Anyone who, like me, has ever been an underpaid, under-appreciated member of the service industry knows how awesome it is to get a tip from a happy customer. Not only can that tip mean the difference between eating tonight and not, it can also make a terrible job more tolerable when you know that someone appreciates your commitment to providing the best service possible to each and every customer. However, when on the other side of the relationship, rewarding someone for a job well done is not quite so clear and simple; the line between thanking and insulting can be very thin. Some professions do not expect a tip, some see a tip as trivializing their work and some see tipping too low more insulting that not tipping at all. How can we be sure that our intended gratitude will be interpreted correctly? Continue reading →