Giving "red packets" to rude security staff

[Lord Dashwood]

I just think there are a couple of trolls here trying to stir sh1t up. Also, I don't give lai see to random people (ie street sleepers).

I'm curious who you think the trolls are. Are they the people who have opinions that are different to yours?

My wife just had a look at this thread and made an interesting point...she reckons the 'guard' who is the grumpiest f*cker in our building is the head and that he spends most mornings bollocking the others, I'm not there during the day...she reckons the really friendly one, the one who always waves at our kids and lets them pretend they're shooting him is also a lazy bastard.

So that's a point...security guards are there to keep the building safe and in good order...make sure you're not paying someone just for smiling!

[Open Casket]

I often get up very early to head north of the border. I am always surprised at how many guards sleep at night here. Is it acceptable to sleep on the job here? Just curious because where I'm from you would be fired straight away. Here it seems to be accepted. The guards aren't even hiding it.

Maybe I'll slip some caffeine pills in the Lai see envelope this year

[Skyhook]

This is one of if not the most important days and traditions in the Chinese calendar. People who choose not to follow it are not ignorant, they're just scrouges. Karma is a bitch, and she bites hard.

That being said, then why not pay a proper liveable wage that gives menial staff some comfort.

Does it make your conscience clear and able to sleep better at night because you gave your cleaner $20 bucks?

Why not lobby your company to pay these people properly in the first place.

[HK_Katherine]

That being said, then why not pay a proper liveable wage that gives menial staff some comfort.

Does it make your conscience clear and able to sleep better at night because you gave your cleaner $20 bucks?

Why not lobby your company to pay these people properly in the first place.

Why give Christmas presents?

[Proplus]

Even as a child I understood the concept of lai see; its not in the monetary value, but the act if giving and receiving. As a kid I approach my more elderly friends and ask them to put just a penny in the packets for me.

[Lord Dashwood]

Even as a child I understood the concept of lai see; its not in the monetary value, but the act if giving and receiving. As a kid I approach my more elderly friends and ask them to put just a penny in the packets for me.

Exactly. You could give a security guard a Lai See with a chocolate coin inside...it's about 'giving and receiving', not monetary value...

[King Wally]

It's all to do with getting money and appearing godlike by giving it.

[Open Casket]

Exactly. You could give a security guard a Lai See with a chocolate coin inside...it's about 'giving and receiving', not monetary value...

My kids have gotten lai see with chocolate coins. I have to admit after reading through this thread I have changed my view a bit on lai see. Well I will continue to give, I might just do $20 dollar packets this year. In the past I spent a lot of time and effort color coding envelopes with $20's (kids) , $50's (guards, front desk), $100's (secretaries, baby sitters, office cleaning amah) . I use to give upwards of 5K...

I think this year I will just do all 20's....if it is symbolic then I guess no one should get more than anyone else.

[gunsnroses]

I find some of the responses on here to be really quite daft.

Yes - you do see new faces on security around CNY. And you interpret this as "people do the job just to get a hand-out". Seriously? How about "the person who usually does the job wants to be at home with their family on CNY and I was the unlucky sod who drew the short straw and had to work". I give to everyone I see, irrespective of whether they are there usually or not. I'm sure usually they are somewhere else and will miss out there.

I don't tip here, and I loathe the tipping culture in the USA, but I don't see Lai See as "tipping". It's just a tradition like sending Christmas cards or eating turkey on Thanksgiving or lighting candles on Diwali. I think its lovely that we can participate in another cultures tradition. I love that it's "lucky money" and that people try hard to be happier and friendlier during CNY - just like people in the UK try to do so during the Xmas period. Its nothing to do with getting a handout. This money circulates - I doubt many locals profit from the occasion particularly if they are married - they are more likely to be giving that receiving.

I felt uncomfortable doing this when I first arrived because "giving money" has such different connotations in Western culture. I got over this when I gave a Lai See to the woman on an overpass in Admiralty who had been saying "good morning" to me for years as she handed out papers - often saving me an English one specially. I gave her a Lai See because I thought she needed it and because her good mornings were such a nice start to the day. She INSISTED on giving me a box of chocolates in return - of equal or possibly even higher value to the Lai See I gave her (which she did not open obviously) ... it was never about getting; it was, like our Christmas, about giving. (To this day its the only time I've been given anything at CNY, by the way).

So stop being a bunch of stingy bastards and start giving. It's not about much - my packets generally only have HKD20 in them - but it's about sharing and enjoying the tradition and being part of this place rather than apart from it.

Very well said! I can't like it as there's no like button on the app. But I really liked it.

[midorosan]

To all of you cheapskates who so proudly wrote "I don't give red packets" I wish you Kung Hei Fat Choy maybe one day you'll need the help of one of these hard working people I can only hope they don't share your attitude.