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Company Christmas Gifts / Bonuses?
A wisely anonymous reader writes "Following my company's Christmas party on Friday, I found myself the proud recipient of... a bobble head doll of the company CEO! Needless to say I was PISSED. They didn't even comp. parking at the site of the party, let alone a bonus. yeah, yeah, times are tough. I should be happy just to have a job. but getting a damn doll of the guy who made 65 million last year just makes me angry. So... What did you get from your Company for Christmas?"
So what makes you think you shoudl have the automatic right to DEMAND a Christmas "bonus"?
What exactly have you done that is so special and above what you are paid to do that justifies your expectation of extra pay purely because it is december?
Genuine question.
People should not be afraid of their governments - Governments should be afraid of their people.
It's hard for a leader to ask his followers to do anything that he isn't willing to do himself. How can a CEO credibily cut costs at the company when his own pay is $65 million and he's destributing bobbleheads of himself? Couldn't he live on the still-large pay of $45 million and reallocate the $20 million to softening (not eliminating, just softening) the blow to the rest of the company? Or have companies given up on trying to get employees to be loyal anymore?
- the company actually spends money on thousands of these promotional pieces of junk, money that could have instead been spent on the bottom line, or at least on something that isn't tossed, ignored, and useless.
- someone in the company gets paid to come up with the idea of the bobble-head doll, and other pieces of promotional junk that your typical employee ignores
I mean hey, a gift that shows that people in the company are thinking of you is nice, but these meaningless items reek of the "you are a number" philosophy. It seems like the bigger a company gets, the more likely that it is to generate this kind of landfill.who thinks that this is a totally made up troll of a submittal? I mean, a bobble head doll of the ceo? I find that extremely unlikely. Not to mention the ceo makes '65 million' crap that is added to try to make it even moer sensational. And if it's posted anonymously, why not a company name associated with it? Troll troll troll...
Quit. Seriously. If they don't appreciate you, find someone who does. Life is way too bloody short to work for someone who does not appreciate you. Believe me, I've done it.
My very first boss appreciated me, only paid me $6.00 per hour, but thanked me every day. I appreciated working for him. I think of him as my teacher. He passed away after about two years.
My second boss and third boss did not appreciate me. My fourth "boss" (a medium-large corporation) appreciated me about as much as a corporation could, so they were ok, thinking back on it.
My fifth boss(es) appreciated me, but the company was bought out by people who did not appreciate me. I left there too.
Believe me, it's not worth working for those who don't appreciate you, period. So find someone who does and quit. People are a corporation's number one asset. A company that treats its people poorly is a company that is not making half the money it could. Happy workers attitudes flow through to the customer who are then happy to do business with the company.
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
I don't take the posters comments to mean a bonus was expected. Rather that the gift was insulting. I would be insulted by that gift. Consider that the company had to spend money to buy the things to give to employees. Personally, I'd rather have the cash or nothing.
No one needs 65M a year, and taking that much for herself just shows he's not as loyal to the company as she should be to be the CEO.
"Loyalty to a company" in just about any company over fifty people or so is a sweet-sounding nonexistant Grail. It's lovely material to feed a worker to make him more productive, but it's silly. The company has no particular loyalty to you -- to HR, you're just another statistic that might potentially be sucking down money, and if you ever become a liability instead of an asset (after, of course, factoring in the cost of firing you and the effects on your coworkers of doing so, and considering your future potential value), the company will drop you like a hot potato. The company has no loyalty to you -- why should you to it?
Now, that doesn't mean that justifies things like stealing from the company or trying to shaft it (as some people seem to feel) -- things like this frequently come back and hurt you far worse than any possible benefit. However, whenever you get stuck in your head that the company you work at is a kind, loving father or something, instead of a cold, profit-seeking institution, you're running the risk of painful dillusionment.
I see people post here ever so frequently that "I gave 80 hours a week of work to my company and they didn't give me anything back" or "Times are tight, so my company is firing because it's best for all of us, but they really don't want to fire me". Bad mental state to be in. Don't come to rely on your company for more than they signed on for in your contract, and you won't have any nasty surprises.
This wasn't all aimed at you, more of a general feeling towards Slashdotters complaining that they didn't get what they expected...
May we never see th
Maybe not every company can afford, and not every employee would deserve, extra on their paycheck every holiday season. But that doll was pretty stupid.
I suspect most of that company's employees would've been happier skipping the doll and not having had to pay for parking for the party.
I got a monetary bonus, a BioWare coffee mug, a NWN collector's edition, and personal thanks from Ray and Greg, the owners and CEOs (just like everyone else did.)
Besides that, however, I have the satisfaction of working at an incredible company with brilliant people. I'd do it all without any of the stuff I got this year.
Job satisfaction is the best bonus of all. If you get a bobble-head doll, and feel like you need more of a bonus, you don't have the job satisfaction that you deserve. Move on.
Exactly. The company I work for has a habit of giving out "gifts" during Employee Appreciation Week, which of course are typically cheap, plastic, and not really wanted. One year they gave out license plates with "(Company)'s Employees are the Best!" printed on them. Another year we got these little clocks that are supposed to look like those fancy executive-type desk clocks with the stands and "minimal" black design, except these were plastic and tend not to keep very accurate time.
This past year we got roll-up blankets, which from what I hear is the best Employee Appreciation Week gift ever. This must be a techie thing: I know some people probably get off on stuff like this, but I could really care less. You want to "Appreciate" me, give me a half-day off or something.