Rory O’Neill, WOR national correspondent Interview

Mendte in the Morning talks to Rory O’Neill about the tipping culture in todays age, especially around the holidays.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I love this topic that Rory O'Neil has today because
I hate that you have to tip everybody nowadays, and
especially Christmas time. You gotta tip people and you end
up paying a fortune in tips. Since when did we
have to start tipping everybody? And yet I do it

(00:20):
because I don't want people to think badly of me,
and so I end up paying a fortune in tips.
Maybe Rory O'Neil can give me a tip here wo
r national correspondent with us every day at this time, Rory,
are you a sucker for tips too?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Maybe? I don't know. It depends on how I'm feeling. Luckily,
I don't have a whole lot of these obligations. They're
listing people like landscapers and school teachers, and okay, I
do not tip the garbage man. Sorry I don't. I
wouldn't know how was he supposed to get it?

Speaker 1 (00:52):
You're playing with fire there. That's a bad one not
to tip.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
No, yeah, no, I'll tell you how you tip the
garbage man.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
You take envelope, you.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Put it in a ziploc bag and you tape it
to the top of your garbage can. That's what we
do in our neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
I'm going by your but he comes along.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
He comes along with a robot arm to lift. It's
funny back in the morning. I don't know if they're
gonna see it, and I don't know what homeless guy
is coming along.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
It's funny that you said that, Larry, because somebody in
my neighborhood recently posted online that they did that, because
everybody does that around us. And she came out in
the morning and someone took the envelope.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Wait a second, everybody in your neighborhood takes money to
their your trash. Where do you live?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Exactly? I tell it all right now? How okay? How
much twenty five bucks is the average according to banks?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, depending on how many you know, men
are on the truck. So, but yeah, twenty five thirty bucks.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
You know our trash guys do They have music playing.
They have bells on the trush truck and they dress
up as Sanna love it. That's how they let you
know it's tip time.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
They're putting on a show that deserves it. What about
the mail okay, how about the mail carrier? Only about
twenty one percent of people, or rather twenty seven percent
of people tip the mail carrier. Do you tip your letter.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Can That's an interesting one because I've tried to tip
the mail guy before. He won't take it. He said,
it's not legal. The tables about it.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, you're supposed to give something symbolic, like give him cookies,
not ears, fifty bucks and Starbucks or you know that
kind of a thing.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Oh no, I like the I like the out that
I'm given. When he says I can't take the tip,
and I go, oh, that's a shame. You know.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Cool teachers get about fifteen to twenty five dollars in
gifts and tips, and childcare providers get about fifty bucks.
Housekeepers about the same. But right now there's an empower
survey out that joees a third of Americans have had it.
We are now entering a no gifts policy for a
third of Americans saying, look, Larry, I'm not getting you anything. Larry,

(02:56):
don't get me anything. Let's all just enjoy the holiday
and the spirit of the holiday. To heck with the gifts.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Oh god, I guess you're not married.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
It's the third of Americans that there are that many
single Americans out there.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, it has to be because that is not gonna
fly in my house.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Okay, I think, okay, agree, that's not gonna fly among spouses.
But I think in general, I'm not getting my brother
another car charger or stupid tie iraq whatever. You know,
he's a big boy. If he wants if he wants something,
he can pay for it.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah. The big thing you should do this time of year,
and I'll give you a tip is you always get
sick around Christmas. If you get sick around Christmas, you
don't have to give anybody gifts.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Can I give a tip as well? And this is
what I've heard from school teachers. They appreciate the gifts
they do, but don't give them any more mugs. No
more mugs, right, they have enough mugs.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
I exactly enough with the Starbucks cards?

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Right? You know what everybody likes? You know it always works? Cash?

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, cash is king.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
You give somebody fudge and fudge, fudge always work.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
I was senting you fudge.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Guess what you're getting, right, you're getting from us? Thanks
a lot. Rory O'Neill wo our national correspondent's going to
be back tomorrow morning at seven point fifty. Well, a
far left wing, even socialist movement is rising in the
Democratic Party. We know it all too well in New York,

(04:37):
but it's across the country. Do they think that's a
good thing. We'll ask our favorite Democrat, Laura Curran after
the break. After the eight o'clock news