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If it's December, it's time to think about holiday tips. A few years ago, we looked at the Holiday Tipping Guidelines from Tipping.org, where the guidelines were fuzzy lines. We came up with this advice:
The site's advice is not concrete - the word "depends" appears twice in only a few sentences - but it's a good place to start. It advises anywhere from $25 to $100 for each of your doormen and $30 to $100 for your super. That's a wide range, but what you decide to give will, um, depend on the amount of service you receive. So, start with a base of $25 and build from there. If one doorman is especially helpful - he brings your packages to your apartment door or quietly ushers in your mistress, for example - add a little more money for him. And if your super has been to your apartment to unclog the toilet or do other repairs in the past year, throw a few extra bucks his way.Of course, our readers had some good suggestions as well.Don't forget that your building's staff goes beyond the men and women who open your front door or hand your your dry cleaning. Valets, porters and other mainentence staff are also worthy of tips at this time of year. A base of $20 - $30 is a good place to start. You can work up from there, um, depending on the type of building in which you live.
You can ask your neighbors if you feel comfortable to get an idea of what other building residents generally give. But don't feel that you have to break the bank to keep up with the Joneses. As with any responsible gift giving, you'll have to balance your gratitude with your finances.
Naturally, New York is very different, with some building supervisors even sending their residents holiday tipping guidelines, as Curbed found. New York magazine polled various building employees, personal trainers, nannies and more to find out about holiday tipping guidelines.
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i do understand the value of tipping, but it's hard for me to grasp tipping doormen. i tip mine generously, but feel it's BS. they do the bear minimum of their jobs and they do get paid a decent salary with full benefits. they're not like cab drivers and waiters who work for tips... my doormen never open the door for anyone, even when you're struggling with groceries etc...
i tip the handymen and super throughout the year when the help me with fix-its in the apt, but honestly, unless they're doing more to earn their tips, why bother?
any thoughts?
Some of us (in fact, most) do not have doormen, much less money to tip them.
here are the figures for my building assuming apt tips.
building 25o apts.
$25: $6,250
$50: $12,500
$75: 18,750
$100: 25,000
none of my doormen/porter/supers (who by the way do the bare minimum of their jobs) deserves this kind of a "bonus"...
they're all union employees with steady pay increases every couple years. they all have full medical, dental and eye benefits, and they all have 401k plans thru the management company...
if they worked for tips maybe it would acceptable, but this tipping because it's a tradition for 100 years is BS.
I have a super that did one thing for me ever, and doesn't even live in the building. WTF am I supposed to tip him? I can barely find him.
doorman... right. Maybe santa will give me one for xmas so I can be part of the tipping thread next year.
All in cash, too.
In my building the Super does the least work. Try getting him to do a repair job correctly. It's all passing the buck. Some handymen don't go that extra step, and some do.
my building 12 apts per flr, approx 53 stories.
Nice tax free bonus if you ask me.
I'm not saying I'm stiffing them but sometimes I have it tough, too. I've been laid off since 9/11.
So, it's just one income making ends meet.
Tips are definitely on a case-by-case basis - if your super or doorman is particularly helpful, then give them a holiday tip if you're able to. I actually rarely tip during the year, unless I've got tons of bags, so I do give a holiday tip. I don't tip extravagantly, but on the other hand, I'm not one of the jerks who seems set on being a brat to the doormen or other staffers.
Tipping is a subject that really angers me. I go to restaurants and I get shoddy service and I am still EXPECTED to give a tip because the people working there depend on tips? Well, they certainly don't act like their lives depend on it. And I am the type that just wants my glass of water refilled so I don't choke on my food mid-meal! I hate having to deal with nasty attitudes when I'm paying good money for a meal and I am asking for standard respectful attentive service, not red carpet treatment. If I want attitude, I'll buy my meals at any Duane Reade in NYC.
The same goes for doormen & supers. I can barely find mine. When I do find them, it's like fingers down a a chalk board as I try to explain what I need and I get answers back that don't make sense because they feign not knowing English-- solely when it's conveneient for them.
How about this concept? Tipping based on actual service over the past 12 months. If it was great, they get a great tip. If it was shoddy, they get a shoddy tip. If their service was nonexistent, they get nothing.
That seems pretty "fair" to me.
If you have a live in landlord/super, you don't really need to tip, right?
Here’s a tip: Don't piss in the wind.
#8: Amen!
This topic reminds me of a little Joke:
Whats the difference between Jew's and Canoes?
A Canoe Tips.
Here's a tip! I just won a $50 gift card by taking a trivia quiz with Kristin Cavallari. weird. www.msnholidaychallenge.com