Know your super

That's highly, highly creepy. My experience with the supers at both of my buildings has been really favorable - ideally, a super is a part of the apartment community along with residents, doormen, etc. Although, unfortunately, the practice of annual tips from residents to supers/doormen/etc hasn't been as successful this year, due to the recession, which is a bit awkward for all parties involved - the doormen/supers tend to expect a certain per-resident sum, given past tradition, and this year many residents just can't afford it.

When I lived in the LES one of my roommates had major beef with the super. He hated her because she never tipped him but was always asking him to do stuff, basically. (In her defense, she was new to the city and wasn't aware of the standard practice of tipping your super. Also we were young-ish at the time and obviously rather ignorant of some things.) Anyway one day she called him and he came in with his fly unbuttoned and, well, everything hanging out.

After that both she and her irate mother gave the landlords a call and we got a personal visit the next day from the landlord's son - obviously they were afraid of a lawsuit. The super was never terminated, though, he probably still works there.

Oh, another thing that super used to do was let one of the local homeless dudes sleep in our building. Said homeless dude actually had a key and would sometimes offer to get the door for me if my hands were full. He was harmless, but still. We were paying a lot of money to live in that area and it was a bit ridiculous to trip over the guy on the way to the roof some nights.

During warmer months the guy had a bed set up on the landing at the top of the stairs in front of the door to the roof, and in the winter he hung out in the basement.

You have to be careful with homeless people. They may appear innocent, but one lady got attacked once by a homeless person. So watch your back when he is around.

Wow, BoradwayBK, I can't believe all that happened. So for my own information, what's standard to tip a super and when? Is it a certain sum you give them near the holidays?

@Uraniumfish I was going to upload a post on this topic. In my experience if you live in a building that has a doorman ( or a few doormen) and a super they all expect to be tipped during the holiday season. My husband and I decide the amount of tips according to seniority for the doormen ( our building has four regular doormen and a few relief doormen as well ). However given the total number of staff in the building the sum is quite substantial as average tips range from $50-$150.

@BroadwayBK that's a wild story but I guess a common occurrence in this city. I know of a friend of a friend who actually gave in to the 'demands' of the super because she was subletting an apartment in a co-op and she didn't want him to rat on her. Co-ops in NYC as you know are extremely sticky about who they let and don't usually allow apartments to be rented out easily.

@Uraniumfish Yeah, $50-150 sounds about right, depending on what you are asking the guy to do. I know when our super came in with his junk all hanging out he was raging about how he only gets paid $200 a week by the landlord, so typically these guys make their money from tips.

@uptowngirl I think landlords should be the ones to pay these guys; it's not as if they can't afford it.

I just think that someone should just make landlords pay the supers a salary. I think that restaurants should be made to pay decent wages to all of their employees as well, and that a modest tip should be included in the bill, such as is practiced in Europe. No one should be making extra profits because they don't have to pay their employees anything.

It is hard to say regarding landlords and supers. In the building I live in, the super has a rent free apartment. In fact, he gets a lot of stuff for free. He is collecting social security, but he saves thousands of dollars a month because he is the super. Cable is free. His cell phone is free. His gas/electric bill is free as well.

@hhusted my building super has a similair sort of arrangement( I dont know the exact details) but he is an extremely pleasant gentleman who is an adept handyman as well.

Giving the super free rent is an awesome deal - I suppose that's just as good as paying the guy. Though my horrible LES super lived way out in Brooklyn somewhere.

I've actually worked in places where bartenders and servers didn't get paid ANYTHING except for tips - it was a nice place in the Village, too. Happens more often than you think.

If the super does a great job and is reliable, I wouldn't mind paying him a good tip during Christmas. Actually, any time my super does something for me, I give me $10 or $20 bucks. He appreciates it.

@BroadwayBK that's awful about not being paid for work done. I feel the same way about internships which are just free labor. I have friend who is a student at Columbia University and she has been trying to get a paying job for some time now ( she has her heart set on being an equity trader). As a result of which she does internships after internships (all of which are unpaid) in the hope that she will land something eventually. I sure hope so for her sake as she has big student loans to pay. The least companies could do is offer these interns a stipend especially in today's tough economic climate.

@hhusted I think it is an accepted practice to tip your super for a particular service rendered in addition to the holiday bonus.

@uptowngirl Right. I can understand the value of internships for someone who is a student or for someone who is trying to gain experience in a certain field, but after a while you just don't want to work for free anymore.

@uptowngirl and BroadwayBk It's even a bit demeaning to be working for nothing after you graduate and can be said to have joined the adult world.

Actually, based on what I was told, it really isn't a practice to tip the super for everything he has to do, since he was hired by the landlord to do the stuff anyway. It is just generous to do so.

I've never tipped a super but rarely have had dealings with supers anyway.

I'm a super in a luxury condo building downtown Tribeca. Being a super is not an easy job as you have to always be on top of things and dealing with different people in daily bases. I live in the building and I have a decent salary. The people I deal with are rich and apartments range from $3mil to $10mil. They only tip during the holiday season, which is fine, but like HHUSTED said "It is just generous to do so" if anyone tips during when you do something extra for them. I love the people here in the building and I have a great relationship with them.
An advise for all of you dealing with supers -- if your super is mean, disrespectful and does not respond to your calls in timely fashion, do not give him anything, ever. But if he's nice, responsive and does things for you every once in a while, give him a $10, just like HHUSTED does. He will really appreciate it. $10 is not going to make you any richer or poorer. Cheers all.

My experiences with the LES super have lead me to have rare dealings with supers as well. Nowadays I don't exactly have a super - whenever I need something I just call my landlord and he takes care of the problem, and you can bet I don't feel the need to tip him.

@hhusted You don't have to tip your server at a restaurant or the cab driver who just took you across town, either, but the practice of not tipping is not exactly kosher. I would never not tip a super - especially because if you need him again, he may not be so happy to help you.

@The Super Thanks for the input. It's nice to have a super's perspective on this discussion. I've never thought much about the other side of the coin.

@BroadwayBK - I am not saying tip a super for his job, if he does something within his job description. I am saying if he does something extra for you such as, for instance, take your shades down because you don't have any tools, or hang a picture, or even open your door at 3am because you got locked out or you forgot or lost your keys, or were too drunk to find them inside your bag. Things like that. We're doing you a favor, not the other way around.
If you do not tip me, I won't treat you any differently. I will still help you. After all, it is my job to always leave a good impression and maintain good relationships with my residents. But if you woke me up at 3am to open the door for you? Umm, think about it, if you called the locksmith at 3am how much it would cost you.
In rental buildings is a bit different, super does more things for you. But if you lived in a condominium building, every time the super steps in your apartment (emergencies, leaks, fire etc excluded), he is doing you a favor.

So, a question for you, The Super: If someone does call you at 3 am because he's locked out, are you allowed to tell them, well, call a locksmith because I need to sleep? Or is it a requirement of your job to help them? Does it reflect badly on you if you don't help in a situation where it seems you're being asked to go above and beyond?

It's negligence on resident's part. I would be right whatever I did. Super has to respond such call at 3am only if it's an emergency (leaks, fire, heat, stuck elevator etc). I would really look bad if I woke up at 3am, faced the resident and said call a locksmith. Only a moron would do such thing. If it's the first time you called me or maybe the second time for such reason, I would open the door and kindly let you in. But the third time, oh yeah, you would have to call a locksmith and it would cost you about $350-$500 for a 3am call. I would just simply not answer you call. I can say then that it's becoming a habit. Unfortunately, there are some people who tend to do that.
Did this answer your question?
Well, the building I work now has a full time 24hr doormen so I don't have to deal with those things as the front desk has the keys to the apartments but I used to work in a building with no doorman and dealt with situations like above.

It does answer my question very well, thank you TheSuper. Just for the record, I have never called a super at 3 am for any reason...

@theSuper I don't disagree with anything you've said, it just seems that the only times my roommates and I ever called the super were for things that weren't exactly in the man's job description, such as you've listed. I suppose when I said that I would never not tip the super I was thinking of things such as installing a new shower head and whatnot. If my pipes suddenly burst and needed to be fixed immediately I don't know that I would feel the need to tip anyone, if you get my drift.

And I'm not too sure that I would ever call a super because I was too drunk to find my keys.

BBK -- I get you.

Back to the topic here. I think sharing "scary super stories" it's not such a great idea because it can lead to stereotyping. There are thousands of buildings with supers in NYC and of course you will have a creepy super here and there.
Or if you're going to post a topic like this one, you should probably tell your pleasant stories as well to sort of balance the image of super.

Btw, I found this topic and this website by chance as I was searching about some articles in NY Times and I couldn't help saying something when I read some of these comments. I like the idea of this website.

Thanks for sharing, @TheSuper. And good point. I think the horror stories are often juicier than the plenty of nice supers (and all the supers I've had have been lovely!) - but thanks for reminding us how much we really should appreciate the work that supers do. Indeed, NYC in August would have been unbearable without them - our AC broke down almost daily!

@The super, I posted the topic as I mentioned on the basis of a news report that I saw. I by no means meant to disrespect any super as you might have noticed in many of subsequent posts I have consistently been appreciative of my current super who really is a great boon to the building in my opinion. Of course there are a few residents who still miss the previous super who had been with the building for years but also had a a rather 'colorful' reputation.

@theSuper That's fair - though to be honest I only have the one experience with the above-mentioned super and don't really have too many positive memories of the man.

He did fix our radiator once when it was shooting steam across the room, which was a scary experience for young twenty-something girls from Florida. We were sure it was poisonous gas, ha.

The problem I have with my super is he is over 70 and is no longer able to do things. But the landlord keeps him here. The landlord doesn't replace him. So not much gets done around here. The super has to always call a contractor to do everything. I'm not saying get rid of the guy. I'm just saying the landlord should hire someone else to help him out.