Greetings All! I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I am
back in the fold now and ready to blog.
My post today is about the “doctor tax”—a social/societal premium placed
on goods and services when people find out your husband is a physician.
Let me preface this, and
if you’ve ever read anything I’ve written before, you know this – in the real
world, I NEVER, EVER volunteer the fact that my husband is a physician. Okay, I told my gynecologist, but I figured
that’d keep them on their toes.
There have been instances
when I am utilizing someone in the service industry, and they ask me about my
husband. Sometimes my husband is with me
when this happens. They ask about what I
do, but I never get into the whole “I have a law degree but am working a menial
office job” routine.
This has arisen a few
times and I will list the interactions when my husband’s profession comes up.
1)
Hair Salon --
who am I kidding, I don’t go to a salon.
I go to Great Clips, and when I told the lady I was moving, after just
having moved, she asked if my husband was a doctor. What??
How could you jump to that conclusion based on simply having to move?
2)
Movers – they
were nice and all, and things got packed and delivered perfectly, but did they
really need to know what my husband’s profession is? The credit card payment already cleared,
people.
I firmly believe in
tipping based on the quality of service received. In certain situations, like at a restaurant,
many states pay the serves less than minimum wage. I have never tipped below 20% in that case,
even for the worst service (except once when the waitress was racist, she got 0%). Just because
my husband is a doctor doesn’t mean that I need to be tipping 25% or more every
time.
In the instance of a hair
salon, I tip on service and good personality.
My hairdresser doesn’t have to be my best friend. In fact, I salon-hop a lot because I’ve had
to move so much. But being polite goes a
long way, as does making me look better than what I did when I came in. I am NOT going to tip you more because you prodded
me and found out my husband is a doctor.
You might think I have a ton of money, but that would make you an idiot. You need to realize that your salon charges
$30 or less for a haircut if I am so rich wouldn’t I go to the many other
places that charge upwards of $65+?
As for the movers. I tip $20 per person, if they go fast and don’t
break things. I tip the driver $40 total
because they usually help with loading/unloading at both points of the
move. Just because my husband is a
doctor doesn’t mean you are going to get hundreds of dollars in tips or a fixed
percentage of the 4-figure move.
Just another rant of a
poor resident’s wife. We aren’t even half
way close to six-figures and we have six-figure debt, so I just *hate* when
people expect more from me than they do others J
