Should I Tip My Doctor?

For most of my life, there has been a tipping disorder in this country.  Too many of us were undertipping those who served us and depended upon tips for their livelihoods.   At times, servers in restaurants would be fully stiffed, or received a paltry tip when they deserved more.  In general terms, increasing a tip from 15 to 20% means much more to the server than it does to the patron.

Other occupations such has hotel workers, airport porters, cab drivers, tour guides, bartenders, valets and food deliverers – to name a few – depend upon the generosity of their customers. 

Traditionally, a tip was a reward for good service.  Indeed, this provided an incentive for workers to perform well.  Better service led to better tips.

We now have an entirely new strain of tip dysfunction in this country.  Tipping is no longer tied to service and has become an expected surcharge from classes of workers who heretofore would never have been eligible for a tip.  A few years ago, would a tip be considered if a customer was picking up take out food from a restaurant?  The day before writing this, I picked up a few bagels.  No employee work was required.  Four bagels were simply dumped into a bag for me to take home.  Yet, when I was checking out, the store iPad was flipped and I was given an option to tip up to 25%. 

Should doctors take a lesson from our barista brethren?

I think many of us feel that we are being nickel and dimed and essentially coerced to subsidize salaries regardless if the service was exemplary or whether there was even any service provided. 

My grandfather waited tables for a living and I have always done my best to be generous to servers and others who depend upon gratuities.  But now we are facing TMC – Tip Mission Creep – and customers face shame if they don’t check off the right box when the iPad is flipped after buying a doughnut.  Do I stand on principle and not tip and risk being indelibly labeled as a cheapskate particularly at a venue I commonly frequent?

Perhaps, I should put my righteous indignation aside and join the movement.  What would patients think if I had tip jars in my exam rooms and in the endoscopy suite?  What if patients who were about to have a colonoscopy had to choose a tip option that I and my staff would see just before the procedure started?

And why should bloggers be left out of this largesse?  If you enjoyed this post, you can express your appreciation to me on Venmo.