Tipping: I never know what's expected and it stresses me out

I rounded up modestly at first out of sheer anxiety, then finally just asked a colleague directly what was normal. Wish I’d done that in week one instead of month three.

Same anxiety spiral here, still not fully confident I’ve got it right even now.

Worth checking your bill closely — a service charge is sometimes already included, and tipping heavily on top of that reads as odd rather than generous. Caught me out early on.

Gentle pushback on the “just ask a local” advice — I asked three different locals and got three different answers. I don’t think this is newcomer confusion so much as it genuinely being inconsistent even for people who grew up here.

Building on Diego’s point — that included-service-charge trap catches a lot of people, not just newcomers. I’ve seen locals double-check the bill too.

Following, currently over-tipping out of the exact same anxiety.

Tipped a bus driver once out of sheer confusion and got a look I still think about. Nobody warns you buses are a whole separate category of “do I tip this.”

OP here — thanks all, and Rajesh’s point actually resonates most. Maybe it really is just inconsistent and I can stop stressing quite so much about getting a single “right” answer.

My rule of thumb now: round to a specific, fixed amount depending on the type of place and don’t overthink beyond that. Removes the anxiety even if it’s not always technically “correct.”

Apparently our generation over-tips everywhere out of habit, according to a local friend who found it very funny 😄