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?

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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).

But there are scores of different ones.

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."

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?

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.

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?

I've never given posties or binmen a tip. I used to give the paper boy a fiver in a card when I had papers delivered.

I've just given our lovely post lady £20. She's cheerful, reliable and always leaves our parcels in a safe place.

Maybe it also depends on whether you have a regular one or not, obviously you wouldn't want to tip all of them if you have lots of different ones!

We live in a small village and it's usually her who does our deliveries. She always seems thrilled, which is nice and it makes me happy.

Not the postman/woman - because we never have the same person two days running. But yes to window cleaner and the milkman. Bin Men usually get a tub of sweets!

My Evri driver is exceptional so I have bought her a tin of biscuits and a £20 voucher. Postman doesn't engage so nothing for him. When my son was at Uni and had a delivery driver job for Sainsburys, he would be made up if someone gave him a tip. He once got £50 - how lovely! And so unexpected. Some people are just lovely, not braggy.

We give ours a tenner in a card. Although, DH is a postie in the local delivery office and when we moved here a few years ago, he felt a bit weird about giving a tip because they had been colleagues for over a decade at that point 😅

The only other person I tip is the woman who does my lashes. She's so bloody good at her job, I get about three months out of one lash lift so I don't have to book in very often. Having had some seriously bad beauty treatments elsewhere over the years, I don't mind showing my appreciation of her work!

are they allowed to take the tip? always thought they wasn’t, Tesco especially

i wouldn’t tip our bin people, they show up once a fortnight, leave the bins wherever they want and most of the time leave rubbish in the bottom of the bin, and the postman changes every week, they only do 2/3 days a week round here, some weeks not at all.

Well said! 👏

If you want to randomly tip people due to some arbitrary internal moral code thats entirely up to you but fuck right off with all this judgy, performative "you sound miserable", "but.... its Christmas", "its the decent thing to do" bull crap which is a mere thinly disguised "I'm better than YOU".

Not everyone can afford to hand out tenners to every random person they come across in December and some of us are decent and friendly and kind to people all year round without bragging about it on MN or social media in general.

Bragging about how much you tip some people but not others isnt making you sound like the mother Theresa you think it does. It actually makes you sound like someone who wants praise lavished on them for giving someone something which makes you sound like a bit of a dick actually.

Not had a single bit of post in weeks, same as last year at Xmas and all my cards and letters went in the bin, never arrived even in January. Love my postie but no way would I consider giving them money! Bin men yes though never done it here. May do in the next house if they're good.

I don’t tip any of these people but if my husband wanted to I’d leave him to get on with it.

I give my postman a box of cholcaotes and 2 bottles of wine, he goes above and beyond for us. We live rurally and he always makes sure i get my parcels, as well he holds our post when away or put it in a safe space. They are run off their feet and deserve it all. I also give the couriers similar, them delivering stuff saves me so much time. If you can afford it then do it,