To not give the postman a Christmas bung

What would be the point of bribing a postie. Or a milkman

It's not always money, it's often a gift. The point is it's a way of saying thank you for what you do for me, particularly if you've gone above and beyond.

I'm wondering if it's a generational things. Some posters on here seem quite cross about tips and gifts. Are those who feel like that generally younger?

You are ridiculous to even think that a postman's job is sticking some letters through the door.
In my area the postmen start at 6am. Unloading dozens of yorks and sorting it all into areas. They will then be out from around 8am to 3 or 4pm delivering. They are out in driving rain, hail, sleet and snow, high winds and every other type of weather. Delivering to people who have unsafe access, loose dogs in the garden. Rural area so they are delivering heavy parcels that they are constantly climbing in and out of vans, having to meet deadlines for specific deliveries. They are soaked through to the skin because the employer dosent give adequate water proof clothing. Average number of steps a day between 27,000 and 35,000 depending on how busy it is and how many drops they have. They are also picking up mail from postoffices and boxes, all timed to the minute so they cant be early picking up, nor can they be too late because if the mail dosent make it back to their office in time for the main pick up then it fails which will result in a disciplinary. There is nothing easy about the average postpersons job.

Never even met the postman! You wait for a letter through the letterbox and open the door to say hi? Like how does that even work?

I used to be a Marie Curie nurse and someone thanking me for lookingafter their relative /giving family support was enough. Wasn't earning a great wage and wasn't allowed to accept gifts.
Never tip anyone, never have and never will. I'm polite with people I deal with and 9/10 recieve good service as a result.
I always thank people and say something like "You're doing a great job," or "Thanks for your help."

But there are scores of different ones.

Don’t tip our post person (we have men & women delivering) and bin men. I usually have a card with some money in ready to give to our food delivery person (if it’s one of our regular ones I will give a bit more).

FIL was a postman and used to enjoy the Christmas tips.

that said, our post is delivered sporadically by many different people. So I don’t give anything at Christmas.

the bin men - well I’m pissed off they only take the non recyclable every 3 weeks, I’m pissed off recycling is dropped everywhere for people like me to have to pick up again and I’m pissed off that they leave things that they are supposed to take (eg batteries in a clear plastic bag - they simply don’t bother), also they are supposed to take a kettle/similar and they didn’t. I’m also pissed off that all the recycling boxes and food waste container are smashed. So no. No tip. Not a chance.

We don’t seem to have the same postman/woman across the week.

no chance am I tipping the bin men. We are in bham, we never know when they might turn up.

I remember my mum doing this years and years ago but I didn't realise it was a thing still. She used to say it was their Christmas box. I haven't ever tipped the postman or the bin man. I may think about the postman but the bin men, no way. I may do if they emptied the bins when they were supposed to. Or left the bins outside people's houses rather than in some mad bin cluster at the top of the road.

There are far more difficult jobs out there - they don’t generally get ‘tips’ . That’s what salaries are for.

Are people trying to bribe employees with these ‘tips’?

i give our postie £20. Merry Christmas, Joseph 🎄🌲

No one tips the Amazon delivery driver and I bet they deliver far more things than the postman

Postman yes I tip, mainly due to them getting the letters in my letterbox

Bin men no, unfortunately they're shockingly slapdash and the only tip I'd give them is the tip of my boot up their arse crack and ask if they could at least put the bin back somewhere near the area where they got it from even if not in an upright position.

This. ^ There is no need for 'tipping' in the 21st century, and I find it odd that some people still do it. And it's very odd that some jobs seem to be deemed as more worthy of a tip than others.

Have to say I wouldn't tip the binmen, they are paid more than a decent wage! Ditto hairdressers, and the postal delivery workers are paid an equally decent wage. People can come out with how this person and that person they know 'goes that extra mile' to help people and 'works sooooo hard,' but everyone has got a few stories to tell about how they went above and beyond in their job, and no-one is more worthy than anyone else.

Do people tip Sandra on the checkout in Morrisons? Or Lucy the GP Practice Nurse who takes your blood tests? Or your optician or dentist or the GP receptionist, or the woman who is on reception at the Travelodge who books you in and hands little pots of milk and extra pillows to you? Or your GP?

Course you don't, and why should you? No-one (in the UK) needs a tip in 2025. Indeed no-one has needed tips for over a quarter of a century, and I'm fed up of how some people claim that people in certain jobs work much harder than people in other jobs, and are more worthy of tips.. And as I said, once you start it, (giving tips,) it's very hard to stop!

Where we lived before, I always tipped the bin men because they knew my husband wasn't always around and they collected our bins from inside the garage, emptied them and put them back. The bin men here often leave our bins in the middle of our drive, so I have to leave the car by the side of the road and move them! I don't tip them. Our 2 current postmen are lovely and we always give them a decent bottle of wine.

I tip our window cleaner as I live in a 2nd Floor flat and he always cleans the insides as well as the outsides. Three double windows and he only charges £10.

Just to add that we live in the South East which is notoriously expensive.

My husband is a postman and the pressure of the Christmas has impact on everyone at the work that they had to deliver letters and parcels in time without the overtime as the overtime pay has been cut. They faces so many problems from their bosses putting pressures on them while they working in their warm office not knowing the impact on their postal workers.
The pressures is unbelievable and my husband couldn't get his time off between boxing day to new year eve off to see his family who lives 3 hours away because of this.

It’s just a fiver ffs. If your DH wants to, why would you bother yourself with fighting this?

Never occurred to me to give anything to the postman but we don’t seem to have a regular one here, there are 4 or 5 of them.

We used to leave a crate of beer out for the bin men until they went on strike for months and left everyone in the lurch so now they get naff all 🤣

We give a tenner in an envelope and some biscuits to the bin men and the milk woman. The bin men are so friendly with the kids and the milk woman never wakes the dog. We have one lovely postman and one miserable one, I'll give the nice one a tip if I see him in the next few days!

I love the posties (I used to be one). They are decent people. Royal Mail has gone to buggery because of privatisation. That’s not the ordinary workers’ fault. Blame shareholders wanting their cut of profits. It’s always the way.

They don’t earn much so, if you can afford it, I’d tip them if they are nice people. I used to work with a postie and one of his clients always gave him a big pack of socks at Xmas which he was very grateful for!

I’ve never spoken to our binmen so I wouldn’t give them anything but posties are one of the few groups of people who glue society together. We used to have milkmen, shopkeepers who knew your name etc etc.

It's really NOT like that for the majority of postal delivery workers!

My parents always gave Christmas chocs and money to the postman and binmen. I still remember the postman! I work out of the house a lot and very rarely see them, I wouldn't recognise them. We are rural and get 1 or 2 postal deliveries a week, we are frequently given our neighbours lettrrs and parcels and vice versa, so I then redeliver to the right address. It's an awful service. The binmen are good though, perhaps I will leave a tub of chocs on top of the bin next week, it's a good idea, thankyou OP

Hyacinth Bucket struck her postman off her list of recipients of Christmas boxes, because he pronounces her surname as "Bucket", he produces her letters from the middle of the pile, rather than the top, and because he delivers letters with second-class stamps. "Postmen should be trained to recognise first-class-stamp houses!"

"Are you my regular postman? The one with the twitch?"