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dumbest.thread.ever. Not shocking though at all that a building full of graduate students don't know how to tip the people who pamper their coddled asses' with respect.
My request for clarification was to Chava61 NOT the OP. In my example of each employee receiving a $5,100 bonus I think that is excessive. I would think any employee would/should be happy with a total bonus of $50-$100.
A friend was a doorman in a Lefrak building in Battery Park City. He generally made at least twice that $5100 figure every Christmas plus lots of Persian carpets and fine wines. (They didn't drink so they gave me the wine...one was a vintage Dom Perignon...I am an avid wine drinker and I appreciate the good stuff. One of the nicest gifts I have ever received.)
He was never one to save so there was always a Hawaiian vacation with the wife or a houseful of new furniture or a new car every January.
In my modest building, I once figured that each employee got about $2 Grand each. Since we have 33 employees, giving each a separate gift is untenable, so one check or cash is the rule of thumb.
Last edited by Kefir King; 12-02-2016 at 08:08 AM..
A friend was a doorman in a Lefrak building in Battery Park City. He generally made at least twice that $5100 figure every Christmas plus lots of Persian carpets and fine wines. (They didn't drink so they gave me the wine...one was a vintage Dom Perignon...I am an avid wine drinker and I appreciate the good stuff. One of the nicest gifts I have ever received.)
He was never one to save so there was always a Hawaiian vacation with the wife or a houseful of new furniture or a new car every January.
In my modest building, I once figured that each employee got about $2 Grand each. Since we have 33 employees, giving each a separate gift is untenable, so one check or cash is the rule of thumb.
Battery Park Rentals - Downtown NYC No Fee Apartments for Rent I think there would be a big difference in a luxury building with rents from $2600 to almost $5,000. And a difference in tipping a doorman that provides concierge services vs a super asst. in a grad student building.
I'm saying it is financially irresponsible to consider tipping anyone $30 on their budget. Why do you think he should tip these people so much and stiff actual service people that rely on tips on a daily basis?
Not everyone tips the building maintenance people during the year when they perform services in one's apt. So in that case giving a tip once a year for the holidays is good enough.
I tip for anything that is a little extra, like having a faucet leak but handyman replaces BOTH faucets. THey remodeled the hallways but did a little extra on my door...so I tip at the time. They installed new steam traps but I complained I have a slight drip in the inlet valve and it sticks, can they repack it? THey gave me a new brass steam valve...I tipped. (The trap is to save the building money but the valve is for my own convenience so the tip for the latter.)
My holiday tip, such as it is, is mostly for the unseen team, like porters who mysteriously make tons of garbage and recycling disappear and keep hallways and outside common areas clean and gardens watered.
$10 is a good tip as well. Not everyone tips or can afford to, but $10 for doorman, porter, super or just the one that you encounter mostly. Are these Union Guys? They make anywhere from $45,000 for a porter to $75,000 as a Super, not including cash tips here and there. Non union makes much less.
Every little bit adds up in the end, and staff knows that tenant / students are struggling.
Enough with the BS that "students are struggling" please
If by struggling you mean getting bank rolled by parents back home, loans up the wazoo, and their entire existence coddled by their respective colleges and universities? Stop it. just stop it.
I toss $100 into the Xmas pot...they divide as they will. I'd like to give more...I'd like to give less. I can afford to toss $100.
Every worker in my building makes more than I do and none of them is working very hard.
I live in a building reserved for graduate students. Everybody who lives in the building (except the super, no idea how much he makes) is a graduate student and is on a fixed and quite small stipend (small for NYC), none more than 25k, but the building is nice, new, and well-cleaned and the staff are helpful and friendly. They know we're all graduate students who make almost no money and that the rent eats up about 85% of our stipend, but they've been helpful and I'd feel like an ******* if I didn't tip.
There's a manager (who's there all the time), a super, a super's assistant/porter, and two or three door guys (who are really security guys who just sit by the door). I wonder what would be reasonable to give in this situation? I see other topics about this but those tend to be for more wealthy people living in real luxury buildings in the UES or UWS and I can't afford to give everybody 200$ like they suggest there...
My recommendation would be $20-30/person. In this situation, tipping is voluntary and dependent on your ability to pay. If you'd feel it by tipping $20-30/person, then you're not an a-hole by not leaving a tip. If you're ahead financially in the spring (or get tax refund, etc.), you can offer something at that time to thank them for their efforts and mention that things were tight around the holidays.
I think that employers in rental buildings should provide bonuses for the staff out of their profits.
If NYU owns the building let NYU fork up the "tips."
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