o Tipping, Please

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

The Baron and Professor Hamblin, his chief advisor, often discussed whether the tourists were enjoying themselves when they vacationed in Lilliland. The economic success of Lilliland was based on satisfying the tourists so that they would come back year after year.

The Baron’s great grandfather was well aware that people like to visit Lilliland for the winter sports of skiing and ice-skating on Lilliland Lake. Sailing on the lake and hiking in the Alpine Mountains in the summer were also reasons why people chose to vacation in Lilliland.

One question that often came up in the past was tipping for services rendered. Some people thought the T.I.P. stood for “To Insure Promptness.” But the Baron’s great grandfather didn’t want people who could not afford to tip think that they would have to settle for slow service. The services provided to each Lilliland visitor should be of the same high quality.

Therefore, when a person wanted to open a business in Lilliland, they were required to obtain a license. A no-tipping policy was part of the license agreement. The wages of the employees must be at such a rate so that tipping was not needed to maintain a reasonable standard of living.

The Baron’s great grandfather also had something to say about the currency of Lilliland that would honor any country’s money and especially the U.S. dollar. The dollar was sometimes thought of as the most common currency in Lilliland. Lilliland did not have its own currency and therefore used the U.S. dollar as a standard for rates of exchange. The Baron’s great grandfather noticed that a large portion of tourists came from America. Since many of the citizens had relatives living in America, it seemed that every week there was a family reunion going on.

The Baron grew up with the no-tipping policy and the U.S. dollar currency used in Lilliland and saw no need to make a change. One thing that he did have added was to give the employees a chance to own part of the business and engage in profit sharing. This idea was very new and very slow in catching on but it did give the employees an extra incentive to make sure that everything was done well.

Happy tourists and job security for the Lilliland employees was a good combination.