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# Tom Allen: Have we reached a Tipping Point?
- URL: https://www.richmonder.org/tom-allen-have-we-reached-a-tipping-point/
- Published: 2026-10-29T22:12:21.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-29T22:12:21.000Z
- Description: I shudder to think about what happens if my mechanic turns the screen around during my next visit.
- Author: Tom Allen
- Tags: Voices of Richmonders

Had a doctor’s appointment not long ago and I thought it went rather well. She didn’t choose to do anything dramatically invasive, offered me a buffet of various needles I was welcome to get jabbed with (or not), and found nothing immediately threatening to my continuing lifespan. All of this was good; all of it was also duly recorded on her laptop. 

As I prepared to leave for the lab, where she had also mentioned that I leave some of my blood, she asked me to hang on for a second and then proceeded to turn the laptop around to face me. With an expectant look, she showed me the screen, which offered me a generous menu of tip options I could choose for her, running anywhere from 20 to 80 percent.

OK, that last part didn’t actually happen. But I’m starting to think it may just be a few appointments away. 

I shudder to think about what happens if my mechanic turns the screen around during my next visit. Even 20 percent of the cost of the necessary procedures done to our clunkers would hamper my ability to do my patriotic duty, which is supporting the two engines currently driving America’s economy: vape shops and sports betting websites. (Neither of which require tips. Just saying. Maybe they pay their employees decent money.)

Tipping did work in my favor once, though. I found myself in Rome, through no actual planning of my own, and our family had a meal in an outstanding little pizza place. I went to the register to pay and, while doing so, inquired if I should add a tip. Register Man, who may have also been the owner, acted like that was the best idea he’d heard all day, so I tacked on 20 percent. He practically wept with joy and couldn’t thank me enough. It’s the first time someone has looked at me as an extremely wealthy person. I felt, just for a brief moment, what Elon must feel daily. No one had thought to mention to me that tipping is less necessary across the pond.

The number of establishments I enter now where I’m not at least presented with an opportunity to tip seems to have severely dwindled in recent years. This phenomenon has spawned a whole new topic for pundits and researchers, which they refer to as “tip culture.” It comes with its own vocabulary, too, as terms to describe tipping in places we’re not accustomed to tipping in include “tip creep,” “tipflation” and “tip fatigue.” 

From my own experience, I’d like to add “massive tip guilt trip” to that list. According to the Pew Research Center, fully 72 percent of us feel like we’re expected to tip in more places than we were expected to five years ago. I’ve actually reached the point where I am racked with guilt if I don’t *tip* 72 percent, especially when the possible recipient of said tip has spun the laptop around and is standing there watching where your finger goes on the screen. I don’t like it when people don’t like me, so my finger is likely to go to the “custom tip” option and punch in something like 45 percent before slinking away.

For the record, I’ve got some experience being on the receiving end of tips, too. This began in my youth, when I was a paperboy, and extended through my teens and early 20s as a waiter and “golf cart boy.” I loved tips, and as a result of those years, I remain a good tipper today. I’m just trying to adapt to doing it a lot more often.

My thinking is coming around a little, though. I have it from a well-placed source that the recommended tipping rate for columnists is now widely accepted to be “one crisp Benjamin.” Hope to bump into you soon.

📝

Tom Allen previously wrote a "Faith and Values" column for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He is the retired editor of the Virginia Journal of Education and the author of two books, "Grace Happens" and "Roll With It." Contact him at tomed1@hotmail.com.