Years ago, I made a resolution not to try to save money or make money off the “little people” in my life. That is, if someone was making minimum wage or less working for me, I wasn’t going to cut corners by paying them for less than an hour’s work, or by under tipping them. If a babysitter worked 90 minutes for me, I paid her for two hours’ work. If I had a sitter reserve her time on Saturday night and I had to cancel, I’d pay her for at least 3 hours’ work anyway. (Not if she cancelled, though.) I figured, like the airlines, I was paying for her to set aside time for me, whether or not I was actually able to use her services.
When I began traveling a bit for business, I quickly realized that the person who made the most immediate difference in my hotel stay was also the person who worked the hardest, was the least paid and was the least tipped. That was the person who cleaned my room.
At first, it was tempting to save money by “overlooking” the tip for this person. After all, I was never around while she was doing her service, while everyone else was carrying a bag or hailing a cab and then putting their hand out.
But I realized this was a cheap shot. I resolved to always leave a few bucks for the maid, no matter how strapped for cash I was. Also, I resolved never to be more messy in my room than I would be if I had to clean it up myself.
We just spent the weekend in Boston. It was a long, exhausting weekend. As we packed to leave, I thought maybe this once I would simply walk away from our mess. The maid was paid to clean it, after all, and we were leaving her a tip. Wasn’t it okay for once to simply let someone else clean up after me?
But it just felt wrong. I took a few minutes to put all the towels in one pile in the tub. I gathered up our trash and threw it away.
I looked at the lids from the drinking glasses scattered across the counter. I thought, “Oh come on, me picking those up would only save her seconds!” But then I thought, it would only take ME a second to pick them up and toss them in the trash, too. So I did.
And underneath one lid was my wedding ring, which I’d taken off the night before and forgotten to put back on.
If I hadn’t taken that moment to make life a wee bit easier for someone else, I would have left without it.
