Tipping the Moving Men

One thing my parents never taught me was to tip the moving men. Probably it's because they'd never hired a moving company in my lifetime up to that point. It just never crossed my mind that professionals that were being paid once should be paid again. Some people are probably rolling their eyes and saying, "Duh!" right now.

When I moved here to Maryland, my employer paid for a moving company, and that moving company screwed up in many ways, including being several weeks late on the delivery end.

But now I wonder whether my stuff was in "limbo" for those several weeks because I never tipped the pick-up guys. It's a revelation that is actually very disturbing to me if true....

This came to mind recently once, when I was thinking about getting a new refrigerator, and wondering if you should tip the delivery guy. And the answer is, probably yes. Then it came up again a few days later when a newly arrived coworker said he tipped his movers $30 each. And there were six guys!

Apparently there is an undercurrent of monetary gratuity that I am completely obvlivious to!