I have waiter/waitress trainees all the time - the bill is still the same.
I would think they charge by the hour. If two people are working, I get it.
If one is watching, you can’t charge me for his time.
I flat out wouldn’t have paid - if that was the case. Sue me.
If both are working, that’s different.
NYC is big on tipping. We tip our building staff, housekeeper, babysitter, taxi, uber, delivery, etc. My tip to my building staff at holiday time is in the 5 figures.
I don’t tip at any self service place or take out (which I rarely do). When i get a line for charity donation or tip (when it’s not called for), and I’ll say to the cashier, “what am I supposed to do with it?”
I have refused to pay a restaurant bill when they added on credit card fee.
Is this based on a % of rent? How do you work out how much to tip?
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I just posted exactly the same thing before I read all the replies! I will now go and delete my post.
It was putting in a new garbage disposal: one worked, one watched.
Did they quote you an estimate beforehand?
Regardless, that almost seems like entrapment.
“Gee, sorry, but I brought him along, so you have to pay him too for a job I could have done myself.”
Neighborhood plumbing company: no quote ahead of time. Just easier to move on.
I own my apartment. But whether you own or rent it is still good to tip your staff. I get a lot of packages delivered to me and they do a lot of extra little things for me. We have 15+ staff.
I’m interested in how the amount is decided. Is there an established number that people expect? Is that absolute or relative to what people pay for something else like monthly service charge (which is why I asked about rent - are people in more expensive apartments expected to tip more?). For example, for our gardener and cleaner I’ve always thought their Christmas bonus/tip should be roughly what I pay them each month. But I don’t know how that works in a shared building.
And is this a NY thing? I’m pretty sure my S in DC didn’t give a moment’s thought to tipping the front desk staff in his building last month (but then there’s no doorman/concierge or equivalent).
If you look up “NYC holiday tips,” there are endless websites with $$ amounts! Tipping the rental office (front desk) staff where we live is not a thing. No doormen or concierges either.
Our S tipped the person who took care of packages and mail to his apartment in DC and I suspect in NYC too. He was getting LOTS of packages. H has since rented space in a warehouse.
I am in NYC and I live in a full service building. We have a super, handyman, multiple porters and doormen (24 hours). I get a list of people every December. There is a general guideline on how much to give, but there is a range. I don’t usually tip outside of annual tip, except when I have a large/heavy delivery or if they help me do something in my apartment outside of their normal duties. I tipped a handyman who assembled a table for me during his lunch hour.
That probably qualifies not as tipping but paying him to provide a discrete service way outside the scope of his job.
Agreed. They do quite a bit for me. I live by myself and Its a lot more convenient than hiring someone to do it. It’s actually a lot easier when I used to have to nag my ex-husband to do it.
I have a tipping question. If you are at a bar/restaurant and someone is gigging (music), do you tip that person? If so, how much?
yes, 5 or 10 dollars. My husband played guitar in restaurants during college so he insists.
My 26 year old performs, she’s a cpa by day and has a nice salary, so she has a little sign asking for social media followers instead, but we typically put a $5 or $10 in for performers.
If we like the performance, we leave $5-10. If the singer is awful (happens periodically), sorry… no tip… that hopefully serves as a tip to look for an alternative career. 