If you don’t like the word you are free to use another. The fact remains that it is correct English and you do not have the right to criticise others who choose to do so. If anything your action is negative towards their position.
Personally can’t see any problem with slipping in a few notes into the Christmas card of the cleaner or gardener, if it pleases one. Just like leaving a tip of 5-10€ at a restaurant for the waiters if the service was good.
After all, even gifts to employees or clients, should be declared as have monetary value.
If you find it offensive I apologise. However spending time with homeless people made me reflect hard on little things that could make their life just a tiny bit less grim, and feel more valued.
Sorry forgot to add those who wish & should do so 
gifts to employees or clients, should be declared as have monetary value.
Warren… are you tipping in the restaurants?? France moved onto including Service in the price of the meal… almost everywhere…
Mind you, if I knocked the candle over and set fire to the tablecloth… and the waiter chucks the water jug and douses the flames… that waiter would definitely deserve a tip… and I would gladly give one… 
Yes Stella,
It may have including service in the price, but that pays the wage, basically the SMIC, it doesn’t give them any extra for good service. Years ago the service was extra +15% & waiters got what was given +/-.
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I really do not agree with tipping in restaurants - good service is expected in all services - you shouldn’t have to pay extra for it.
Mat,
didn’t say you should pay extra for good service!
I do recognize it through tipping & happy to do so.
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Not from my reading of what was written I said you shouldn’t have to pay extra for it.
Ultimately giving a “tip” to table staff dates back to an era when they wouldn’t be paid by the restaurant so got all their money by being paid, by the diners, for the service that they rendered in bringing the food to the table.
in 2018, however, I agree with Mat - the act of bringing food to the table is paid for as part of the meal so I only tend to tip if I think the service was a bit above the basics of “get my order right” and “bring the food to the table”.
Thanks Paul,
you may have bought some clarification of the subject?
Mat,
didn’t say you should pay extra for good service!
I do recognize it through tipping & happy to do so.
I am interested to know whether people would pay a tip to ,say, a supermarket checkout person for good service - perhaps putting the goods through quickly?
(What is good service by waiting staff in a restaurant? Take order, bring food, bring drinks …anything else?)
Extra info on the choices, what’s good, what’s popular, what’s fresh, what’s suitable for specific diets, looking interested in the customer not bored and as though they would really be somewhere else.
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Am I going mad here, NO I did not say that.
(In UK I do tend to tip in a small fashion due to social pressure - however in France I do not and have been told there is no expectation of tipping in France. - I hope that this stays the same)
In days of old… Tipping was expected… it was NOT included in the cost of the meal. France introduced a Law which ensures a Service Charge is included in the price automatically.
So the bill a diner receives will charge for food, drink, vat and service… the diner pays whatever the total comes to… and goes off home or wherever…
When the Law changed… there was the odd occasion, reported in the Press… where a diner was unhappy that Service had been included in the bill… and wanted it removed/refused to pay the full amount of the bill… 
IF something exceptional has happened (burning tables etc) and the staff have behaved like superman/superwoman… then a diner may wish to give a little extra to that particular person. Other than that … pay the bill and get going…
Tipping is the absolute exception… and certainly not the rule… since who wants to pay twice…
Whilst I appreciate that, it’s a shame that I can’t ask Jim for a tip when I cook something special!
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I’m sure he shows his appreciation…
I have already posted elsewhere, that I like to visit the kitchens and talk with the chef… if possible… and am always ready to discuss the cooking and to say thank you for a meal I have enjoyed.
I bet your Jim says thank you… 
… does he visit your kitchen…
Surely, that is what the staff are there for… a good resto uses good staff… and by good, I am not saying expensive… merely a good resto, doing a proper job. A meal in a restaurant should be a good experience…
A resto with disinterested staff is a bad resto and will not get my business… once bitten, twice shy and all that… good restos are the norm… bad restos are the exception.
and you pay the same service charge automatically in all of them…
I was actually thinking more widely than just France - although I am less likely to tip there since, as you say, the service charge is automatically part of the bill.
Waiting on table is pretty soulless minimum wage work in almost all instances, in the UK for instance it was legal until quite recently for a restaurant owner to pay staff minimum wage - including tips (i.e effectively topping up earnings from tips to the minimum wage). The US is famous for the poor wages paid to table staff (and one of the reasons there is much more of a “tiping” culture in the 'States).
Besides there is a difference between actively disinterested (I have encountered this not infrequently), polite but competent and positively engaging.
I agree most fall in the polite and competent category, those in the actively disinterested category tend not to get my repeat custom - at least not quickly (table staff don’t usually stay long so it is always worth giving a second or third chance to see if the fundamental problem is the restaurant or you just got a grumpy waiter).
Ah… of course, other countries will doubtless be different…
France and Portugal are where we have most experience… wonderful food and wonderful people
and in France and Portugal…food is not just fuel for the body…
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