Tipping over the bean jar

There's a bagel shop within walking distance of my home (disclaimer: yes, I'm perfectly aware that New York Bagel Snobs will claim that the food served there cannot properly be called "bagels" since they're not made in New York, but, fuck'em, saying "bagel" is far easier than saying "bagel-shaped food substance."). I go there a couple of mornings a week -- sometimes with the dogs and I eat outside. They get a bagel-shaped dog cookie to share, too.

These kinds of counter-service eateries often have tip jars near the registers. Toss your loose change, or a dollar bill in if you wish. Some peeps think that people who do not actually wait on you at a table do not deserve any sort of gratuity, but I figure that their wages are still calculated at food server scales, they do actually do some work on your behalf, and if they're friendly and prompt enough, tossing my change or a buck in every now and again doesn't take the skin off of my nose.

Yeah. Except today I could not do even that small bit, because the tip jar was gone.

Joolee, the manager at this particular eaterie, explained it to me. "Corporate had us remove them. They said taxing it was problematic, and there was the kerfuffle at Starbucks where supposubly managers were taking money from the tip jar ... "

'k, I didn't know about any Starbucks tip jar kerfuffle, although a cruise through Google News turned up all kinds of blogs and editorials about tip jars in general, but I digress.

"So you gonna get a pay raise, to make up for the loss of tips?"

She snorted. I was glad she wasn't near the food. "Yeah, right. This is corporate, we're talking about."

Yeah, she had a good point.

Joolee said that while the money never amounted to much, the company claimed it cost the company effort to estimate how to tax the workers for it (that's way doubtful). She said that often they would purchase gift cards for the cooks and servers out of the tip income, making it easier for the company to track. No more gift cards, and no increase
in pay is probable.

But large corporations are run by bean-counters and corporate bean-counters are all about pinching pennies, and never, ever about the people who make the company do what it does best.

Fucking bean-counters.

Y'know, a friend and I were talking about Bastille Day (as opposed to Best Deal Day) and Guillotine and it makes me think that in those times we the Common Peeps rallied against the despotic monarchies. I wonder when the new revolution will arise where the Common Peeps -- including lower and mid-level management I suspect -- once again rise up and beat down these latter day despots? I'd hate to see another Union movement, but I am getting pre-tty sick and tired of corporate mentality and bean-counterism.