Tipping

As Americans we're neurotic, guilt-prone, and don't want to be thought of as cheap or ignorant. Those are some of the reasons that Cornell professor Michael Lynn has found in his 20 years of research on tipping behavior about Americans.

"The major reason people tip," said Lynn, "is to avoid social disapproval."
So much for rewarding good service.
In fact, Lynn, found that how customers rate service has a very small effect on the amount they choose to tip in restaurants. About 4 percent of the variability in tip size is due to their rating of the service provider, his research revealed. That's the same level of variability that the sun has on tip size. (Folks tend to tip more on sunny days.)
“It also has been argued,” Lynn said, “that our willingness to tip regardless of service reflects a sense that the customer is in a better position financially than the server and wishes to avoid incurring the server's envy. A tip, then, is a payment to reduce that envy,"

It's also a way for the equality-minded to feel less guilty about being served. Looking across cultures, he has found that tips tend to be higher in countries where there is greater neuroticism about and intolerance of ambiguous situations.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to bother many people that play golf at our local public county run golf courses. My friend (who must remain anonymous if he wants to keep his job), works at one of these local clubs as a bag carrier.

“You would be amazed at how many people whose golf bag I have just lifted from their car and placed on a golf cart seem to accept this service as being included in their green fees, and do not hand me a buck or two for the effort,” he told me recently. “The same thing happens when they have completed their round and I return the clubs back to their car; maybe a mumbled ‘Thank you.’ More often not even that or a tip. And some of these bags seem to way a ton.”

So the next time you enjoy a round of golf at one of our beautiful public courses at The Links in Boynton Beach, the Delray Golf Club, Lakeville Golf Course, Kings Point Executive, Southwinds or Boca Raton Municipal, show the bag person you appreciate his saving you the job of lugging your heavy golf bag. Slip him a buck or two. It will help the economy.

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