Your Boat's Captain Deserves A 20% Tip, Just Like Your Server Or Barber

I date a man whose talented, smart, and very good at what he does. He's a captain and runs his own business. He goes to college full time, five classes every semester, and runs his business on the weekends.

After being with him for almost a year I've gotten a good look at how much work he puts into his trips. He'll come home to me explaining all about his trip and I think my favorite part is watching the joy surface his eyes when he mentions his customers were happy. He values customer satisfaction and I wish his customers could see how much he values it, even after the trip is over. He'll walk through the door, smelling like a dead fish, and looking like he got ran over by a train. He'll get home and I'll push him to the shower after I hold my breath to kiss him.

Sometimes he helps his friend's business out and runs his charters for him for a couple of days. The other day I listened to him explain one of his trips to me and I couldn't help but feel anger. He took this group out and they caught a great amount of fish and he took extra time to filleted them for his customers. After he was finished, he collected the money for his friend and received a tip. This tip wasn't close to 20% of the total amount for the trip, instead, it was around 11%.

I am a waitress and I think we all know common courtesy of the 15%-20% tip at a restaurant. So when I heard this 11% tip was given to my boyfriend I felt hurt for him.

I wish that customer could see how much this man works and loves what he does. He cares about his customers and when his customers aren't happy, it follows him home. Being a captain isn't just a job to him, it's his everything. Making people happy, makes him happy. He deserved more than what that customer valued him as and he worked harder than the value of that tip.

This can pertain to tipping in general, but when you're tipping your captain, waitress, hairstylist, or even valet driver, realize that they live off of those tips. They served you, sweated for you, and created satisfaction for you. Tip people appropriate because serving someone isn't easy, it's exhausting but we do it because we want you to be happy when you walk away.