Treat others the way you’d want to be treated!
Exactly. I dont expect my employer's customers to be giving me extra money for doing my job.
For me the "tip the van driver" is of academic interest only, as the places I go don't have hotel vans. However, in general, the expectation of tips has gotten way, way out of control. It seeems that every where you go, everyone has thier hand out, panhandling you for doing thier job. The snack counter in the atrium of Home Depot has a "tip jar", just to make sure you know that the cashier would like you to pay her for handing you a Snapple and your change. Fortunately this hasn't spread to the cashiers inside the store. If someone *wants* to tip a cashier, that's fine, knock yourself out, but putting up a sign directing you to give them money is panhandling, plain and simple. The hygiene issue is (presumably) under a little better control than the bum with the "will work for food" sign, but that's about the only real difference; other than that, it's begging.
Once, in Honolulu I (politely) asked a guy on the street which way to a particular bar. He pointed us in the right direction, and when I (again, politely) thanked him, he said in a snotty voice, that giving us the information ought to be worth a tip. Say WHAT??????? Sorry, this is just an example of how out of control this is. I'm always willing to help someone out, whether it's giving them directions (on more than one occasion, I've approched people who are obviously lost and offered help), or stopping for someone who's having car troubles (Yes, in some parts of the country people still stop and help each other out, I've done it, and had folks stop for me when I've had my hood up beside the road) I'm glad to do it. If I
ever start expecting to be paid for it, I've become a lesser person.
For the guy who was so proud of the van driver blowing off the comair guys while she drove him around to restraunts: Let's look at what *really* happened there. The hotel has a contract to provide airport transportation to your airline's crews and Comair's crews. Transportation to restraunts is not something they are are required to do. Nothing wrong with it, it's a nice service but's it's over and above, an extra. Now, according to your description, the van drivers are refusing to perform the required services in a timely manner, in favor of providing a non-essential favor to a crew they have come to expect money from. Essentially, the van drivers are now running thier own transportation business, for thier own income, using the hotel's equipment, to the detriment of the hotel's business. As was pointed out by another, having the van driver neglect a crew costs the hotel money, either directly, by having to foot the bill for cabs for the ignored crews, or indirecly, by customer dissatisfaction, and perhaps ultimately, loss of a contract. I don't know about you, but if I had an employee who was costing me money by lining her own pockets, I'd have a little chat with her.
