog
I was thinking perhaps I should give Lucy one of those doggie IQ tests. You know, the ones in which you place a ball under a blanket and see if your dog is smart enough to find it?

January 8, 2012 2 Photos
Having daughter home from college an experience
During Shannon’s first long visit home at Thanksgiving, I realized we were having a communication problem, namely she doesn’t think she has to communicate what time she’ll be home at night.

January 1, 2012 1 Photo
A single mom’s dream before Christmas
Note: This column by Kelly Kazek was initially published Christmas Eve 2006 in The News Courier.

December 25, 2011 1 Photo
It's here: Annual Guide to Seriously Weird Christmas Gifts
Then, shoo, skedaddle, vamoose. Go watch football or pull someone’s finger or whatever it is you guys do. But do not read this column!

December 18, 2011 1 Photo
Dieter's blue plate includes Cookie Monster cupcake
Finally, after all these years I have learned the excuse, er, reason for my weight gain: my plate.
No, it’s not a metal one in my head. Like I haven’t heard that before.

December 11, 2011 1 Photo
Most wonderful time can be dangerous
After reading about the dastardly deeds committed so far this year in the name of peace on earth, I am starting a petition to send to Santa. I am asking him to change his list categories from “naughty” and “nice” to “naughty,” “nice enough,” “purty good,” and “too stupid to be wasting Rudolph’s oxygen.”

December 4, 2011 1 Photo
More Kelly Kazek Headlines

Kelly Kazek

Search Results

Discussion

Here's a tip: You have to earn your money

What is the most important issue state legislators will tackle this session?

Site Map

Contact Us