The World of Waiters

Language and power in India's “new services”

“…Intersubjectivity is a significant aspect of much of what goes on in servicescapes (Mars & Nicod 1984;Sherman 2007). For this dissertation, intersubjectivity became an insightful conceptual tool because of the necessarily shared understanding of work and identity in the spaces in which I have conducted empirical inquiry.…”

Tip Work: Examining the Relational Dynamics of Tipping beyond the Service Counter

“…For instance, they may upsell guests on more expensive menu items (Paules ) or engage in flirtatious or sexually suggestive behaviors aimed at eliciting a bigger tip (Erickson ; Ronai and Ellis ). Workers reward customers they perceive to be good tippers with extra care, insider access, and service personalization, while sanctioning poor tippers with inferior service or by rejecting humiliatingly low tips outright (Erickson ; Mars and Nicod ; Paules ; Sallaz ). By striving to actively make tips from their interactions with customers rather than passively receive them, tipped workers gain a sense of control and empowerment over their service jobs (Brewster and Wills ; Gatta ; Mars and Nicod ; Mulinari ; Paules ; Sallaz ; Thompson ).…”

“…Three million Americans today work for tips, while tipping customers leave an estimated $47 billion dollars in gratuities in U.S. restaurants alone (Azar ). Despite the ubiquity and economic significance of tips in a service‐based economy, sociological scholarship on the topic remains narrowly concentrated in two areas: micro‐interactions between customers and workers (Azar ; Brewster and Wills ; Davis ; Mars and Nicod ; Thompson ) and the precarity associated with many tipped service jobs (Ehrenreich ; Paules ). Taken together, this body of research suggests that tipped service workers must frequently contend with marginalized labor conditions characterized by dependence on unreliable and discriminatory tipping practices of customers (Azar ; Lynn and McCall ; but see Sallaz ).…”

Tourism & Hospitality Education in Nigeria: Strategies for Bridging the Issues of Curriculum Gap for Industry Fit and Development

“…The traditional research focus on hospitality work concentrates on areas that provide, primarily, food and beverage (Mars & Nicod, 1984;Gabriel, 1988) and, to a lesser extent, accommodation. Coverage of this discussion is well served by reference to Wood (1997), Guerrier & Deery (1998) and others.…”