Postie tip?

I love my postie - he is also extremely cheery and helpful ( and sometimes signs for Recorded Delivery letters on our behalf and shoves them in the letterbox - naughty I know but it saves me trekking to the collection office so I'm happy!)

We gave him £10 in a card.

We gave our wonderful postman, £10, I know it is not much, but it is better than a kick in the teeth (not that, that was ever an option)

He is so sweet, and has given us a card today, addressed to 'The lovely 'Monkey fingers' family.

He signs for our recorded delivery items, if he has a parcel but notices the baby's bedroom curtains are closed he doesn't ring the bell, he'll either put it somewhere safe, or come back a little later and if the curtains are open, delivers it then.

Please tell me he actually wrote "The lovely monkey fingers family" on your card, that would make my day ?. That is very considerate about the baby's curtains.

I was thinking a tenner so cool!

Nice to know there are such considerate posties out there!

Ours is lovely too, particularly in comparison to the fcukwit delivery drivers I have experienced. I haven't given him anything though, as it were.

Blimey, am I incredibly tight cos it didn't even occur to me to tip my postman? Not even sure what he looks like to be honest. Or what time he arrives?

Gosh, just think, if he gets £10 from every house at Xmas, that's a nice little bonus!!!

My Mum always gives her postman £10 at Christmas. Living in London, I never have the same postman two days running, and they're rubbish, so I don't bother.

I think they have a bloody hard job actually, so i always get the postie something. our new one is a girl so this year i gave her two bottles of wine, which she had to come back for later in her car ?

Do you mean it's a hard job in the literal sense, or as in compared to the wages?

I think they are underpaid for the work they do, but I don't think the actual job itself is too difficult?

There aren't many jobs where you get up at 3am to go to work, then spend 8 hours or more walking miles carrying heavy bags of parcels and letters in all weathers. My late uncle was a postman for his entire working life and he used to come home absolutely exhausted. I wouldn't do the job if you offered me 10 times my current salary.

No i think its both tbh. lugging a heavy bag around with you in the pissing rain, cold and wind is not easy. writing out cards for people who arent in to accept parcels in the rain etc. its a very physical job. when they go beyond the call of duty to do things like sign on your behalf and leave parcels in certain places for you i really think that deserves reward - i appreciate not all do this, but i ve found that looking after your postie (if its the same person day to day) equates to them really looking after you. in fact i became quite good mates with our old postie, and i still go shooting with him, and he told me a while ago that a very tiny number of people gift them gifts, however small, and that they will go out of their way to do favours for those people.

Mel, nick, hadn't thought of it like that. forgot about all the prep that would go in beforehand.

I'd tip our postie if we had the same one every day. Plus if our post actually reached us in the condition it was posted in! (or near enough). Too many letters, cards, certificates etc have been folded to post through and too many parcels left on the doorstep for anyone to nick or to be rained on.

Having said that, one of my closest friends is a postie, and I know she's absolutely exhausted after every shift in the run up to christmas. Not only is it their busiest time of year, but it also can be the coldest, especially at 4am in the morning!

The postie that works in the Mailbox in Birmingham though, I don't understand. He wears just shorts and a tshirt with his bag while I'm shuffling across for my lunch wrapped up in a big coat, scarf, hat and gloves!

I wouldn't fancy it - too much like hard work for me!

Early morning start, lugging heavy mail bags in all weathers, getting snapped at by dogs etc - I take my hat off to them but it wouldn't be for me! Also, on Jeremy Vine last week (I know, I know) there was an item about postal workers, apparently they get a lot of grief from managers etc about the speed they do their rounds in, they are expected to walk at an average pace of 4 km/hr which doesn't take account of things like varying weather/terrain/time spent writing out cards/weight of mail bag and a lot of them find it pretty stressful.

We don't have the same one all the time - I would have given something to a regular one.

Does anyone tip their binmen?

My OH's a postie (who loves wearing his shorts) and has said he'd be very happy to get anything at all, but £10 would be great.

My Dad works for a newsagents (in the shop and delivering papers) and because some of the old dears think it's a young lad that delivers the papers rather than a 50-something bloke, they leave him a tip of 50p or some sweets ?

I think leaving a tip for your postie is lovely, if he/she is a good one - I have never met ours so don't know if it's the same one every day or what he/she is like at all, I'm afraid, so hadn't even thought of leaving a tip.

i did at our old house, but not here, theyre useless, jobsworth, lazy tossers

No, I don't either, as the only time I have seen them was when I was working from home one day and saw them emptying our recycling bin and instead of replacing the lid afterwards, threw it down the road! Maybe they're fab every other time but unfortunately this has ruined my impression of them!

I won't tip the bin men as here they seem to be very rude and quite unhelpful. The other week I was late taking the bins out and they had rolled the vans just down the road from where I live. I dragged my bin down to them and asked if they would take it. They refused as they were no longer outside my house. WTF. I have also had a mouthful of abuse for putting the wrong thing in the wrong recycling box e.g. I put paper into the small box instead of the black bin. I didn't know which was which and read it on the council website. He threw the paper out onto the pavement and shouted at me. No bloody tip for any of them.

My postie however will get a £10 tip as he is lovely, especially compared to our old one in Aberdeen.

Oh, the other things that posties do is deal with a bunch of admin before they do their round - all the re-directions and keepsafes and all that malarkey