I’m scratching my head over giving a garbage guy a tip. In my area they make pretty generous wages (60k, if salary.com is to be believed) and have awesome benefits. It’d suck to have to smell garbage all day, but still…that’s pretty good.
I used to think I tipped pretty generously for services I was supposed to (hair styling, lawn mowing, moving, etc.), but I keep reading advice on how much to tip your garbage guy, your mail person, etc. for Christmas. It’s all making me feel a little scroogey, but I don’t know if even that can make me tip.
So I’m curious - who do dopers give a holiday tip? And how much?
My favorite bartender always gets $100 the Friday before Xmas. Back when I used to drink in a place with doormen, they would get a $20 each as an Xmas tip.
That’s probably the only regular one I do. My secretary gets a hamper and a $100 gift certificate, but I don’t think of that as a tip. Because it isn’t, I guess.
If I had a house of my own, I would put a small wrapped gift out for the mail carrier since we always used to do that when I was growing up. I don’t know how you would give anything to a garbage collector (can’t just put a gift curbside, they’d think it’s trash, right?), unless you ran out there and handed them something. Or taped a $20 to the top of your bin? Which someone else could grab before they got to it.
I usually try to tip anyone that I come into contact with on Christmas proper. (like retail, gas station) I know when I worked at Blockbuster there would be regulars who would bring in cookies, and one time a big ham. Those were nice since working on Christmas is the PITS.
This guy is an amazing pianist, educated at Oberlin, and a composer. And he sits patiently while I plink away trying to figure out what note that is and what finger is supposed to hit it…oh, yeah, and I’m supposed to play in…rhythm or something.
Where we live now, they don’t get paid that much. We tip, but nobody else does. They take my trash away every week, rain, snow, sleet, just like the mailman, and we tip him too. Back in New York, the trash guys were making 60k (the drivers actually, the guys on the back a lot less), and we tipped there too, because if you didn’t, they might forget to pick up your trash. I also make sure to give something to the guys at local businesses I frequent, and something extra for the bartenders. Why? I see hardworking people who are under-appreciated, under-paid, and I have enough to go around.
I’m a regular at a local restaurant, and I’ve given the servers who regularly wait on me an extra $20 in December for the past 10 years or so. I usually give the owner a small gift. She collects frogs, and I can usually find a frog themed item or two. One year I found some fabric with frogs on it, and wrapped her gifts in THAT, and she was delighted, because she sews.
Nothing for anyone, because I don’t live in an area where tipping is considered the norm.
Tipping is just a way of saying ‘I’m sorry you have a shitty job, but hey, keep it up’, IMO.
And based on the number of (even US) people who seem confused about what to tip whom and in what situation, it’s a distraction I’m glad I can do without. I have enough things to worry about already thanks.
But I do give a gift, twice a year, to people who I’m in some way indebted to, friends, business associates etc. A $30 to $50 dollar gift of food or beverage that I think they’ll enjoy. That’s a custom I haven’t minded adopting.
I tip my hair stylist, the letter carrier, and this year we’re tipping the guy who does the lawn (he’s hired by our rental group, not us) because he’s done such an awesome job that he really deserves something extra beyond what he gets from them.
Same here. I do all my own yard work. I don’t have a regular barber (when I need a haircut I just go to whatever place has a special or that I happen to have a coupon for). I don’t have any bars I regularly hang out at. And as for the mail carrier, garbage people, or anybody else that works for the government, that’s what I pay taxes for.
Do you all get Christmas presents from people? Why? What have you done to deserve it? And your tax dollars don’t pay the mailman’s salary either. I’m sure none of you are hypocrites though, and don’t accept Christmas bonuses, or any presents.
Yeah, from family and close friends to whom I also give gifts. I don’t think I’ve ever met or for that matter even seen my mail carrier or garbage man.
Last time I checked the USPS is a federal agency.
Actually, apart from the $50 grocery card I received last year, I haven’t gotten a Christmas bonus from my company in quite awhile. But neither do I receive or expect gifts from any of the people we do business with simply for doing my job (not that we’d be allowed to accept them anyway, per company policy).
I once read or heard that USPS workers could not accept cash gifts as federal employees. How much does a typical mailperson make from holliday tips? I would think it could be quite substantial.
It is self sustaining based on income from postage. No tax dollars are used.
Your postman has probably done you favors. He will deliver misaddressed mail knowing it was intended for you. If your mailbox is full, he’ll wait to deliver some things to the next day instead of making you go to the post office to pick it up. He’ll bring something to your door that he could have left sticking out of the mailbox in the rain, or again, making you go to the post office to pick it up.