Tipping the Hausmeister at Christmas

Grinners hausmeister rant made me remember a question I had yesterday.

As I walked into our apartment, there was a note on the door wishing us all a Joyful Christmas and New Years, and thanking us all for the "small gifts" he had received.

Now we didn't give any small gíft, and had no intention of it. Are others tipping their Hausmeister?

I hope Germany doesn't go the way of the States, where everyone wants a tip for EVERYYTHING. He is a salaried employee, why the tip? He does a job and gets paid.

Now if he did something beyond the scope of his job specifically for me (helped me carry in a big piece of furniture or something), then of course I would tip him at that time.

So does this mean next time I have an issue in my apartment I will get the SLOW treatment?

never heard of such a thing - whatever next?
i like our hausmeister, but there are limits

apparently our guy also pays no rent or telephone here! (I found out from a neighbour about that as the own in the building and I rent, so they pay more to keep the hausmeister happy).

Where we live, the owners but not renters usually tip the Hausmeister.

This week the people who deliver the newspaper (the free one, we don't subscribe) and the trash collectors will all come around "begging" for a tip. I find it annoying, but the locals in my neighborhood accept it.

Mr. DDBug is the housmeister here - but the "salary" is minimum (the legal minimum per month), no extra perks or freebies. Neighbors bitch if he hasn't shovelled the walks before 8 am. Deliveries and questions are sent here at all ungodly hours.
One guy gives him 50 euros, one woman always gives our kids presents (a book or a video). Some will give us a bottle of something either at Christmas or after helping out with something - it all depends on the people.

However, the A**hole garbage men ring our bell at 5 am the pickup day before Christmas and DEMAND their christmas tip. That irks me.

I guess that is it in a nutshell...feels like extortion to me. Sure if you have a specific interaction/relationship with someone or they go out of their way for you (I tipped the Hausmeister when I lost my keys and he had to make a new set). Aside from that, I don't think everyone should get tipped just for doing their job. Why do paper people and garbage men deserve tips anymore than teachers, the subway driver, street cleaner, etc. I feel there is an element of..."we will make you pay in bad service if you don't pay...just because their jobs put them in direct access to the customer (paying customer that is).

I just feel people should tip or gift if they are truly moved to do so.

Companies should ban employees from requesting/demanding gratuities from the public.

Public employees are technically not allowed to take "tips" over a certain amount - so our poor teachers are only allowed a gutschein for dinner or something small. But the garbage men still ring our bell... Although - they haven't yet this year... Will let you know if I am quit witted enough that early to react to them properly

crap. I'm glad you posted this. While our hausmeisterin has never asked for anything, she is always very sweet to the mini-pup and gives him treats every time she sees him. I'm thinking I should at least get her a bottle of sekt or something. hmmm.

I am going to buy ine a Noose... maybe he will get the drift...

@Eurovol...

wait a minute...you're saying that the guy who delivers the "free" newspaper -i.e the junk mail asks for a tip?

My tip would be..."see that sticker on my mailbox? The one that says "no junk mail or free newspapers"? Please respect my wish to not receive this crap. Otherwise I'm going to be forced to booby-trap all of the mailboxes with something very, very painful."

On top of paying €200 to get the new keys? WOW! Some people have a lot of money.

Ah come on, what ever happened to ''tis the season for giving''? Grinches, every last one of ya!

But seriously, it begs a question...Is a small tip worse than no tip at all?...

Exactly, the free piece of crap and waste of a good tree rag. The kids that delivery it came by our house not once, but several times trying to get us to donate to a new bike trailer to haul that crap around with.

We never give money, but our Hausmeister get a bottle of good wine every year on New Year's Eve and some goodies for the kids. Hausmeister and Frau take in our packages, empty the mailbox when we are on vacation and generally turn a blind eye on our tendency to stash our renovating equipment in the stairwell. But they are nice people and very helpful. Polish, not German.

My reaction to this thread is


I have a good Hausmeister and he's a good bloke too, but in 7 years it has never even occurred to me that I should tip him at Christmas. What an odd thought.

As for the (free) newspaper deliverers, either they never ring my bell or I'm never in when they do.

Gifts.. For the HM... You gotta be kidding right...

Our HM is contracted from the Hausverwaltung, and get paid a lot (come from everybodys monthly payments) and does very little..
F that he ain't get'in nothing from me...

Only my view, i think a bottle of cheap whisky is only about 10 eunuchs, why not ?

I can understand that some people might want to tip their Hausmeister for doing things like emptying their mailbox and such but I think there is no need to tip every Hausmeister in town. And the trash collectors ringing somebody's door bell to "demand" their tip - outrageous! I agree with the people who wrote that all these guys get paid for what they do - so if somebody wants to tip them VOLUNTARILY that's fine, but they have no right whatsoever to come and ask for it. Absolutely ridiculous!

The same is or rather should be true for restaurants. How many times do you get poor, substandard service? Many people still feel kinda obliged to tip. Which means you tip somebody for poor service and the waiter/waitress thinks the service was ok and next time round you get poor service again. I think tipping is something that should only be done when the service is good and even then it is up to each individual whether they want to tip or not, although good service deserves an extra tip. It might be different in the US where peope in the restaurant business have to rely on wages, but here in Germany they get paid a certain wage and if they want to earn more in tipps - well, make sure the service is good and you'll get more.

Well as far as I know hubby gives the Hausmeister cigarettes - not sure what message he is giving there

We have a lovely elderly couple living on the ground floor who always take in our parcel deliveries, so they will be getting a nice bottle of Aussie wine for Christmas.

You guys have very nice Hausmeisters! I am going out of town for 5 weeks and I asked my Hausmeister if he could help clear my mailbox and he told me to go to the Post office to get them to do it which cost €7,70 for a month. I guess I'll give my Christmas tip to the Post office then.

I think since our lift breaks down every couple of days and she's never around for me to get laundry tokens, I'm gonna say no.

"Tipping the Hausmeister" sounds suspiciously like an euphemisms for sex. Sorta like "Entering parliament" or "oiling the droid"

The general consensus here seems to be that, IF a Hausmeister goes above and beyond the call of duty, he deserves something to show your appreciation. Can anybody help me decide what level of gift/tip would show my appreciation for this... (I'll try not to be too graphic)

A few months ago, (actually bang in the middle of the Oktobeer Fest) I noticed something unfamiliar in our small back garden, on getting closer I realised that, to my horror, someone had "got caught short" and had to "go" right outside our bedroom window, over some cobbles. Luckily for them they were armed with a packet of Kleenex tissues (was this planned?).. I know this because an entire pack remained, along with a (very full) pair of "gentlemens" kegs. The initial hatred of this man has given way to pity. After Hubby and I had argued for a day about who was going to sort the predicament, we woke the next day to find that the Hausmeister fairy had been. And we all lived happily ever after.

Buy him a new pair of pants!

oops wrong thread!

Methinks Saan is getting all flustered
Edit: methought right

What I meant to post to this thread was that our Hausmeister keeps bringing us a bottle of Prosecco for xmas. Last year we were surprised; don't ask me why I was so surprised when he showed up at our door with another bottle last night. My husband and I don't celebrate xmas (we celebrate Yule, but not really with presents) and our friends and family know that, and so we are sort of insulated from this holiday and obligatory gift-giving. But I feel guilty now, like I should get our damn Hausmeister a present.

since i can remember my parents have tipped the trash collectors and the lady who brings their newspaper every morning. it is not a must but these people don't get a lot of money and if they do a good job (ie paper every morning), then i don't see why 10-20 EUR make such a difference. i have subscribed to daily paper myself only since August but I will send a card with some money to the guy. he is delivering the paper at 4.45am (i found out by accident...) i don't think i will ever see him but i want show my recognition to his job.

@planetmoni = because I'm poor
@saan = I envy you. I think my family would be angry at me if I stopped giving them gifts though...

But I give my family gifts all the time. Or anytime I feel like it, anyway. I prefer random gift-giving.

Saan, if you feel obligated, why not bake up some home-made goodies for him? It gets rid of your feeling of obligation while giving him something you will be happy with, rather than something randomly chosen (not given) just as a present.

well, the Müllmänner rang the bell yesterday asking my hubby (the housemeister) for their christmas money. Since he had no cash on him he told them to come back friday.
They rang again today - he said to come back friday. (How thick can you be?)
I just sent off an e-mail to the kommunalreferat (after phoning them) to remind their employees that begging for tips is not allowed.

PS - as the housemeister family we have gotten 1 bottle of wine from the scary neighbor (for opening the door for the meter readers), leftover candy and a doormat from the crazy lady (for changing her light), little presents for the kids from the nice lady downstairs (who would give them anyway) and that's it so far. There is one guy who normally gives him 50 euros though, but he's sick.
So don't feel too obligated, peeps.

Never met the fellow till now, so I can't tip...

can't you just ignore them? Thats what I do when they ring the bell (I may give them a tip when they learn to shut the gate after them)

I don't even know if we have a HM. I am guessing it is the old Russian woman with no teeth though. She likes trying to talk to me in Russian and just does not get it that I do not understand a word she is saying. Still would not tip her though.

In a lot of instances, however, the Hausmeister does get certain rent concessions for doing the job. A fried of mine paid only half the rent for doing HM duties (cleaning the stairs and lift once a week and clearing snow in the winter). See no reason to tip them at all

Now in the UK where we used to live it was necessary to tip the bin men. If you didn't then you would find the service offered deteriorated rapidly...

promise - there are not a lot of perks to being housemeister here i this building - no discounts on rent or anything. The legal minimum on pay for 4 hours of work per week and selling the laundry tokens. But since I work from home that's no biggie.

I am worried about the implied - give us our tip or else thing wit hthe müllmänner... not like they do a spectacular job as it is ...

The Müllmänner are employed by SWM, aren't they? I would phone them up, tell them that they are demanding a tip and ask sarcastically if you don't give them a tip does that mean they will stop collecting the trash like they are paid to do with your tax money?

I did phone - they told me to send a letter of complaint - but I sent an e-mail of complaint instead. They had better hope I don't answer the door tomorrow! (ok, and Mr. DDBug probably doesn't want me to either since he would have to clean up the mess...)

Our Müllmann just rang the doorbell to wish me and my family a very Happy Christmas. I responded by saying ...thank you very much.

After closing the door it hit me...he was asking for money.
I know that people say you should not give, but he did not ask( not directly)
How much would have been okay?...just in case the mailman wishes us a Merry Christmas as well.

Mrs Tom34

As in Presents for kindergarten teachers - cash, cash, cash. Let people choose their own stuff. These hardworking people get paid even less than kindergarten teachers - so the last thing they need is bottles of booze and useless trinkets. €10 to €20 is plenty.

You're supposed to tip your housemeister?! I've never even met mine!

Sounds fishy to me. Better pay though IMHO. Could be distasterous.

My Hausmeister ought to give me a tip for putting up with his shit all year...

'Scuse my french but my hausmeister's getting fuck all from me. Bastard charged me 280euros to install my washing machine & as far as I'm concerned he's had his lifetimes worth of tips from me. Dumbass then wondered why I got someone else in to fit me kitchen.

I don't think our block has a Hausmeister, we are supposed to look after things like gardens, paths and communal parts of the building like garages and hallways on a rotational basis. Six apartments, three owned, three rented from two landlords. The two below are rented from a ninety year old landlord, who gives a general cleanup himself every six weeks or so, his tenants do nothing. The girl opposite me never does anything nor the guys from the two apartments upstairs. So it is really the old guy and myself who look after the general upkeep of the place. The old guy is knackered and not fit to clean properly. I do the paths , stairs and garage but stopped cleaning windows, cellars and washrooms etc after the summer. I am getting a bit pissed off that no one else is pulling their weight and I did nothing this month since i was away. The place is really grubby now and i am going to have to have a word.

The house opposite seems to have a guy who does all the gardens, cellars, garages, washes the windows, floors etc. I have watched him working and he does a really thorough job. The two buildings are the same but ours looks like a dump compared to theirs. I presume he is the Hausmeister and if he were employed in my building I definitely would give him a tip.

Our Hausmeister couple is lucky if I don't break their windows. They never told us for four days that they had a package that we had been expecting. They said it's not their business to inform us, DHL should do that. They also said (three weeks later) that they have no obligation to receive such parcels and do it on a voluntary basis. When the central heating unit failed I put up a notice to the house as they hadn't. They clear away the free newspapers once a week, if as much, the staircase is cleaned whenever they want to - not very often -, and they are generally unfriendly, unhelpful and un-people.
Oberknuts©. If they come by asking for a tip I'll give them a piece of my mind. Or a flyer on where to get manners.

Tipping! Tipping!!??

Our hausmeister needs a propper fucking, not just a tipping!!

Clearing snow at stupid o clock in the morning... "Wankah!!"

I only read this 'cos I thought it was talking about an activity conneted to tipping the velvet...

Regarding our Haudmeister, the only tip I'll be giving is that he is sacked - lazy fucker