Dignity For The Trashman

[kpete]

Dignity For The Trashman
This, http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101219/COLUMNIST0128/12190331/1102/COLUMNIST0108
from yesterday’s fishwrap, really shows how disconnected people are from how city services are provided:

QUESTION: Becky Becker got a surprise a week ago when she brought up her trash cart. Tucked under the lid was an envelope with a holiday greeting from her trash collector that included his name and address.

Becker wonders if this was a hint to send him a holiday tip. She did not plan to send a check to someone whom she did not know — or even know whether he was really her trash collector.

More important, Becker questions whether to tip someone for doing a tax-supported job.

She wrote to me: "They are paid a salary by me and the other citizens of the city. It's not so much that I am a Grinch as I am just tired of everyone having their hand out for a tip, especially when they are already receiving a salary."

Oh my God. Yeah, you are Grinch. Get over yourself. If you don’t want to send a tip, then don’t. Jeebus. And here I thought I was the biggest Grinch in the county.

It’s the whole “These are MY TAX DOLLARS and how dare you not bow down and kiss my feet for every penny I begrudgingly pull out of my ass despite all the bitching and moaning I do at every opportunity.” Listen, Becky Becker (can you even believe that name is for real? I can’t): the reason you got a little Christmas card is because Metro has privatized its trash collection. It’s that whole “private companies can do everything better/cheaper/shinier/prettier” mindset that people like you espouse at every Tea Party rally and Ayn Rand reading group. So yeah, it’s a private company doing your trash collection, and that means you have to take it up with them. You ceded your right to bitch about this stuff when you decided you no longer liked the idea of public employees doing public services. I’ve got a steaming cup of STFU with Becky Becker’s name on it.

more humbug:
http://sobeale.blogspot.com/2010/12/dignity-for-trashman.html?spref=tw

[MineralMan]

1. Trash collection is still done by cities in many areas.

I read the whole story, and this person is served by a private company.

I don't tip the trashman for Christmas. But I do put an envelope with cash in it if I have some unusual trash I'd like to be picked up. It's not the standard way to do it, but when I took the carpet out of my living room to return to the hardwood floors, I cut it into 4' wide strips and rolled them up. I put it on the curb, next to my trash container, and taped an envelope with a dollar sign on it to the trash container. It was just $10 in the envelope, but the carpet disappeared with my trash. The company would have charged me $30 for the pickup.

[WhiteTara]

2. I'll remember that trick! n/t

[madinmaryland]

3. The question I think she so ineloguently is asking is who are we supposed to tip?

[pipi_k]

7. And under what circumstances....

I don't have trash/garbage collectors. We compost garbage, and tote trash down to the town dump.

But the mail carrier....

Our former mail carrier was great. At least twelve years delivering, and I can't think of more than two or three times she made a delivery error.

After she retired, we got a replacement carrier...the one who used to cover for her during her vacations, etc. We could always tell when the regular mail carrier was on vacation. We would get mail addressed to our neighbors...our neighbors would get our mail.

After it started happening an average of once a week, I kept a record of the misdeliveries. It wouldn't be so bad if it were only junk mail being sidetracked, but the new mail carrier actually screwed up with packages. Again, we get packages meant for someone else, neighbors get packages meant for us. Every time I order something that's coming USPS, I worry about IF it will even get here...or will it be delivered to a neighbor who decides to keep it.

I don't even bother bringing the mail to the neighbors anymore. I just write across the front that it was delivered to the wrong address and put it back out in the mail box for her to deliver to the proper recipient and have to face the embarrassment.

It straightens her out for a while, then she's right back to screwing up again.

Does she get a Christmas tip or gift? Hah. I don't think so.

Her gift is that I don't lodge a formal complaint with the Post Office.

[Saturday]

4. Today is trash day for us.

We taped a card with $ to both the recycling bin and to the regular trash container. Merry Christmas to our garbagemen.

[PassingFair]

5. How DARE that "trash person" presume to be human!

By having a name and address, and by
crossing the class barrier by giving
her a CARD!!!

To which etiquette might demand she
send one in return!

Don't these trash people know their place!

[mulsh]

6. Prior to the days of Waste Management Corp

trash collection in my town was done by the Oakland Scavenger company. It employed mostly Italian men who owned part of the truck they worked on. We knew the guys in the crew. In fact one of our neighborhood's crew members was a high school teacher of mine who's grandfathers helped start the company. In my neighborhood many of these guys were also our neighbors. Most people at least could recognize their regular crew. My Parents and our neighbors would always have a holiday tip for the crew.

When Waste Management Corp took over the older guys were pushed out of the action. Since I've been a home owner I've never met a single trash collector. The ones I see picking up change every week. The only person I know who works for Waste Management Corp is a former Oakland Scavenger employee who happens to have earned an MBA at the Wharton School (some garbage collectors are very well educated.) I don't know of any one who tips our current trash collectors.

[NV Whino]

8. Trash collectors make a hell of a lot more money than I do

They work hard and earn it, but no tip from me.

[zbdent]

9. I remember that my first introduction to "political correctness" was

in the late 70s or early 80s ...

an article was written about how "trash men" wanted to change their image, and they were to be referred to as "sanitation engineers".

[jwirr]

10. Believe it or not Richard Nixon changed my mind about trash men

On his inauguration the trash collectors in DC were on strike. I will never forget his statement in his address: "The collectors should get what I get paid and I should get what they get".