Company Gifts
It is a well-known principle of business that rather than giving an employee a small--but in the long run costly and unappreciated--raise, it is better to give the employee a one-time gift. A $50 American Express gift card, a box of Godiva chocolates, a gift certificate for a massage… Employees will feel appreciated and employers will save money. It’s a win-win situation. Or a win and thinking you’ve won situation, which is fine with me, even if I am on the thinking side.
Bastardizing this concept so that it benefits absolutely nobody is my company. A $25 gift certificate to The Gap and a bouquet of wilted lilies will only anger your employees and lead them to refer to your “gifts” in a disparaging manner. Instead of quelling the masses it has actually stirred their discontent since no one wants to think their silence can be bought with such paltry means.
I cannot participate in a People’s Revolution though because I want to keep the gift certificate and buy socks.
36 comments:
Take anything and everything you can. That's my motto in these kind of situations.
To share in the pain, here's my rant:
At a previous and shitty job my boss pulled me into his office to tell me, in a whispery tone, that I was the ONLY assistant getting a raise (a big whopping 3% that turned out to an extra $17 a pay check or something retarded) because HE went to the big man and fought for me. He gave me a big ass speech about how he believed in me and thinks I deserved so much more, flah flah flah. Then told me not to tell the other assistants because they weren't getting it.
Five seconds later another manager on the floor came out of his office laughing (loudly) and making fun of the 3% raise to his assistant. Saying, "Hey C. can you believe they think that 3% is a raise? How hilarious is that?! What does that come out to? Like $20 extra bucks? What a bunch of idiots they are!"
Oh, the look on my bosses face. All I could say was, "Wow. Thanks a lot." But I said it with a sneer and then took a two hour lunch.
Douchebag!
hey, i think you should talk more about the temptation to cheat....because unless you're married (and even if you are :)....the temptation is ALWAYS there...and you're young, attractive (i'm assuming) and seem pretty confident...so blog more about guys you have crushes on and flirting and all that good stuff....although i'm guessing you won't because you know your bf reads this! ahhhhhh.
I think the above comment is the stupidest comment I have ever read.
Your company sucks! I'm sorry! That kind of thing makes doing work that feels beneath you so much worse. I mean, honestly... how much could it hurt to be a little more generous with one-time gifts?
You get gifts?? I need a better job.
my boss and the managers here treat me like a frickin QUEEN!
Of course, I do everymotherlovinthingthereistodo for them, so they should.
At least it's not a gift card to Outback Steak House like at my ploace of employment.
you can get like 2 whole pairs of socks for that kind of money. Hopy you get an end of year bonus too! Maybe it'll be enough to buy a pair of jeans at least.
cb
sorry i haven't been by
i know how you feel, one time when hubby( he was prehubby then) was away on business i spent a ridiculous sum of money to visit him and he wound up working half the time i was there any way
better a cheap gift than a fake title and more responsibilities with no increase in pay
i hate cut flowers it seems so unfair
do they still make those little chocolate covered ice cream balls?
I've found most companies these days seem to be trying to out do each other with employee perks. If they're smart they realise how precious and hard to keep good employees are.
One agency I worked at had a fully stocked kitchen, we were encouraged to eat there for every meal if we wanted to. It was smart of them, it just meant we could put in more time, without ever needing to leave. They also had a fully stocked bar where the staff and clients would gather evenings before going out at night. Any time you felt like you needed a drink, you could help yourself. We were also told firmly that if we needed mental health days, to take them.
It's all the little things plus some old fashioned respect that make the hellish moments tolerable. Sounds like your company needs some educating!
TUI!Alcohol at work!!!! OMG I am so there!
LOL, one of the companies I worked at gave us a book for Christmas titled "A Complaint is a Gift". Now that sucks.
One can only assume that the Gap giftcard means that Wal-Mart was somehow out of giftcards, and they had to shop elsewhere.
A company I used to work for sent an announcement that they were cancelling a Christmas bonus program the same year that the company president also sent all the employees Christmas cards with a picture of he and his family on their fucking yacht.
And they wondered why morale was so low...
CB. . . I am almost embarrassed to say that for 13 years. . . we get between 1-3% raises. . .they gave me 14 cents the other day for cost of living. . . I tried not to laugh and didn't when i overheard somebody else got 4 cents. . . they give us turkeys every year, but they give them after Thanksgiving so I think they are getting some kind of special . . . they drop a bonus of $50-150 when they are in the mood which hasn't been every year. . . so socks. . . well I guess they ain't too bad girlie.
Ciao
I
Wow that sucks out loud....makes me appreciate my bosses attempts to make up for being a complete ass 90% of the time....the bonus at Christmas, employee lunches, birthday presents and money he puts into my SEP account (he even pays for a broker to wisely invest said retirement funds) don't seem quite so crappy now....Of course, like Scottsdale, I do EVERYTHING for him....I am his secretary/clerk/runner/filing slave all around "company bitch"...
I feel your pain CB. I work for a major retail establishment (with a red and white round bullseye looking logo...) that gave me an anniversary "gift" which amounted to $5 per year of service (15 years). Not bad, the only catch was that it's an online gift certificate to said company's website, and I had to pay for shipping my own gift to myself!
nobody could care less what kinda gifts are given by companies...sometimes their lot just doesn't get any appreciation...maybe a pat in the back is better
You do realize you'll be taxed on that $25 gift card as a bonus (if your company does things in a legit manner). With bonus tax at 50%, look for the $12.50 deduction from your paycheck.
I get nothing. I get the 3% raise, sometimes I'm told I get more of a raise 4 or 5%, and like finnyknits I often wonder if that's really true.
And the anonymous guy who said cheating is ALWAYS Tempting is a complete dolt and obviously has no moral compass. I'm sure his mother is proud.
OMG! I would swear that I work with sicilian, except I am in California and she is in Texas.
The place I work does the same things almost exactly, although I have never seen a random $50-150 bonus.
But the turkey! Oh the turkey just kills me! We get our turkey right after our "holiday" (CHRISTMAS) party... which is nothing more than a lunch (in our cafeteria) where we have to sit and listen to the muckity mucks toot there own horn about the things they have accomplished this year.
The turkeys come from a local farm, and are handed out "fresh" (read raw, and in need of being refridgerated immediately) eventhough some of us aren't lucky enough to get the rest of the day off to take our Christmas bonus home and make sure we don't end up getting sick from eating it!
Who the heck comes up with these things? Do the higher ups actually sit around a table, brainstorm ideas for these "gifts" and feel good about their choices??
I have to say, I would take the gift cert too. It's better than a turkey!
=) Lynne
I'm with anonymous.
I'm with Grant Miller.
I'm with laaw-yuhr.
Oh CB, I would take the card for socks program any day. I work for the largest communications company in the freakin world. We don't get jack. They tell us we will get a stock bonus if the company makes a profit, but no-one wants our worthless stock, so we never get a bonus. They don't even match the 401K.
Hell I have to beg for a t-shirt, and we give those out free to our listeners. My boss just expects us to show up and not complain, and be happy. Never even an at a boy or girl in this case.
Yes, I would take the socks. Mine are falling down anyway.
I'll take Wal-mart & cash any time they give it out.
Old Lady
I once had a boss who gave me a porcelin...basket. I had no idea how to respond because I didn't know what it was. She totally re-gifted me, I know it.
this well-known principle that a gift certificate is better than a raise is well-known where exactly? i'm kind of new around these parts, but i hope you're not the boss of anyone and really think that.
One of my friend's students once gave her a bomboniera from a wedding. The weddding took place in 1998. There was some slimey shit growing in the clear plastic case.
Where I work you get a bonus and payrise depending on your performance and whether the company makes a profit. Some years it's been quite a decent bonus.
This last year the company instituted a paid day off for your birthday. I hope they keep that one going. I kinda like that idea.
Mind you the job has a fairly high rate of employee turnover and it can be pretty expensive to train new staff, so it tends to be in their best interest to try to keep the staff.
I kick myself every single day for throwing in a job that I had six years ago. That place was every kind of awesome and I am the biggest idiot on the planet for leaving. Aah, but I guess it's true - you don't know what you've got until it's gone.
That company had an expense account for each department that was set aside specifically for "motivational incentives". We affectionately referred to it as "The Cash Cow". The company put $20 per staff member per week into it provided the department met whatever targets we were given. At the beginning of each year our manager would call a department-wide meeting for the sole purpose of working out how we were going to spend the cash. The first year I was there, our manager sent us out for a posh lunch near the end of the month and when we staggered back to our desks, there was a bottle of champagne or wine and a bunch of flowers waiting for each of us. Guys too (their wives loved it). Our manager never went with us on the grounds that we earned the bonus, not him.
Another year we bulk bought booze through a wine and beer club. That was great because by Christmas I'd stockpiled so much booze that I threw a big new years eve party.
By far the best year was my last. We couldn't agree how to spend the money (the dept had developed a few personality clashes which is why I left) so the money just accumulated. By the time we were 2/3 through the year, we decided to keep saving and took it as a cash bonus two weeks before Christmas.
Aaah but those days are long gone. I'm now working for a mindless twat who hasn't given me a pay rise in two years and who won't let me take leave because he says he can't afford to pay the leave loading AND a temp. I even have to buy my own coffee and milk. What the hell am I doing here?!?
My employer doesn't give out gifts, only awards from time to time with a gift certificate to someplace(which everyone who got the award has to agree to). Pay raises are set to a schedule - you can't ask for one or get a bigger one.
Last year they took away our day off for our birthday and the time off they used to give us between Christmas and New Years.
I'd take wilted lilies any day! :)
very nice and talent
Go Titles! Now I can actually know when there's a new post. Thanks, CB! :)
One year the hospital where I was workng gave each employee a Planter's peanut gift pack (that amounts to three indivdual cans of peanuts. We all had to ask: "Why bother?"
in a way, it's better than nothing.
YES!!! Socks! Socks make EVERYTHING better.
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