I used to feel annoyed and stressed out by tipping - feeling that employers should pay their employees fairly and never quite knowing if I was tipping appropriately. Until we had kids. Now, I tip everywhere and well, because I am so truly grateful for the work people have to do around us - clean up spills, bring extra napkins, navigate my daughter's allergies, tolerate the noise level, etc etc. We cause extra work, so we should tip extra well - and I think that's the spirit of the enterprise anyway, to give thanks when one is thankful. I once worked with a client who always gave bellmen $2 to hail a cab - this was 20 yrs ago when I think most everyone was tipping $1. He would say "I don't believe in $1 tips. Either the person did something good for you, in which case they deserve $2, or they didn't, in which case I can save my money for the next person who does." So you can either approach it with "When in Rome" and do what is expected, or you can have your own world view with a clear conscience.

I am certainly an overtipper - especially if the person is particularly nice, welcoming or goes out of the way for me. Depending on my mood, I enjoying talking with taxi drivers - of course, these days in most of the large cities in the US these people represent a miniature UN and I am always interested in the story of how they got to the US, as well as their take on national politics. An interesting, enlightening or enjoyable discussion is certainly worth an extra tip in my mind. I am a partner in a CPA firm here in Chicago, and through hard work and good fortune, I make a nice living. To me, an extra $5 will not make a noticeable difference in my life - but to a cabbie who has to pay for $3.00 gas on a beautiful spring day when everyone is walking, that little extra can make his day. In the same way, I always leave a $5 on my pillow each day I am in a hotel - the maids work hard and it is very tough to raise a family on the wages they are earning. And, a la Michael's comment about the floor polisher, around the holidays, I like to slip a $10 or $20 bill to the security guards in my building, the cashiers at the parking garage (of course, there aren't any these days), and although I've only done it once, the guy doing an extra diligent job of cleaning the urinals at O'hare. Talk about lack of respect. The ultimate goal: to make somebody's day. Can't think of anything nicer.

I'm ready to do in Rome what the Romans do BUT I'm old fashioned enough to remember that tipping was at one time for something that someone did especially for you. Dropping food on a table as a waiter doesn't qualify. Either does a taxi ride that only involves picking you up and depositing you at a door with no other intervention involved. Frankly, either does hotel maid or concierge service unless something special for you has given it "value added". Tour groups and hotels that factor tipping in as part of the basic rate and line-item it as an automatic "service" charge disturb me to no small degree. Tour Companies and hotels should pay their staff an appropriate salary and charge the customer a flat rate. Then, when distinctly identifiable "service" have been rendered above and beyond the call of the job description, it is only too right for the receiver to tip as a genuine acknowledgement of having received something special. We in the U. S. call ourselves a "service economy" but the truth is that most of the individuals rendering it have never experienced real service and therefore don't know how to give it! Moreover, they expect a tip as part of their due reward for doing the job for which they were hired.

I've had a few tipping adventures over the years. Something that I noticed earlier this year down in Argentina was the mistake I was making when leaving a perceived tip on a credit card receipt. Being used to the US method of entering the tip amount after the card has been run and the receipt returned, I would take the slip of paper the waiter gave me and would enter an amount in the "No." space at the bottom below the price of the meal. Of course, what they really want in the "No." space is some sort of identification number, presumably a passport or phone. Once the card has been run they don't go back and add the tip later. It was only halfway through the trip that I realized I should have been asking them to add the tip before running the card, or just leaving cash as a tip afterward. D'oh! So, if you're into tipping, it probably makes sense to get a sense of the system (if not the etiquette) beforehand, whether it comes to credit card receipts or staff tips boxes.

Tipping is becoming out of european culture. We use to think that the responsibility to reward the good employees should be always for the employer, never the customer. To definitively end with the awful stress of the use of tipping you should then increase to a fixed initial price in the amount you consider necessary, but never mention the tipping, nor leave any paper in the room suggesting it or create a competition of sympathy-through-money among the customers. I have only go on holidays once with an US firm and the strong recommendation of tipping and the environment of people giving it abundantly to the employees (that all are very good and deserve much more money than I will never have) lead to people that prefer an all include price paid from home before feel very, very bad. Please organise also fixed prices tours for european people.