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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

(danluu.com)
371 points greggyb | 2 comments | 28 Oct 24 21:48 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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not_a_bot_4sho ◴[29 Oct 24 01:19 UTC] No.41978402[source]▶
Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years.

I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that.

It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he never once offered a tip.

Frugality aside, he was always very polite and warm so I can't be mad. Makes for a good ice breaker story.

Edit: holy moly, this is a sensitive subject. Please remember this was from a time before tipflation. Tipping meant you left your change behind once in a while only if you felt the desire to show appreciation. It wasn't an obligation. Yes, I still do think it's a funny story. Roast me for being entitled lol

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arandomusername ◴[29 Oct 24 01:28 UTC] No.41978457[source]▶
What frugality? He was paying the full price that it was being sold at.
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stouset[dead post] ◴[29 Oct 24 01:32 UTC] No.41978487[source]▶
[flagged]
neeleshs ◴[29 Oct 24 02:16 UTC] No.41978707[source]▶
Isn't that shifting responsibility to the customer?
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stouset ◴[29 Oct 24 04:09 UTC] No.41979289{3}[source]▶
The responsibility is already on the customer. It shouldn’t be, and restaurants should have to pay their workers minimum wage. But it isn’t that way, and stiffing service workers isn’t the way to fix it.
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neeleshs ◴[29 Oct 24 04:47 UTC] No.41979466{4}[source]▶
Neither is stiffing the customers to the tune of 15-20 percent.
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1. stouset ◴[29 Oct 24 18:18 UTC] No.41987694{5}[source]▶
Nobody is arguing that tipping culture isn’t stupid. But it’s the society we live in and you know that before you step into a restaurant.
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2. neeleshs ◴[31 Oct 24 14:53 UTC] No.42007535[source]▶
And nobody has stopped paying tips either. It is very socially awkward not to pay it. But i won't agree that in principle not paying is stiffing the staff. It is stupid, the industry has arm twisted customers to make it socially mandatory to pay and calling it stiffing the staff is blaming another victim.