To not give the postman a Christmas bung

[MurkyMo]

...to not give the postman a Christmas card with a fiver in it. Husband wants to but I say no. As for the bin men, not a chance !

What do you do?

Not consistent but I do sometimes give a tip or gift to the postie - everything about our house is awkward for post but she is lovely, I know I can trust her not to leave packages somewhere weird and she dresses as an elf for Christmas deliveries. I have given her nice socks before. (Must get through a lot) and sometimes a small tip

I agree with your last paragraph. My dad used to deliver goods for a big department store and used to say the old dears used to tip them but the footballers did not

I do give the postie something for Christmas because he's one of those old-fashioned community types who looks out for everyone in his area and is all round brilliant

The dustmen however, no way ... I'm old enough to remember when they had to carry the bins, and now the truck does most of the work (plus they scatter the empty bins all over the pavement without the least care)

I've just handed our postman a five pound note in a money envelope. I live rurally in an isolated village and receiving and sending parcels from the doorstep is a lifeline, and there are multiple parcels in a typical week. I want to thank him for his service. I would be interested to know the percentage of households who tip. In this traditional and aging community I would imagine he does quite well!

The starting salary for Loaders does not rise rapidly. I doubt any of my colleagues are on as much as £13ph.

Someone up thread mentioned good pensions for bin men. Most of my colleagues won’t get a company pension as they can’t afford to pay 5.5% of their salary into the pension scheme.
Our pension scheme is contributory, so if the employee doesn’t contribute to the pension, the employer doesn’t either.

@CluelessAboutBiology sorry, sounds like the information I found isn’t valid.

@StrikeForever don’t worry, it could just be that the info you got is from private refuse companies. We’re council employees…..in an affluent part of the south east. I get cross on their behalf that so many people look down on them, criticise what they do, but wouldn’t want to do the job themselves. It’s jolly hard work, they do about 1200 bins a day per round, and out there no matter how cold, how wet or how hot it is. I’m lucky, I’ve got a desk job.

I gave our postman £5 today. Our previous one was a narky bugger but this one is really nice and will knock back before he leaves our area if he knocks and gets no answer. He knows I wfh so knocks again in case I was in a call etc.

He said he would treat himself to a pint

I tip my supermarket delivery guy, the window cleaner and the guy who does our garden. I don't tip the binmen and we never seem to get the same postie.

I was planning on tipping the DPD guy yesterday, but am thinking again.

I was told my parcel would arrive between 9 and 10am, then got a "sorry, we're going to be late" txt about 7pm, then "sorry, there has been a problem, watch this space" about 10pm. Today I was told it would be delivered today and would know the time by midday. Around midday I was told it's gone back to the DPD depot and will be delivered tomorrow.

Someone paid good money for next day delivery.

OK so we're giving the postman a card with a fiver in it. Haven't seen him for a week so I had to arrange an Amazon return so that he'll call to the door tomorrow!

So immensely thoughtful of you & all the trouble you've gone to thinking of the amazon return etc just to see your postman 💚God bless You&Yours

Why are you making such a big deal over £5?!? 🙄

To some folks, £5 is a lot of money & giving £5 means much more than a millionaire giving a larger sum
Ever heard of "The "widow's mite" in the Bible- refers to a story in the Gospels of Mark (12:41-44) & Luke (21:1-4) where a poor widow gives two small copper coins (mites) to the temple treasury, giving all she had , teaching that her sacrifice was greater than the rich who gave from their surplus Jesus highlighted her profound generosity & faith, showing God values the heart and total devotion, not just the amount given, as she gave her entire living-🙏