Tipping the Waste Technician, House keepers, Grdeners etc

[Anne Maple]

Following a recent thresd it is generally accepted in the better households that:

1.Anyone who has a job such as a council refuse collector or postman with a regular paid wage and paid sick leave and holidays can be given a small gratuity in appreciation of their work if it is deserved and within your means to do so.

2.Anyone who relies on you for their wages and in particular gets no sick pay or paid holidays should have a week off and a weeks pay in terms of a gratuity, as well as a small gift if possible.

Over a life time of hard work my fortunes have risen and fallen. I have both worked as a servant, employed help in my own home myself while working in highly paid jobs, and am now reliant on small self employed part time jobs again. I never realized just how much the weeks wages meant to the people I gave it to at the time they were working for me until I became disabled myself. On ?74 pw ESA benefit my bills of rent and utility come to ?300 a month. What I earn, and am only able to earn half of what I am legally allowed to earn on benefits goes on food and second hand shop clothes. Over Christmas, holiday periods or in times when I am too ill to work there is nothing coming in. Most of the families I have worked for in East and West Dulwich have been extremely well educated and thoughtful, particularly at Christmas. Not everyone who needs help can afford to be as generous as they would like to be towards the people working for them and that is perfectly acceptable. The best Christmas I can remember while working as a cleaner was when one family who had help because they had a large family rather than a large income, asked me rather cautiously if there was any chance I could come in over Christmas - even on Boxing Day???- to help them clear up. Could I just! The cats and I had such a party with what they had left over and would have thrown out. When you lay off the people who have helped you all year just stop to think what Christmas is like for the self employed...

[Tigres Pride]

Well said Anne.

Hope you and your cats have a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year