Wait, Are They Spitting In My Food?!?!
Last month, I wrote a piece about listening to nudges in our generosity. In it, I used the example of leaving a large cash tip on a DoorDash order, mentioning that I typically try to tip cash to ensure the person receives the entire tip. Remember that?
Well, I just stumbled upon a disturbing discovery. There's a video circulating the interwebs, captured by a Ring door cam. A DoorDash driver approaches a house to drop off the food order. The customer, just like in my post linked above, attempts to hand the delivery driver a cash tip. "Ignore it. You keep that," responds the driver. "Why?" asks the confused customer. "Because I didn't see you tip on the app, and I put a little card in there. So please keep it. I'm sorry." The video clip ends with a still photo of the note the driver left for her: "Lucky for you I didn't bother the food but next time consider tipping your driver."
Wow. Just wow. There's a lot going on here. First, it's shocking how entitled the driver is to think that a) a tip is 100% mandatory, and b) it merits threatening the safety and cleanliness of the customer's food. That's an audacious move.....dare I say disgusting?
But there's something else I want to hone in on here. It's interesting that the driver's first instinct upon seeing no explicit tip being left on the app is the assumption there is zero tip whatsoever. That doesn't happen by accident. It's probably the byproduct of hundreds of times when no tip was left. That's actually pretty sad.
From the comfort of our home, we're jumping on our $1,000 cell phones to order food that will be hand-delivered to our door, where we'll meet the driver (in our jammies), so we can enjoy a completely stressless and effortless meal. And we're not even leaving a tip!?!? We're collectively venturing into selfish narcissist territory.
And all the while, I'm over here unknowingly risking someone spitting in my food, all because I want to bless drivers with large cash tips? No, I'm not defending this driver's gross behavior and disgusting threats. I hope she ate a big slice of humble pie that night and subsequently tried to make amends for her actions.
What I'm suggesting today is that we have an opportunity on our hands. We have an opportunity to consistently pour out so much generosity into this world that the (figurative and literal) DoorDash drivers get excited when they don't see a tip added on the app. A world where instead of sending threatening letters, they are handing out thank-you notes.
I know a lot of people will vehemently disagree with this, and I respect that. I'm here to push boundaries and move needles, and that gets uncomfortable sometimes. I hope you'll join me by leaning hard into this endeavor. Generosity always wins! Together, we can start to bend our culture. Reminder, even a 1% bend is still progress. Let's go!
Seriously, though, did that dude spit in my Taco Bell last month? Maybe someday I'll find out......
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