The quandry of tips

So at my job - we don't keep the tips. Every month we pick a different non-profit that they go to. I try to make them run the gambit: religious/not, buying animals, coffee related, NOLA rebuilding, soup kitchens, invisible children, etc. Most people are pleasantly surprised by this - our tip amount doesn't really change month to month (I find that interesting). Every once in awhile I get comments about our giving the tips away. Once a guy noticed the charity and said, "Finally, you've got a legitimate charity here." Um, every month they're legit.....

A couple weeks ago this younger (ie. my age!) guy comes in and as I am turned around making his drink he says, "So the altruistic bastard you work for doesn't even let your tips?" I wisely wanted to take a few moments to decide how to answer him. One of my thoughts was "this dude just called me a bastard AND somehow doesn't think it's possible that I'm the boss" Even though I have thought about this time and time again and have a pretty standard answer ("All of us who work here make a good living - we choose to share our tips with those who might not have as much"), I had no clue how to respond to this guy. So I turned around and said, "I made that decision and yes, we give our tips away."

As I was relaying this story to a friend he commented, "You know - Jesus was both altruistic AND a bastard." Well, when you put it that way - I guess the altruistic bastard I "work" for does challenge me to live on my more than enough wage without the tips and to give the rest away....

Comments

Grant Shonkwiler said…

Do you ever wonder why we are the only two who contribute to this. I mean everyone is connected now ;). Get with it siblings!

November 1, 2008 at 8:36 PM

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