Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Brad: Brad Gosse here with Justin Popovic and ah again we're on the topic of Social
Rules because people seem to really like this topic or hate this topic depending on what
we talk about you know Justin: It gets traffic so that's the main
thing B: Ya you either fall on one side of the fence
or the other so ah um if you remember the first social rule we talked about was the
grocery store line and from there we have kind of been almost looking for other um situations
where maybe I like to bring entitlement into it cause I think this has a lot to do with
your sense of entitlement but um situations where you're breaking social rules for your
own entitlement purposes and the one that we came up with where we were out at a bar
last week with our team and uh my wife Claire and your wife Jess was there and um we were
talking about this and when I brought up this particular issue everybody fell on one side
or the other with it and everyone was really passionate about it so I thought it would
be a pretty good issue to talk about and its the issue of tipping a restaurant host and
we'll go past restaurant hosts when we are finished here we will start with the restaurant
hosts tipping a restaurant host to avoid waiting for a table and so the question is you know
you walk into a restaurant you know you are with your wife or you are with your girlfriend,
a spouse, a family member and whatever and you want to have a table quickly and you walk
in and the place is busy and the maitre d or the host says to you "I'm sorry sir there
is a 45 minute wait for a table" J: Yup
B: Now what would you do in that situation? J: Um before we had this discussion obviously
I'd just wait like everyone else it wouldn't have even occurred to me to do otherwise um
B: So most people... J: and I know what you are going to say and
I don't know I think I might be leaning towards your side of the fence which is...
B: Ah I bribe the host or the hostess with a 20 dollar bill or
J: The Tennessee Handshake B: The Tennessee Handshake which we will demonstrate
in a second um with $20 to $50 depending on the quality of the restaurant if its a sort
of four star low restaurant I'll put $20 in the host's hand if its a five star or five
diamond restaurant it might take $50 to $100 to get in the door depending on how busy the
place is how exclusive the place is but normally $20 is enough like if you are at P.F. Chang's
or something like that you don't have to make the person behind the counter jump up and
down $20 would be enough um and it is the difference and its something that I'll admit
I only started doing this a few years ago and ah I only started doing it after I saw
my dad do it once and I was like if he can do it I can do it and it literally has jumped
the line for me I walk in "sorry Sir there is a 45 min wait" is there anything you can
do for me? Boom "Yes sir there is a table ready for you"
J: Ya B: There is always a table who is it for?
J: They can make a table B: Ya they can make a table available and
give you the next table and jump you in the line as if you have a reservation
J: Yup so the argument though and ah again it may not be I may not be the best person
to argue with you here cause I don't know but the argument is that there is a couple
one is that well what if it is someone on a night out and they don't have the money
to do that and I know that you say that if you can afford to go to that restaurant and
you can afford dinner you can afford an extra 20 bucks to jump the line or you can wait
B: Yup J: and okay fair enough um the other one is
this is more of my wife's argument than anything else is what if it's a gift or what if it's
a you know another family's out you know it's that mother with the kids and its her only
time to be out and she can't she doesn't have the 20 or somebody gave her a gift again you
can jump the line but if she doesn't you gotta wait
B: Yeah in my experience if you are sitting there waiting for 45 minutes for a table me
jumping the line and coming in and getting a table faster than you doesn't diminish your
night out experience at all in fact I do it so nonchalantly that you wouldn't even see
me tip that host and you wouldn't know you would just assume that I came in on a reservation
or something and jumped the line because of that...
J: Yup B: So um from that person am I in my view
that person doesn't really loose anything except a little bit of time they aren't loosing
anyways J: You aren't doing it to flaunt you aren't
walking by everyone in the line going "ha ha" and paying your money
B: Yes I do
J: Well you're not and and so that's where I think you probably win a lot of people over
with the argument so I don't know what you think
B: I'm going to put a poll up on my blog underneath this video and I want you to vote ah on one
of the options that I put in the poll to see where you stand on this but to take it to
the next level what I have done and this is a brand brand new thing for me ah is tipping
a front desk clerk at a hotel J: This is a good this is the one I would
do B: Okay so um and we are going to demonstrate
the Tennessee handshake for you cause it's very important to know this
J: Ya B: whether you are tipping a concierge or
a host or anything J: Practice makes perfect so you may need
to do this 10 or 15 times B; You might need to do this a few times
J: Brad is an expert guru at the Tennessee handshake
B: I've done this a few times so you take a bill and you fold it into three and you
basically fold in half again so you make a nice little square like this okay?
J: Un huh B: and you put it in the palm of your hand
like this and when you approach the person that you want to tip you basically you grab
their hand and this is a great way to handshake anyway grab the hand with your left hand and
you give them a handshake like this and you say "Thank you very much" you know and then
J: and then B: and then let it go they know they are getting
money their going to be just as discreet J: i don't have to give this back do I?
B: Ya you have to give it back when we are done the video um, they'll be just as discreet
when they pocket the money ah and the transaction is done now
J: You have set it up with your approach they know
B: Yup they know what is going on and in my case I've never had to put it out there and
say "Now you are going to look after me right?" or I don't actually say to the person you
know "You're going to do me a favor now" it becomes an unwritten contract at that point
and so I checked into a hotel in Las Vegas in January and I've never done this before
to a front desk clerk but I was going to give it a try and it was a nice hotel and I wanted
a really nice room upgrade normally a room upgrade at the caliber I was looking for cost
me about $100 more per night I was there four nights so I'd be out $400 if I wanted that
better room and so when I checked in I gave the $50 bill to the front desk clerk with
the tennessee handshake he took the money and he held it in his hand and I guess front
desk clerks aren't as used to getting tipped as a host or a hostess so he held it in his
hand and he put it on the keyboard in front of him finally he looked at me and said "Sir
did you want change for this?" which threw me right off cause I was expecting a pretty
easy transaction to go down and I immediately responded with "No that's for you" oh and
he said "thank you very much" J: That's all he said
B: That's all he said he picked up the phone and he started typing away and I overheard
him on the phone he said "I have a special guest here I'd like to bump him to a better
room and a new floor I see there is a handicapped room on this floor it has this view can I
give it to him? Great" hung up and that was that we had a room upgrade so uh $50 saved
me $400 in that situation J: Yup well where do you stand on that one
too? You are going to have to do 2 posts do you tip the host? and do you tip the front
desk guy at a hotel? You decide let us know!