Gratuitous Gratuities

Earlier in the month I was at a trade show in Orlando. It's a really big show so there's lots of coordination between the hotels and convention center. In fact, the convention assigns each attendee to a hotel as they register. The convention also arranges for shuttles to get you back and forth from your hotel to the center.

These shuttles are buses on loan for the week from any transportation company they can find: airport shuttles, private bus rentals, even Disney buses. Obviously the driver is paid to do his job. His job is not terribly demanding. He's got a route and he just has to run that route on a regular basis all day, like a MARTA driver.

So why does he expect...and then GET...tips from people? Do you tip the MARTA driver? It's not like this guy was helping me with my luggage - there was no luggage. He was driving a simple circuit. He didn't perform any special service for me. I was shocked that people were tipping him. Maybe I could accept it if I'd asked him to do something special for me. But I didn't. I just don't get how we're obsessed with tipping for jobs that people are paid to do. Naturally, the driver WANTS to be tipped, but that doesn't mean that we SHOULD.

Am I crazy?