End-of-season tipping can be fraught with anxiety at large Manhattan buildings. This year, there was out-and-out conflict at one Upper West Side building, where resident manager Efrain Lopez confirmed last week that staff members had been suspended after changing locks on the lockboxes where they receive holiday gratuities.

Management at the Columbia Condominium, at 275 W. 96th St., last year set up individual boxes for staff to receive gratuities, with each employee receiving a key. In prior years, envelopes from residents to employees were dropped into a common box that lay behind the front desk, under video supervision.

This year, three employees, concerned that the same keys were being used as last year, decided to have the locks changed on their boxes. They were dissatisfied with security precautions to protect their tips from theft or loss.

On December 11, the management company disciplined them, suspending two and giving one a warning. All three are now back at work, the director of communications for SEIU Local 32BJ, which represents building service employees, Matt Nerzig, said. The union is looking into the matter and has filed a grievance, he said.

The president of the Riverdale-based Blue Woods Management Group, which provides management services to the building, Donald Wilson, declined to comment on the matter.

The Columbia Condominium is not the only building where end-of-year tipping can cause consternation, as residents worry over figuring out tips for porters, passenger elevator operators, doormen, handymen, and assistant superintendents. A filmmaker who lives in Manhattan, Billy Sternberg, said his grandmother, who used to live at 215 E. 68th St., would say: “I like living here every day but Christmastime.”

“Everyone who has ever done you a favor and already been paid for it now expects a surcharge,” Shannon Taylor, who has lived for more than 11 years in an Upper West Side building, said. “Now all come en masse to you at the same time. … It’s no longer considered discretionary. It has now reached obligatory servitude on your part.”

It used to be, Mr. Taylor said, that residents received a large, glittery card with holiday greetings from staff whose names were in bold. Over the years, the card got smaller, the glitter disappeared, and the names on the card were divided into different categories. They used to be described by titles, and now years of service to the building are listed. “After a few years,” he continued, “we got two cards.”

Boxing promoter and radio host Aaron Braunstein, who lives at 424 West End Ave.,said that because he has lived there for some time, other residents have asked him what is an appropriate Christmas gift to give staff.

A professor at Columbia University, Peter Bearman, who wrote “Doormen” (University of Chicago Press), notes that year-end bonuses to doormen can be considered acknowledgment of help received during the year. Alternatively, he writes, the bonus can represent a down payment for the coming year, “an advance on the services to be received.”

How much uptown residents in large buildings actually tip varies. An executive vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman said the amount one tips depends on the chemistry and connection with that employee of the building. “Like everything else in life, it comes down to personal relationship.”

A doorman at a building with about 100 apartments in the West 90s told The New York Sun most tips he receives are in the $50 to $150 range. He said often the most demanding residents tip least. “That’s a true statement,” he added, “You can ask any doorman.”

One way residents in large buildings handle holiday tipping is to contribute to holiday funds or pools for building staff. A real estate investor who lives on the Upper East Side, Charles Schlangen, said he gives a Christmas card and check to those he regularly sees, and writes a check to the general employee fund for the others on staff. Likewise, a resident of 145 W. 67th St. gives $50 each to the six doormen he likes, and then puts $150 into a pool that is distributed to all the staff at holiday time.

“SEIU Local 32BJ offers no guidelines on tipping to apartment building management or residents,” Mr. Nerzig, said. “To tip or not at holiday time and, if so, how much to tip are decisions that are entirely in the hands of residents, as they should be.”

At least one resident encountered a reminder when he was not even around one year during holiday time. Returning to New York from Miami around the holidays, he was once asked by a building employee, “How come you didn’t give me a gift this year?”

One way to avoid dissension? Give cash instead of food to building employees at year-end. As quoted by Mr. Bearman in his book, one Upper West Side doorman said: “Cookies are nice but I don’t want cookies. Cookies are for kids, and I am not a kid.”