Author Topic: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?  (Read 1337 times)

marble_faun

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Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« on: December 13, 2021, 02:17:06 PM »
Hello everyone!

What's your thought on holiday tipping and gifts for people doing regular work at your home?

We hire a guy to tend to our lawn every few weeks and a woman to clean our house once a month. (Please don't judge the expense of hiring this work out - we are stretched thin right now and just really needed the help.)

I was going to send them Christmas cards to thank them for their work, but then I wondered if they would be expecting tips or gifts.

Both of them are self-employed, not low-wage employees of someone else. In the past I had heard that you don't tip a business owner, but having never hired these kinds of workers before this year, I'm not sure what the etiquette is.

Then there's the mail carrier. The USPS doesn't allow cash gifts or gift cards. Should I be giving him something else? And if I'm giving him a gift, what about UPS and FedEx?

And the garbage men - What's the right thing here?

Would love to know how other people handle this. I want to be generous, not cheap, but I just don't know what the norms are.

SimpleCycle

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2021, 02:34:47 PM »
Holiday tipping culture is regional and there's a big urban/rural divide, so YMMV.  But in my experience, cash tips of "up to one service" are appropriate and appreciated in urban areas.

The etiquette for a cleaning person is a cash tip the equivalent of one cleaning.  I believe this is true of a self-employed cleaning person as well.

For the mail carrier, USPS allows gifts of $20 or less, but not cash or cash equivalents.  This is a conundrum for me, as I'd prefer to just give a coffee gift card and call it a day.

I don't know about the lawn, because here lawn season is well over before the holidays.  I imagine the "cost of one service" guideline probably applies there as well.

Edited to add: I consider holiday tipping part of the cost of hiring out services, and tend to err on the side of generosity.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2021, 02:37:23 PM by SimpleCycle »

Dee18

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2021, 02:40:03 PM »
Pre-retirement I had a wonderful cleaner every other week.   For Christmas I gave her cash equal to the cost of one cleaning. 

reeshau

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2021, 03:04:11 PM »
If the "owner" is doing the work at your house, then they are the worker, and I wouldn't tip them less because of it.

At any time, service is tough.  Whether or not they expect it, some people tip, and some won't.  Who will get better service?  It's one thing as an anonymous, maybe one-time transaction at a restaurant.  (For most people)  But these people know you, and you know them.  I have generally found generous tipping to come back to me in better service / less hassle / benefit of the doubt / priority / favors many times over, in terms of value.  Also, the best people can generally pick their customers.  Better to secure that relationship than to be told they are "cutting back," or get referrals from the good people for others they respect.

And then...these people have come into extended contact with others, during Covid.  Probably because they had to, not just because they are nonchalant about catching it.  They may be worried for their family, too.

So yeah, if you are privileged enough to be able to, tip well.  This season, even more so.

Even silly fast food or quick casual restaurants, where I usually would not only not add a tip, but wonder at the gall of asking for a tip for no service, I have been adding it.  I'm doing fine, and that is not the case, particularly in service industries.

One service, or one period of service, is a good idea.  As much as tipping itself, I think the expected or appropriate amount is very local.

SunnyDays

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2021, 04:50:27 PM »
Always err on the side of generosity, because you have no way of knowing what anyone’s financial position is in the service industry.  I have a relative who worked as a house cleaner for many years, so I guess considered to be the “owner,” but honestly, pretty much lived in poverty.  Several clients gave her very nice Christmas gifts and it meant a lot to her.  With grocery prices going through the roof these days, I’m sure a gift card for a grocery store would be welcomed by most people.

Kris

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2021, 05:07:20 PM »
Holiday tipping culture is regional and there's a big urban/rural divide, so YMMV.  But in my experience, cash tips of "up to one service" are appropriate and appreciated in urban areas.

The etiquette for a cleaning person is a cash tip the equivalent of one cleaning.  I believe this is true of a self-employed cleaning person as well.

For the mail carrier, USPS allows gifts of $20 or less, but not cash or cash equivalents.  This is a conundrum for me, as I'd prefer to just give a coffee gift card and call it a day.

I don't know about the lawn, because here lawn season is well over before the holidays.  I imagine the "cost of one service" guideline probably applies there as well.

Edited to add: I consider holiday tipping part of the cost of hiring out services, and tend to err on the side of generosity.

You can do a coffee shop gift card. You’re just not allowed to do a Visa gift card, because that can be exchanged for cash. We just gave our mail carrier a gift card to a local grocery store.

mm1970

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2021, 07:07:54 PM »
I don't tip the mail carrier (though maybe I should?  Her parents live two doors down and her husband works at my kids' school).

We tip the cleaning service the cost of one cleaning, and we just hope the owner passes that on to her peeps.

Catbert

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2021, 10:48:59 AM »
I spend more on tips that I do on Christmas presents for family lol.  Generally the cost of one service, rounded up.   This includes: house cleaner (who brings me homemade tamales as a present); haircutter (and former petsitter) who has cut my hair for at least 35 years; gardener (DH is in charge); massage therapist who's kept my joints moving for over 5 years;  and newspaper deliverer (yes, I still get a hard copy paper).  I don't tip the USPS or city garbage employee because, well, it never occured to me.  I do put out water and wrapped snacks on my porch during December for all the delivery personnel to help themselves.

Certainly in my area tipping home support workers is typical/normal/probably expected.

cool7hand

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2021, 11:29:28 AM »
+1 on gratuity up to the cost of one service

Dave1442397

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #9 on: December 14, 2021, 12:37:08 PM »
I give our mail carrier $25, and give our newspaper delivery person $20.

No complaints about that $20 limit from the USPS so far :)

FLBiker

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #10 on: December 15, 2021, 06:08:53 AM »
Another vote for tipping.  It goes against my cheap frugal nature, but my wife has been a good influence on me.  I tend to err on the side of generosity, more often than not, which is new for me in the last few years.

For garbage collectors, I used to tape a Christmas card with a tip in it on the can.  I was worried it would get stolen, but I don't believe it ever was.  We moved to Canada last year, and I'm not actually sure what the etiquette is up here...

Britan

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #11 on: December 15, 2021, 06:25:16 AM »
Huh I never thought to tip the garbage collection workers. Though COVID has exposed the pretty serious underpayment of that job in our city. They tend to work in threes, one guy driving and two grabbing bins and putting them in (dense urban area). How does one gift/tip here? To make sure they all get a split? And how much? Given the thieves that are some of my neighbors I think I’d have to stand out there on garbage collection day.

AMandM

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #12 on: December 16, 2021, 09:29:34 PM »
I put a note on the bin asking the garbage/recycling/compost collectors to "Please knock at the door." They do, and I hand them a box of homemade treats and a card that has cash inside (in denominations that can be split evenly among the three workers).  I used to tape the gift to the bin until one year it got stolen.


Britan

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #13 on: December 17, 2021, 04:48:54 AM »
Good idea.

One of my neighbors has found one of my other neighbors rifling through his car parked in the back and was just like “…dude I know you, I know where you live, what are you even doing?” So needless to say, an envelope with tips taped to the bin would be stolen from the back in a heartbeat.

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #14 on: December 17, 2021, 12:41:29 PM »
Tipping isn’t a common thing here in Australia. In fact, when there are tips it’s because Australians have learned that Americans love to give their money away so they will gladly take the free money. I find it hysterical. I actually tried to tip movers and they refused. Pay everyone a decent wage and they’d never expect tips.

That said, I did give my cleaner a monetary gift which I called a xmas/bday present (so she would accept it), but I did this because she’s incredibly sweet and moving back to her home country in a couple months and I know she could use the extra money.

marble_faun

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Re: Holiday Tipping & Gifts for Workers at Your Home?
« Reply #15 on: December 17, 2021, 02:46:27 PM »
Thank you for the advice, everyone! Sounds like I should be tipping both the lawn guy and the house cleaner about the cost of one of their visits.

I'm going to give the mail carrier a little jar of nice local jam. He works hard in all kinds of weather, and we get a lot of packages. I know things have been rough with USPS lately, and it just feels nice to give him a gift.

The trash and recycling guys seem complicated, so for now I'm going to put that off. Don't want to tape stuff to the bin, since sometimes they use machines to dump the bins. Also, I think they are well-compensated, aren't as personally involved with our property as the other workers are, and I am not sure they are same people every week, so this seems to veer into a different category of employment to me. But will give it some thought and maybe will do something next year.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!