From R2 to R20

In South Africa we have people who pump our petrol for us.

i generally try to tip the petrol attendant to thank them for doing a good job.

But what is a good tip? Years ago it used to feel like a R2 coin or a R5 coin was good. Returning from Americaland 18 months ago and continuing to top R2 to R5 suddenly became something tbV and i started to question.

As a consumer the R2 to R5’s really add up [especially because most places you park there is a ‘car guard’ of some type and so after a couple of quick trips out in the car on a particular day, suddenly the wallet can feel a lot lighter] and so that needs to be taken into account as well when we are trying to be good with money, whatever that means.

Anyways, i was returning home after a hockey match on Monday and i stopped to put some petrol in the car. Xolile was my petrol guy and he literally beamed when i asked him his name and then spelled it back to him for confirmation, telling him that it was an easy one because i had a previous friend called Xolile. He was friendly and we chatted a bit about where he came from [Eastern Cape] and his time in Cape Town and then he went about cleaning the windows and finishing off the sale.

i decided in my brain [where i decide things] to tip him R20, which tbV and i try to do from time to time [i’m not sure if that’s ‘Wow, amazing’ or ‘Wow, so cheap’ but you can decide – it definitely feels like a step up from the typical R5]. Just for a slightly bigger sense of, “Hey thanks. i really appreciate you doing your job well and how that impacts on me.”

i could tell from Xolile’s reaction that R20 was a little more on the upside of what he had been receiving that day at least.

This is not really a great epiphany change-your-life-significantly post [or is it?] but merely a moment from a week reflection like someone with a blog no-one reads commenting on the cloud they saw today that looked like a firetruck.

But this is what i take from it:

# If you’re someone who tips your petrol guy R2 then every now and then, why not tip them R10 or R20 [oh, and STOP tipping them R2] but scale that up to whatever you normally tip – i think the largest i ever tipped a guy was in Stellenbosch when i tipped a guy R100. Which is still not crazily huge. But the point being that for me R20 is really nothing, whereas for a guy used to receiving R2 to R5 maybe it’s a small quick breath of fresh air. Next time you open up your wallet to grab a tip for the guy and you see that R100 looking at you questioningly, take a moment to imagine what you are going to spend that R100 on and if it’s ‘just another coffee and as sandwich for lunch’ like you do every day, then consider a moment of brightening.

# If the petrol attendant has a name on a badge, use it, and if he doesn’t then ask him what his name is. If you struggle to say it, then apologise and keep going til you get it right.

# If you have an extra minute or two, take some time to find out about where he comes from, his family, his day – it’s called treating someone as a person, but we can sometimes lose sight of doing that when it is someone serving us in some way. Let him know you really see him.

# If you’re in Cape Town like me, then why not try out your new Xhosa greeting that you recently learnt [maybe at that Xhosa course you did with xhosafundis.co.za or on the Memrise app on your phone] and make an effort to engage in his language.

# Eye contact, smiles, engagement, please and thank you. The small differences between acknowledging someone as a person or seeing them as a servant. So simple and yet so many people…

Let’s have a great petroleum consuming week people!

i would love to hear what is the most you have ever given as a tip? 

Also i just ran a survey on Facebook asking how much people tip on average and my friend Sindile responded with:

nothing *hides*…. more seriously Brett I don’t know any black people who tip petrol attendants…. is this a white people thing? (this is a serious question).