You find yourself in a crowded restaurant, on the last hour of your shift. It is a loud, and busy restaurant, the lights are bright, and you have been here way too long. You are tired, worn out, and mentally exhausted. Your coworker points to your last table. Two options, one being a well dressed man, looking at the wine menu. The other, a younger lady, anxiously looking at the dinner menu. What rationale do you use to make this choice?

I’d be willing to bet that it comes down to the tip. The well dressed man might just drop a 20, but the lady may not. These factors aside, I doubt you are thinking about what they’ll order, how they’ll order it, and how long it will take. My point being, that when all else fades away, compensation, and how much money you’d get out tends to play a higher role than you think.

This extends beyond the restaurant scenario. It extends into the job hunt, into which jobs you invest in, and often, how you do customer service. If compensation is part of the situation, it often becomes the most viable option. My own personal example is two lifeguarding jobs I had a while back. The responsibilities were the same, and I had good friends at both jobs. The facilities were the same level of class, and the patrons were relatively the same. Even the hours were the same, as far as the division of shifts went. What set them apart was a dollar more per hour. You can guess which one I worked at more.