I was told by the garbage man when I asked him to tape a note to the can saying “look under mat” and leave whatever tip under the mat.
I have 2 guys and a driver on my route, my mom tipped them when I was a kid so now that I now own my own house I’m planning on leaving them $5 each in an envelope.
They work hard and never complain and always put the lid back on the can. I like that.
Since all they do is drive the truck to the dumpster where everyone puts their garbage…
No. No I don’t.
Nope. Where I live the whole process is mostly automated (put the city provided container in the street against the curb leaving 3 feet between it and the recycle bin and any parked cars - nothing on top or on the side - if it doesn’t fit in the container it doesn’t get picked up - let the truck with the hydraulic claw arm grab the container and dump it) and the guys never even get out of the truck, even when they miscalculate and place the container back down on the edge of the curb so it tips over and falls into the street. Plus the city just jacked up our refuse bill again another $3/month to $25 (9 years ago it was $13.50/month).
Besides, I wouldn’t know how or when to give a tip, seeing as they show up anywhere between 7 am and noon.
Yes, we tip our garbage guy. He has a tough job, out in all sorts of weather. It’s especially awful on a hot summer day. He’s always cheerful and friendly and has even come down the driveway to pick up the trash when we’ve been out of town.
I appreciate him doing a job I wouldn’t want to do and 20 bucks and a “Thank you” at Christmas time makes him feel good.
Nope, that’s what I pay taxes for.
I pay a lot of property tax and they make a lot of money. Why on earth should I tip them?
Even if I ever wanted to, we don’t have a regular garbage person or post person. It seems like they’re different nearly every month.
I’ve never understood the “tip the garbage men/women, tip the paper boy/girl, tip the mail carrier” thing.
My garbage is picked up by Waste Management Incorporated. I assume they pay their employees an appropriate wage. I don’t have any idea if the same person picks my garbage up every week, since the pick-up time varies.
My “paper boy/girl” has for the last few years been an adult who pulls his/her car into my driveway and drops the paper there, 20 feet from the house. He/she doesn’t come to collect. It’s all handled by automatic bill pay to the newspaper. I don’t know why I should tip this person.
Tipping the mail carrier? I bet the person who delivers my mail makes more than I do. And it’s not the same person every week.
We used to have a contract with a private garbage collection service because the town doesn’t do it - do you suppose we ought to have tipped him because we paid him directly? Frankly, I didn’t feel that someone who was paid $4/bag for his services was hurting for money enough to warrant a tip. Now it’s moot because it costs a third as much to bring the trash to the dump ourselves, and we do.
Yup. We have a big yard and sometimes leave an ungodly amount of tree and plant trimmings out front, and he works by himself (drives the truck and loads/unloads everything), so maybe he does get paid a lot (I wouldn’t know) but it’s our way of saying Thanks.
(Full disclosure: He also gives us a Xmas card each year, so we’d probably feel a little guilty if we didn’t).
I neglected to say we give a bottle for Christmas not on a regular basis.
We pay them $60 per quarter. I think that’s enough.
Perhaps it’s the Christmas whiskey talking, but I’ll start tipping them when they start tipping me for helping to keep the freaking electricity flowing to their houses. Sanitation “engineers” indeed. :rolleyes:
FTR, it’s perhaps not the best idea to set out alcohol for the garbage collectors. I used to know two guys who worked for the local disposal company, and according to them it was pretty common for them to be smoking pot and drinking while on the job (in their words, “no one can fucking smell anything over the shit in the back, and we never get pulled over anyhow”). Contributing to drunks taking the wheel of 40-tonne garbage trucks and careening them through the neighbourhood and down the highway makes Squishy the Safety Possum cry.
Edited: added an s
QUOTE=Una Persson Perhaps it’s the Christmas whiskey talking, but I’ll start tipping them when they start tipping me for helping to keep the freaking electricity flowing to their houses. Sanitation “engineers” indeed. :rolleyes:
I agree (except the whiskey, make mine tequila.) I work for a similar type of service provider (your internet connection, TV and dial tone:D )
I am a bit vague 
on the entire tipping process for anyone other than low paid restaurant staff and hairdressers.
Not just no, but hell no. This tipping madness must end. Just because someone had a shitty job doesn’t mean they deserve a tip.
No, I don’t tip the garbage men.
My husband worked for Waste Management for a couple of years (not domestic garbage pick-up, infectious waste from hospitals and other medical facilities); my BIL still works for WM (domestic pick-up). The money’s not fantastic, but it’s certainly decent, and they get benefits, too.
We contract with WM for our trash pick-up. We pay $14.00/mo for one trash can, which is emptied once a week.
I don’t see the need to tip these people.
Likewise, the woman who delivers our mail. Yes, she’s out in crappy weather. OTOH, it’s a federal job, it’s secure, it pays reasonably well.
I tip folks that go above and beyond, and/or make crappy money to begin with.
Another thing this got me wondering about - could “tips” to government employees like garbagemen and mail carriers be construed as bribes.
As someone who used to get tips…no, you don’t consider it to be a bribe. You treat all your customers equally. A tip is a gift from someone who appreciates what you’ve done for them in the past year, simple as that. It made me feel good when I recieved a gift, monetary or otherwise, and that’s why I tip the people who serve me.
Hmm… I’ll bribe the mail carrier to bring my bills to someone else’s house. 
That’s the easy part. The hard part is getting them to pay the bills.