Do you tip your building's super during the holiday season?

December 22, 2004 8:03 AM

Do you tip your building's super during the holiday season? Your postman? How much. I'm interested in practical advice on the local customs in Toronto, but stories from around the world (Hamilton, Scarbrough, Oakville, etc) invited too.
posted by Capn to human relations (7 answers total)

Don't forget Mississauga.

We used to give our building's security/doormen 50 bucks in a card. I'm sure the same would be appreciated by a super. Or you could buy him/her a bottle of nice liquor or wine. Or a gift certificate.
posted by websavvy at 8:34 AM on December 22, 2004

What about maintenance guys? My building has like 5 different doormen and 5 different maintainence guys, I'm not sure I can pony up $50 each. I was thinking more in the $20 to $30 range, is that cheap?
posted by nbrier at 8:41 AM on December 22, 2004

USA: I believe it's illegal to tip one's mail carrier in the states, but we do it anyway. $10 in a holiday card addressed to "Mail Carrier" and left in the PO box. This comes partly from tradition (both my and my SO's parents always tipped mail carriers) and partly because I'm honestly grateful for the service.

We've never seen our building's super (unless he was that young guy who came in to change the filters on our radiators yesterday) so we probably won't tip him. I'm not even sure where he spends his time. However, if we ever a) figure out where he is and how to get a gift to him or b) call on him for help I'll be sure to tip him the next holiday. Probably $10, but maybe more if he'd done something extraordinary for us.

websavvy's generous gift is making me feel cheap, but I guess I'd be more likely to give more to a doorman whom I saw everyday.

On preview: nbrier: I think $20 is very nice, given the number of maintenance guys you are tipping.
posted by jennyb at 8:50 AM on December 22, 2004

I believe mailmen can legally accept tips not greater than $20..
posted by kickingtheground at 9:09 AM on December 22, 2004

In New York, I tip the super $50, the doormen and concierges $25, and everyone else $10. The building has 22 employees listed on the greeting card they helpfully left under my door, which clearly limits the average tip I can reasonably provide. No tip to the mail carrier. I would have tipped the newspaper carrier, but she doesn't do a very good job of actually delivering the paper.
posted by subgenius at 9:42 AM on December 22, 2004

Does this thread help?
posted by Arch Stanton at 12:02 PM on December 22, 2004

I'm sure you didn't really mean around the world, or you would have mentioned more worldly places! But.. I'll jump in anyway. It used to be custom in Australia to leave some beers out at Christmas for the garbage collectors in the days when they still had the guys riding on the back of the truck. Now that most places have the automatic trucks, I think this one is dying out.
posted by AnnaRat at 2:52 PM on December 22, 2004