Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Thursday, December 22. 2016

Christmas Cash, etc.

It's the time of year to remember to say Thank You in a material way. When it's cash, I think $50 is a reasonable token of appreciation around here. Less might constitute an insult. Of course, that depends on where you live. Our general rule is cash for people who work for somebody else, and goodies for people we pay (except for house helpers).


Garbage man - $
Mailman - $
My 4:30 AM regular Dunkin Donuts Hindu immigrant guy - $20
Docs, lawyers, dentists, and accountant - Harry & David fruit
Our trainer - special goodies that he likes
Our house-cleaner - Mrs. BD let her go quite a while ago...we need a more professional, less intrusive one but it's so hard to find good help these days...


Hope I am not forgetting somebody else important. Am I? I'd give something to the UPS guy, but it's never the same person.

Posted by Bird Dog at 12:23 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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mailman? Never the same one.
garbage collectors? Ditto, plus they tend to do a shoddy job (half the time they "forget".
Docs, lawyers, etc. etc. Don't use them often enough to have that kind of relation with them. Wish them merry Christmas when and if I see them within a week or two before Christmas.
Cleaner? Do it myself...

And with even the teens who're dumping the cubic yard of flyers I get every week through my mailbox now ringing and fully expected to get money (when otherwise you never see them, doing it while they are skipping classes), I'm not handing out cash to anyone.

If the Salvation Army were still running their Christmas collection campaign I'd give them some, but they stopped doing that last year because too many of their collection boxes were being stolen and their people assaulted. Nobody dares say it, but it happened mainly in places with a high "immigrant population", aka muhammedans.
#1 JTW on 2016-12-22 14:10 (Reply)
None of these apply to me. But I give my lady barber a little extra. For my $13 senior citizen haircut I usually give her $15. Today I gave her $30.
#2 bodie on 2016-12-22 15:17 (Reply)
Our pets always give a nice plate of cookies/candy/fruit breads etc to their vet and the techs. They even sign the Christmas card!
#3 dianainsa on 2016-12-22 15:51 (Reply)
Sorry, but - this kind of thing leaves me cold, and often-enough has in the past...

With the notable exception of most restaurant/meals-eaten-out direct-service people, vanishingly-few "service(s)" personnel are paid/underpaid at anything like a level that would make tipping/"bonusing", either constantly or periodically, into a needed component of their compensation. They instead - in general - are compensated at an appropriate level to the work they actually do...and should (in my view, anyway) not be so-frequently the recipients of additional tip/bonus "recompense" so as to begin to regard it as in any way "their due", even on a Holidays-time basis.

I've done most of my working-life in "service" work of one sort or another, at different levels...and was well-enough compensated in nearly-all cases that I never imagined any felt-need - much less "entitlement" - to additional recompense for delivering "professional"-level (or even above, in some cases) services. Such a level - or above - should be the "standard", and to be expected - the usual.

In addition...I'm not a "high-scale" person, and never really have been, economically. I don't, therefore, have a "personal" mail-deliverer, trash-hauler, utilities-rep, etc. - and I really think that's so for most just-folks like me.

If I'm reasonably-courteous and ordinarily-pleasant (and I am) with those folks...that should be sufficient. No "additional" should be considered in any way to be "the norm".

I don't see that as being - in any way - a "curmudgeon", particularly "standoffish" nor even "stuffy"...it's just how it should ordinarily be.

Not everything is about money, or any sort of added-"comp", you know...nor should it be, in my view...
#4 J. S. Bridges on 2016-12-22 18:19 (Reply)
I tip the mailman...I know him by name and he saved me from a potential identity theft by the grown (30yrs old), freeloading children of a neighbor. It's illegal to give a postman cash, so I buy scratch off tickets, actually scratch them and give him the winners. I mean wouldn't it suck if he won the jackpot and it coulda been me?
My garbage dudes leave me a card with their names, and they do a good job, for over 6 years same ones so I tip them too. Used to tip the paper delivery dude, but now I get all my news from Maggies farm :)
#5 10xblest on 2016-12-22 20:18 (Reply)
$100 to the garbage man and the recycle man--they wave to my 2 year old grandson who loves trucks and equipment of any kind. $100 to the newspaper delivery man who delivers my WSJ to my front door at 4:30 am (rain or snow or shine)
#6 rocdoctom on 2016-12-22 23:25 (Reply)
I guess that I am just not generous:

garbage pick up, postal carriers, etc. - Never the same folks. Besides they all do a lousy job. Often my mail is put in someone's mail box and I get someone else's. The garbage truck far too often "misses" when it picks up the container and someone (usually me) will be out there afterwards picking up trash that didn't make it into the truck. Why on earth would I want to "tip" them for such rotten service?

Doctors and Dentists - nope, only see the doctors when needed and the dentist (really the dental hygienist) twice a year. Besides, they all make WAY more money than I do.

Accountant - don't have one.

Housekeeper? Nope, wondering on what to tip the housekeeper is something that my economic class has never had to worry about.

Did you forget mechanic? I'd do that; but, he is family and would be insulted if I tried.
#7 charles on 2016-12-22 23:55 (Reply)
Housekeepers get tips, I'll have to tell my husband he owes me for the last forty years!
#8 pocono pam on 2016-12-23 00:46 (Reply)

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