"Your Generosity Appreciated" from the mailman

[Amethyst]

By all means, tell people when they do a good job. Tip them if you want.

I still think a blanket solicitation for tips is in poor taste.

Quote:

Originally Posted by street Never got a card etc. for a carrier. I will add thou I have never tipped or gifted anything to any of the delivery people. I do thank them regularly for their work they do. I see so many bad things said, about the mail service and delivery companies that it makes me sick. I know the service hasn't been what most would want it to be but I appreciate everything these people do to get me the mail or product.

[Bestwifeever]

Eh, send them to me--unconditionally tipping is my hobby

[REWahoo]

To add to the salary/benefit discussion, my rural carrier is a postal contractor, not a USPS employee. As a contractor she has no benefits and a salary, from what I can glean from giggling the interweb, might be in the low 40's. Knowing what time she shows up at the PO each morning to sort mail (7am) and the length of her route (~75 miles R/T), I think it is rare she works less than 10 hours each day - six (6) days a week. During the holiday rush she probably works close to 12, maybe more. She drives her own personal vehicle and sure I hope she gets some sort of reimbursement for mileage.

My point for the above: She darn sure deserves all the unsolicited gifts of gratitude she gets this time of year.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Time2 Not sure that includes medical and pension, also they most likely get paid holidays. Many people don't get these.

Yes, I mentioned these in another post.

[FDC319]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 You sorta missed her entire statement about that... I will see if I can find a source for actual USPS salaries...

Just because I didn't post her entire post doesn't mean I missed it.

[FDC319]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst I am a retired Federal government employee. Our health insurance is more expensive than the Postal workers'. One thing I did not do, even when I was at the bottom of the pay scale, and that's hint around for tips. Had I done such a thing I would have been reprimanded. At no point did I hint they make a "ton" of money. I said they often are paid better than people in the areas they serve, which is hard to argue with, especially in this year of incredibly widespread unemployment. It seems to me very inappropriate to blanket your route with "thanks for your generosity" cards.

and? He made a choice and you made a choice.

Regarding the "incredibly widespread unemployment" this year, I'm having a hard time feeling sympathetic. I made a choice at 18 and others made their own choices.

I have now said stated twice in this thread that I do not support anyone soliciting for tips.

[W2R]

Our mailman changes every month or so. Often they do not show up but instead, just park their truck in front of somebody's house and sit in it for hours (perhaps boozing it up in the truck, or playing with a cell phone, which I'm sure is more fun than delivering mail). When they do show up, they seldom deliver mail to the actual address on the envelope so frequently residents have to re-deliver most of their mail.

It's simply amazing that they can find so many utterly irresponsible and incompetent people as they have found to deliver mail in our neighborhood. Maybe they are recruiting among the homeless drug addicts under that bridge downtown. I'm serious - - we do not live in Mayberry RFD when it comes to mail delivery. Of course all of this has been reported multiple times by my neighbors over the years, but nothing has been fixed.

Since I have no idea who my mailman even is (this week), I have no intention of leaving a tip.

[ExFlyBoy5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo To add to the salary/benefit discussion, my rural carrier is a postal contractor, not a USPS employee. As a contractor she has no benefits and a salary, from what I can glean from giggling the interweb, might be in the low 40's. Knowing what time she shows up at the PO each morning to sort mail (7am) and the length of her route (~75 miles R/T), I think it is rare she works less than 10 hours each day - six (6) days a week. During the holiday rush she probably works close to 12, maybe more. She drives her own personal vehicle and sure I hope she gets some sort of reimbursement for mileage. My point for the above: She darn sure deserves all the unsolicited gifts of gratitude she gets this time of year.

That is my experience. Ours runs around in a car that is probably on its last leg and I see him around town all hours of the day. Very often (especially this season), he will have packages sticking out through the sunroof. I also know that he has to make multiple trips to the PO to load up more mail. Hard work, for sure.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FDC319 Just because I didn't post her entire post doesn't mean I missed it.

Sorry. I went back and looked and you did post all of her OP.

[ncbill]

We leave them a loaf of homemade bread...zucchini, etc.

[jollystomper]

Solicitations do not bother me, I have no guilt when I choose to ignore them.

After having over a dozen pieces of non-junk mail (including checks and important papers) misdirected during the last year and being on a first-name basis with the local post office about it, tipping the mail carriers on my route is not a priority.

[Teacher Terry]

It’s tacky to solicit a tip. Since retiring I have done consulting for the Feds and being a mail carrier is a physical job and they get hurt. It’s not that unusual for them to be unable to return to their jobs. When we had a newspaper carrier we tipped.

[pacergal]

Never considered gifting at Christmas before, but we have a new mail person this year and he is fantastic. He will bring mail to the door if it won't fit in the mailbox, instead of cramming and folding like the previous person did.
Our neighbor parked their boat in front of our mailbox all summer, despite the mailman leaving notes and personally telling them they could not block it. Every day, the mailman brought our mail to the front door and left it on the table. (unless he was off, then the substitute just never left our mail and we'd get it on the weekends when the boat was gone!)
He is friendly, waves and will stop and have conversations (masked and distanced) from the box.Nicest mail person we've ever had.

[Major Tom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst On the back, it says "Happy Holidays, from my family to yours your generosity is much appreciated!"

I agree, that the "your generosity is much appreciated!" statement sounds very much like a solicitation for tips. I concur with Target2019's sentiment that a simple holiday greeting, without the solicitation, would have been more appropriate.

[Amethyst]

I'd give her something myself, but I didn't ask if people thought the mail carrier deserves a tip.

I wanted to know if people think it's appropriate for the mail carrier to solicit a tip, via what looks like a holiday greeting card.

In hindsight, it would have been better to post a yes/no poll.

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo To add to the salary/benefit discussion, my rural carrier is a postal contractor, not a USPS employee. As a contractor she has no benefits and a salary, from what I can glean from giggling the interweb, might be in the low 40's. Knowing what time she shows up at the PO each morning to sort mail (7am) and the length of her route (~75 miles R/T), I think it is rare she works less than 10 hours each day - six (6) days a week. During the holiday rush she probably works close to 12, maybe more. She drives her own personal vehicle and sure I hope she gets some sort of reimbursement for mileage. My point for the above: She darn sure deserves all the unsolicited gifts of gratitude she gets this time of year.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst I wanted to know if people think it's appropriate for the mail carrier to solicit a tip, via what looks like a holiday greeting card.

Note the word "unsolicited" in my last sentence.

[aja8888]

Our mail carrier should be tipping me this year for me re-delivering at least a dozen packages she left on my steps that should have been delivered to other houses on the streets in our neighborhood.

The most flagrant one was a bag of prescriptions that should have been delivered to a lady that lives two miles away. Not once, but in my mailbox three different times.

And then there are the letters that are in my box that belong to others. ........

Yeah, the carrier is a contractor.

And we get new ones every few months. They must be related.

[Mr._Graybeard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras Anyone else remember mom and dad giving their carrier booze? Growing up in the dense city, our carrier was known to all. He'd let the kids tag along, and even let us put letters in the door slots. (Probably illegal back then too, sue him.) At Christmas Eve, my mom and aunt (lived in same building) would have an envelope with money, cookies and booze ready. He'd come inside and enjoy the drink. After he left, mom would usually comment that he was already two sheets to the wind since we were near the end of his route. Good memories. And no jokes about the mailman. I know who my dad is!

Ah for the good old days. I was a substitute rural mail carrier in college. Learned how to drive from the passenger's seat. It made me enough money to put me through community college in the early '70s.

Every Christmas season a couple of the local dairy farmers would stick a pound of butter in the mailbox as a tip. One year I got a half pound of home-cured bacon. mm-mm goo-od.

This year our rural carrier retired, and I stuck a card with $20 in the box. IME, mail carriers do OK without my contribution. If I were to tip someone, it would be the FedEx folks who work under contract. But our USPS carrier was a sweetheart and deserved a gift.

To actually solicit tips is bad form, IMO.

[Midpack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frayne I've had the same mail carrier for over five years, the guy always does a good job and I gift him every Christmas.

We give something to our mail carrier and our trashman every year. They always acknowledge and seem to appreciate it. Good enough for us.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 Our mail carrier should be tipping me this year

Much the same here. I have to redeliver mail (left erroneously in my mailbox) to neighbors at least once a month, and they do the same. It's a standing joke here. We all use a cluster box at the end of the block, so it shouldn't be that hard.

And our carrier is a regular USPS employee, not a contractor.