It came to my great surprise to have some what of an arguement recently on wether tipping is expected or not in Australia. My belief and up bringing was that tipping is 100% foreign to Australian restaurants and the service industry. It is never ever expected. Providing a tip in a restaurant would place one in the upper class rich society… not somewhere I would have ever expected to find myself.

I’ve been living in Germany the past 2.5 years and have therefore adjusted quite well to the tipping culture. The concept I believe is quite simple. Tip up to 10% if you believe the service was good. Tip more than 10% if you’re drunk with satisfaction. In reality, this usually means rounding up to a nice number. Eg, dinner charge was 26€ then round up to 28€ if everything was ok/satisfactory. Round up to 30€ if you were absolutely delighted. If it was 17.60€, paying 20 would be absolutely fine if you were satisfied or delighted. This is due to the low numbers. Tipping only becomes a bit of a brain drain when the prices get higher. Paying for a 155€ meal/drinks/party could mean paying a total of 170€ or simply 160€ depending on your feelings. The tip difference is then rather larger than normal and weighs down a bit on ones conscious. Will they give me a bad look? Should I tip more? Did they go the extra effort to change my order heaps or bring complimentary drinks? The nice thing I’ve experienced so far however is that every tip, no matter how large or small is always received with appreciation. The standard approach is always a “Thank you very much, have a nice evening” (or “Dankeschön, schönen Abend noch”).

So I’ve been living in a country where tips are expected and gratefully appreciated. I believe I’ve mastered this quite well. Sometimes I do rethink things and wonder why on earth I’m paying so much for stuff. It feels often like just another tax one must pay besides the already included 19% luxury/service tax and 7% standard/basic foods tax. I should point out at this point that students or “poor looking” people are not expected to pay a tip. A student might pay for a 17.60 meal 17.60 or 18 euro in total. This usually depends on what’s in their pocket and if they like carrying coins or not.

For me, there have only really been 2 confusing scenarios that I’ve experienced and still don’t quite understand in Germany. One does not tip when visiting the local canteen or the German “mensa” (quick/simple/cheap mass produced food of ok quality). There are various people involved in cooking and serving, but one would never pay a tip. The other confusing but perhaps similar scenario is when one must pay for the meal before receiving anything. This happened to me and some friends at a busy ski restaurant. Although a tip was expected, I had received nothing. How does one tip up to 10% based on nothing? The result of the sitting meant speculation on why the meals took so long. Perhaps if we had tipped more we would have got at least our drinks faster? If the other 2 tipped and I didn’t, would that mean I screwed up the tipping/motivational plans because drinks/food are normally served all at once?

There are some very simple points as to why people are either pro or against the concept of tipping:

- pro: encourages better service and the desire to go the extra step for customers.

- pro: waiters/waitresses have generally low salaries, tipping makes the job worth while and helps out students and those in need to live their lives as independents.

- pro: speeds up payment processes as coins are hardly ever in play.

- against: why doesn’t the DJ get tipped for their music? Why not the chef? Why is the tip for some in some industries and not in others? Should tips only ever be salary based?

- against: it’s just another tax, why not include the amount in the food/drinks and pay staff better?

- against: one can’t claim the payment of a tip for tax purposes.

- against: even people that look well off might still need the money… think of the transition from living at home to moving out, mothers and families, freelancers with no projects or retirement funds. Not tipping in this regard can be seen as somewhat rude and often guilts those into giving… especially in front of friends.

I do believe that the pros listed above are highly valuable. Particularly to a German culture that has a very poor history of quality service. I think my strongest gripe is that the tipping process is so exclusive. I work in the service industry and yet I don’t receive a tip. Is it just because I charge a seemingly high rate that my services are not worth tipping for? Do my clients understand how my charges are broken down into retirement funds, health insurance, taxes, family accounts and so on? Probably not. At this point, it might be worth asking what the difference between a bonus and a tip is.

As I understand it, a bonus is a reward for achieving certain goals. In my case it could be time, functional or sales/income based. Would I receive a bonus if I threw in a few extra features for a project? No. Only if it was pre-arranged and agreed upon. Would I receive a tip? No (it’s not tax deductible). The best I could hope for is that the client continues to work with me in the future and recommend me to others. This is perfectly fine for me. There are millions of shit house web developers out there. Self taught know-it-alls who build swiss cheese solutions. In my industry, providing trust/confidence and education and transparency are my biggest selling points. Especially when the client can’t tell the difference between swiss cheese and a high quality, sustainable result (due to lack of technical understanding). I digress..

So both a bonus and a tip have the same incentives: go the extra step to provide a higher quality service and therefore greater customer satisfaction. One however is professionally calculated and managed, the other is more of an overall feeling. Would it be worth while to formally plan a tip with a waitress?

Dans satisfaction requirements:

- Menues provided on arrival (waited FOR EVER, no, yes)

- Complimentary water provided (no, yes, quickly)

- A suggestion/recommendation was provided (no, bad one, good one, consulted with others)

- Specials and soup of the day etc. were explained (no, yes, with detail and style)

- Food served within 20 mins of ordering (way too long, no, yes, incredibly fast)

- Tasty (yuck, no, yes, incredible!)

- Filling (nope, some, yes, too much)

- Healthy (could kill me, no way, no, maybe, yes, very)

- Extra smile, joke, good vibes provided (I feel bad, no, yes, brilliant)

- Payment of bill was made easy (split bill etc.) (took too long, no, yes, perfect)

- Overall pricing seemed fair (dreamers, no, fair, bargain)

You can probably see that a pre-arranged tip system wouldn’t really work. Some would say that I should be happy the food arrives and I can eat it. Satisfying this criteria is an instant 5% and up tip.

Leaving the tip criteria aside, what about salaries. How on earth do people know what the salaries for a given waiter/waitress in a given restaurant are? I don’t see people asking this question. I don’t see it advertised. What would be a fair wage? Can they tell me all the other perks they get like flexible working hours, free meals and discount drinks? Would a waiter in an expensive restaurant get a higher wage and more perks? Does this mean I should tip less? No, in fact, the theory goes that rich people eat in rich restaurants and therefore should tip ‘richly’ regardless of server salary.

It just doesn’t make any sense!

Does a tip have to involve cash? If the waiter/waitress provides me with a good experience, is it not possible that I can do the same? Is it not more worthwhile to them that they can enjoy their day stress free and therefore their job? I have worked in the restaurant/service industry. I sucked. I learnt quickly that a forced smile was required and I had to be nice to people. At this time in my life, I failed miserably and was fired. It was a tough realisation that people and staff are sometimes worth more than customers/cash. I later took on an HR role which helped me greatly understand people/training/service and the whole being nice thing. I totally understand the difficulties involved in the restaurant industry and dealing with humans. I chose more development based work over design based because of these experiences… People/customers/clients drive us all nuts.

I honestly believe that it is possible to show your appreciation and provide something of use to the restaurant/staff in non-cash ways. I can recommend the restaurant, sincerely thank the person serving, send compliments to the chef, make a suggestion on the food/entertainment/furniture, or perhaps even simply come back and eat there again. Wouldn’t this be the normal thing to do? Wouldn’t the staff and restaurant benefit from these things?

What about de-tipping? The ability to underpay for a service instead of killing someone? Have you ever had the feeling the person you just spoke to in customer support was an absolute prick/bastard/bitch/incompetent fool? If not, please call Deutsche Telekom (t-online/mobile) or some other massive industry/business that doesn’t know anything about customer service. The concept of not-tipping or tipping 0.00 doesn’t quite cut it for me. “I hated their service so I won’t give them extra money”… lame. It should be “Here’s my list of demands to improve your disgusting service. I can’t believe you guys exist! I’ll be paying 20€ instead of 25€ because I don’t believe it was worth it”. Just so we’re clear, I am actually a nice person. I just can’t believe what large corporations can get away with these days. This is why I normally work only for startups and small businesses.

Does a tip have to be service based? Can it be product based? If I was happy with a piece of software that out performed it’s competitors and exceeded my expectations, couldn’t I praise the developers and managers? Of course I could and I have. Money doesn’t need to be involved here, why should it be then in the (restaurant/hospitality restricted) service industry?

In summary, we should just offer better means for positive experiences and useful feedback and remove the monetary tip concept. If people took the effort to actually speak up and not be shy about providing some useful feedback, we’d all greatly benefit much more than simply throwing money at people. Don’t be afraid to tell people what’s good and what’s not. Word of mouth marketing is fantastic. There’s nothing better than getting a restaurant recommendation from a friend or having a good laugh with the waiter/waitress/bar staff. Pay staff in these so called poor industries what they’re worth and praise those products or services that you like.

I’ve whipped up a quick 4 question survey based on this post to help get an idea of peoples thoughts and opinions. You can join in or simply check out the results.

The music was not exactly to my taste. I found it rather angry, depressed and scary. The first 2 tracks seemed like they fell off the end of an x-files soundtrack because they were too scary!

My girlfriend was highly engaged throughout the first 3 songs… She said that she could feel almost every note in her teeth.

In my wildest nightmares I never though I would hear a piece with a clarinet that involved loud breathing in and out of a clarinet (titled: 32 breathes). It was something like Darth Vadar on a good day… You know, like if he worked out at a gym for a few days and stopped smoking.

Anjas father (Robert Delanoff) is a very talented composer and in all honesty, happened to have the best piece played on the day. Unlike the others which went down some kind of spooky, dark and depressing path, his actually came back out and into the light which gave it a nice contrast b/w the two.

So now I’ve had my share of exotic German musical culture… I’m glad that box is ticked.

Browse the toytowngermany.com site for:

• cheap/FREE IKEA furniture.
• Social Events, dancing bike riding, sailing trips etc.
• News on Munich
• Info on gaining visas, tax, bureaucracy etc..

Go cook with random people: jumpingdinner.de

Oktoberfest (derrr)

Go to the alps and clime a mountain!

Surf on the river Isar!

Get lost in the Haupbahnhof or Karlsplatz shopping center/bahnhof

Swing/Salsa Dancing in Diana Temple at the Hofgarten (The Residences)

Hunt down good Almonds (Mandeln) and Australian Gold Sultanas (perhaps my biggest challenge yet!)

Go for a walk/ride through the parks/forests.

I had 2 half chickens, 1 Maß (1L), 1 Radler, 2 Bretzeln and continued Swing dancing at Diana Temple in the Hofgarten without any problems.

Some photos below to give you an idea of what it’s like.

Schmeckt Gut (traditional Daniel clothing)

A long standing question of mine is how to say “Ich” (I) which I recently found can be pronounced “ick”, “Itch”, “Ichhhh”. I always thought it was the last one, but the flat mates I’m staying with atm seem to think it can be any.

I’ve also found out the verb ‘to use’ is used differently depending on the object/context.. “I used the car” or “I have used it”… I have to clarify the difference, but I know the word comes out differently. Apparently “you just know it… I don’t know why it is like this but we just learn it” spoken by west German person downstairs.

Asking for a dance has given: “Darf Ich auf bitte” (may I up please) or “Darf Ich Sie bitten” (may I you please).
I’m a bit lost on that one.. perhaps I should use one of Seans recommended Deutsch compliments. How did it go again?

This is not a complete list, but something handy that I keep with me to practice. You may find it useful to.

I have a few people updating the 3rd column for me so that the Deutsch is sehr gut. If you want to update or suggest some phrases I should learn, please reply to this post.

I find it funny that all these ads are the same in diff countries…. except…

Would the equivalent be “Find Aussie girls down at the pub cooking you up a BBQ”

Perhaps: “Find single girls in the park frolicking in the nude”

It turns out, Friday nights (maybe others) are really popular for shopping. There were heaps of places open late (till 11pm?) and also heaps of street acts and in store performers to attract customers. My adventure went as follows:

• Ein wenig sharf Chinese essen (little sharp/hot chinese meal)
• A free glass of champagne in the underground of Karstadt along with some indian performers/belly dancers
• Outdoor performance of near naked women for a wonderbra? Ich behüten nicht die wonderbra aber es war wunderbar.
• A guy doing some card and magic tricks inside an electronics store (awesome magic!!)
• Some random looking guys singing in tune outside a clothing shop
• 3 ladies singing into a microphone inside another clothing shop
• A live country(?) band
• A strange space person conducting an interesting light/sound show down an entire lane!

To top it off, I also obtained some interesting nut things coated in honey and roasted. I had to ask a girl standing near by what type of nuts they were, but she couldn’t say it in English (possibly almonds). I loved the expression on her face when I told her I was from Australia. It’s almost as if she won the lottery! Even as she disappeared with her friend the first thing she said is “… Australien!”

So next week I may do the same thing… wonder down the main streets pretending to buy stuff and ask girls what to eat (?).

Everyone was wet but worth it

Honey nuts (almonds?.. mandeln=tonsils or almonds)

Bavarian Dresses

1 Brotchen: ,40c

1 Dose Gulaschsuppe: €1.29

Total meal: 3.68

Spending time talking in German, eating and drinking German food… priceless!