Slashdot Mirror
America's Worst Christmas Parties
Ant writes "Slate Magazine asked its readers to submit reports of horrible office Christmas parties, gifts, and bonuses. Of nearly 200 submissions, they've chosen quite a few tales for The Corporate Scrooge Contest Results ... and they're not pretty. From the article: 'A contract consultant sends word that the company to which he is currently assigned recently sent out an e-mail to some 2,000-odd consultants. The company would give away two $100 gift cards--to two of the brave souls who would commit to work 80 hours between Dec. 18 and Dec. 31. As our correspondent noted: "Hey, if you work Christmas, we'll put you in a pool of 2,000 other folks to maybe win a hundred bucks."'"
At least it isn't what happened to poor Clark Griswold, getting a "Jelly of the Month" certificate for a Christmas bonus.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Not whining or anything, but I received 2 cookies. They also thoughtfully mentioned they didn't want us to get fat before the holidays.
When I was working for corporations, I always expected a bonus, gifts, whatever at holiday time and was nearly always dissapointed.
Now that I've been working for myself the last couple of years, I don't make as much money as I did with corporations, but I'm generally a happier person, in that I can set my own hours (well, somewhat) and spend more time with my family and friends. That to me is far more useful than any trinket or bonus.
I've also come to realize that token gifts from the company NEVER meant anything, and was never anything I could ever use - the corporate logo paperweight fits that bill - much like the years of service gifts with the coporate logos on them.
Sure, when I got bonuses the extra money was nice, but really, it's not something anyone should come to expect.
Don't expect anything and you won't be dissappointed. They're already paying you to do you job.
If the company I'm contracted to guarantees me an 80-hour week, I'd happily work it. The time-and-a-half would more than make up for the inconvenience. Hell, *I'd* buy *them* a $100 gift card.
Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
HP has to be up there. In the four years I worked there, not only was there no bonus, they shut the office down that week, forcing you to either go without pay (even if you were salaried, your pay was docked) or take sick days.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
After meeting or exceeding all of our yearly company goals and setting a new profit level, each of us salaried folks received a bonus envelope with 25 brand-new,consecutively-numbered one-dollar bills in it.
I still have it, 8 years later. I'm no longer with the company though.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
Nice formal outing at a downtown DC hotel, several nice catered lunch and entertainment events (person playing piano at one of them) on the employers and the building owners dime, got to leave work early almost every day last week and I'll get my xmas bonus at the end of January which in the past averages to about 5-10% of my annual salary before taxes. Oh, I'll also get another 10% deposited into my 401k Feb 1st as well.
Working on K Street has some benefits if you do not mind the commute. I'll stick with this IT gig for another 5-10 or so years until my house is paid off and my kids are into or close to being out of college. At that point I'll pack up and move back to western PA and get a job at some just above minimum wage warehouse and then start enjoying life.
I'll tell everyone at work, screw yuns, I'm movin back to the burg. No more sodas for me! Just pop baby!
Say I give:
$100
$100 book tokens.
$100 gold coins.
$100 theatre tickets.
etc. Is it simply the value that matters or does the item itself matter?
Deleted
I work for a bank and we get a hamper with Christmas cake, bottle of wine, cookies etc. Not bad considering they give this to about 10,000 employees. What is the best gift you have recieved?
I worked at Citibank operations, and they made ALL of us peon minions come in and work the ENTIRE night shift, even if we weren't scheduled for that night anyway, just because the stupid stooge suits were paranoid about the overblown Y2K hoax. Under threat of getting fired. Not surprisingly, nobody above the level of floor manager had to be there watching nothing at all happen. That's OK, we enjoyed the evening anyway. And if any of you pointy-haireds are reading this, that pungent stench in the back of the server room actually wasn't a case fan that burned out and had to be replaced.
I give all of my people AT LEAST $200 in no-strings-attached cash, tax-free in an envelope. And $200 is for a new, part-time employee. I would never dream of giving them a $15 gift card. That's just shitty.
I work at a daily newspaper as an artist and web developer (primarily) - high stress, low pay.
We got $20 Chamber of Commerce gift certificates. Woo. I actually wouldn't care if my hours were decent - while I am supposed to only work 8 hours a day (and regulations state that I can't work more than 6 hours without a break), I have many days where I end up working late when everybody else leaves.
Take, for instance, the day before Thanksgiving. It started at 9 AM, and went until about 12:30 AM Thanksgiving morning, with no break. 15.5 hours. The overtime sucked, too (thanks to taxes).
This friday everybody in the office was told that they could leave at 3 assuming the paper was done. Of course, this means that hourly employees lose a couple hours work. Thankfully, though, my day wasn't done - not even close - at 3 PM. Most people left - one of the artists stuck around and helped for a while, but there wasn't much she could do, so she left too. I got home about 7:30 PM.
Of course, since I'm just a 5 minute walk from the office (I couldn't afford a car and gas, anyway), I'm the one who gets called in whenever something needs to be fixed before the paper can print.
Hooray. $20 that can only be used locally at select places. That makes me feel really valuable. Sad part is, corporate actually has a policy against Christmas bonuses.
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
the LLC i work for doesn't give xmas bonuses. i don't think it's that big of a deal. in fact, i'm suprised others consider it such a big deal.
i did work for a chain of copy shops many years ago and was stunned when the owner sent out $500 checks one year. not bad for part time and working through school. just that once though.
and to make matters more entertaining... we're also getting more layoffs next month.
I got $1000 this year (no taxes, just money).
Last year I got $500.
I also got a 25% pay raise this year.
Last year, I got a 33% pay raise.
I work with computers/IT for a living. Mostly Linux, some windows. I am happy doing the tasks that I have to do at work.
I got health insurance for me and my wife. I got a company vehicle, and I don't pay for gas.
I don't have to take drug tests or anything crazy like that.
I got all this b/c I work for a small business instead of a big corporation. My boss would rather keep my happy instead of trying to find a replacement for me. I think I appreciate my job a little more after reading this article.
Merry Christmas everyone and sorry if you got a lousy Christmas bonus (or got no bonus whatsoever). I hope you can find a better job that makes you happy.
Where I work the christmas party is $35. This year the ticket count was so low that one of the people in charge sent a company-wide email telling people it was in their "best interest" to attend.
Did I mention we get nothing in terms of bonuses, etc?
It is a figure of speech with which I am not familiar.
In what world is one paid more for working extra hours?
I was always told that the reward for working "overtime" was being able to keep your job.
You don't live in America do you?
My bonus This Year was Jeep Cherokee.
Used But in Good Condition.
I guess there are worse bonuses.
The item does seem to matter. Corporate execs who buy each other hundreds of dollars of illegal substances and/or activities are rarely taxed or even questioned. The same amount in donated gas mileage expenses (IIRC, NY's comptroller got caught on this one) can cost the person their job.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I'd blow it on ammunition anyway.
Our office Christmas party is typically a potluck lunch in the conference room on a Friday afternoon. The feast consists of meatballs, crappy beer, and way too many pumpkin pies. Each year management offers up a handful of door prizes to keep people from leaving early. This generally consists of pens, tote bags, day planners, and other items all proudly sporting the corporate logo. They sometimes throw in a $25 Starbucks gift card for good measure.
:-)
A few years back I made the mistake of bringing my wife to the party. One of the prizes that year was a company calendar. During the drawing our boss quipped that it was a calendar from the previous year. Well, my wife won, and turns out it *was* a leftover from the previous year. The office admin promised to order a replacement, but of course it never came. My wife left the calendar on the conference room table in protest and vowed to never attend another company event.
This year was the same meatball spectacular but families weren't invited. Wait, I just thought of my New Year's Resolution!
Happy Holidays Everyone!
One of the clients we key is National Geographic, so we got a box set of either DVDs or VHS tapes. To most people it really sucks, but I like that type of stuff so it's okay, I guess. The set I have has 30 Years of National Geographic, Lewis and Clark: The Journey West, Arlington: Field of Honor, Egypt Eternal: The Quest for Lost Tombs, Civil War Gold, and Last Stand of the Great Bear. Still, I would have preferred money.
well.. for my Christmas bonus.. i got an ice scraper and chap stick. i work for a small business though... so i understand where they're coming from... sorta...
I work at a small cafe in portland. Yesterday I got replaced with a girl because the owner thought it would increase sales. I could understand this logic if perhaps he hired a cute girl with wit and charm rather than the tore-up, monotone bore of a (recovering) crackhead that he selected. (i'm not making this up, btw.) I came in to give him the keys to the shop and get my paycheck. As one may expect, there was no paycheck.
well, folks, that's the reality of it...I work for one of the companies (think really really big U.S. bank) which tends to be on the cutting edge of cutting (costs, morale, etc), and can tell you that as of the last couple of years, holiday parties and year-end bonuses and gifts are officially outlawed. Not discouraged, not backburnered until things pick up, they are by policy not allowed. Granted, if a group want to get together and have a (dry) potluck and white elephant exchange on their own dimes, the larger corporation will turn their backs on it, provided local management are on board. Them's the brakes, and that's the way the other large corporations are moving on these types of topics: (wholesale expense reductions) > (warm, fuzzy morale muffins)
My debut novel AMITY now available: http://jeremydbrooks.c
My company laid off 1/3 of their employees (including me) 11 days before Christmas.
Kind of like Ebenezer Scrooge, but without the repentance at the end.
As I can attest, there's nothing that brings on that holiday spirit like madly job hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Happy Holidays!
It's the thought that counts..........Now that I think about it bite me.
If you wanted or expected more, you should have asked for it up front. It amazes me that people complain about not getting something they didn't ask for in the first place.
Hell, every year, my company gives us a bonus...
....they bend us over a barrel, and then they bone us.
Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
I was straight out of graduate school. I took a job in the Northeast, and the company paid all of my moving expenses to relocate me from Texas to Massachusetts. Five and half months later I'm sitting in my office when the vice president comes around to give me a bonus check. Now I wasn't even expecting a bonus, so I was thrilled to get it! Then I opened the envelope and discovered that they had given me a bonus of $2400...from which they then deducted my moving expenses, leaving me with $59. In a matter of seconds, I went from being thrilled to get any kind of a bonus (no matter how small!) to feeling like I had been servered a piping hot bowl of cream of shit soup.
My advice: quit.
I work for the number 2 IT consulting corporation in the world, have been with them for almost 8 years. Never have gotten a bonus. F them... I'm about ready to sell the house and use that money to pay off all my bills, then get a small apartment and flip hamburgers. Not just all because of no bonus ever, but that should just give you an idea of how crappy these bastards are to work for.
I work for a fortune 500 company and am union in IT. I don't have many complaints and the money pays my bills and I have enough left over for toys.
Each Christmas my immediate supervisor has gotten everyone in my workgroup something, either jackets, small tools, gift certificates, or something useful. For a few years I worked at a division office and the main department management never gave us anything, but they didn't owe us anything either. Since moving home the local manager of the main department sees to it that we get one of the same things they give the members of their department. Again, he doesn't have to do it, but it definitely makes a person feel appreciated.
However, we don't have anything like Christmas parties and such, though, we do get plenty of paid holiday time this time of the year which is nice. Being union means that their are no performance bonuses for anyone unless everyone gets them and then it would be the same amount. While a sizable bonus would be nice, I'll take steady work and sane hours and good pay throughout the year instead.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over again expecting a different result."
was canceled because people half a dozen people were three minutes late to a meeting back in November. One of those meetings where senior management droned on about projections for the next year, presentations they had given, etc.
It was a no-spouse Christmas party, so I was going to skip anyway, but still - nice holiday spirit.
Sure, it's retail, but their Christmas bonus was insulting. It was 5% off anything in the store for a period of one week. Which is great except:
1) Where I worked, sales tax was 8.6%
2) Who the hell wants to buy Christmas gifts at an office supply store? Criminy.
Comment of the year
My friend gets paid 2.5 times for working Christmas' Eve and New Year's Eve. He's not in computers, though. (staff at a Norwegian hospital)
Je ne parle pas francais.
I was invited to a high class dinner for the holidays at work, and asked if I would be attending. My first answer was sure, but then was informed that *I* would have to pay, $150 dollars a head. I said hell no, and then immediately was told 'oh come on, it's the holidays, you can afford it just for the holidays'. How they could possibly think I'd *want* to pay $300 for me and my wife to eat dinner with the people I have to work with daily..
When I worked for a division of the world's largest media company, bonus money was given to middle managers to divide up amongst their staff, including themselves. A few years ago, I saw the email announcing the amount. My manager was given $9000 to divide amongst a department of 11 people. We received half gallon jugs of maple syrup from her parents' farm, she received $9000. The best part was that she failed to notice the stamp across the label that read "Quality Control: Rejected". The next year, it was certificates thanking us for a $10 donation to a local soup kitchen. Apparently, she thinks she's the only one who watched Seinfeld.
Someday a real rain is gonna come...
One year, the company I worked for ended our Christmas meeting with the fact that each of us would get a Poinsettia. Mind you, this was the week of Christmas, and (true or not) the rumor immediately spread that the place we were at was actually going to throw them away after our party, which is why we got them. So our Fortune 500 publishing company (and "howdy" from 38, you know who you are) didn't give out any sort of Christmas "cheer" that year. So I made the best of it... I took the poinsettia, cared for it, fed it, etc, and it GREW, in the corner of my office. And whenever someone mentioned it, I'd tell them it was my "Christmas bonus".
The next year, all the peons not on the "bonus plan" got a $50 Amex Gift Card. And I got rid of the poinsettia.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
The examples in their story, sad as they are, are the lucky ones.
I work for a certain large chipmaker.
There are NO bonuses.
Oh sure, we get bonuses, but NOTHING close to Christmas. We get ours - if we're lucky - in Februray.
Christmas parties? Forbidden. After all, some poor minority might be offended. Never mind that a Muslim manager is happy to tell his crew "Merry Christmas". Never mind that co-workers from India bring things to share with the non-initiated about Diwali without fear. Never mind that (the company) has a whole department whose jobs entail refusing to hire white males. (I know of a few contractors who were eligible for conversion to blue-badge status but were told "sorry, we can only hire diversity candidates at this time").
They are as screwed up, Scrooge wise, as they come.
And lately their healthcare plans make Walmart's look attractive. It's not economically feasible for an employee to have healthcare coverage for family members under the new plans. Unless you're willing to gamble with your life by having an HMO. Or willing to go the "consumer empowered" route - which means going without coverage, and paying for all your medical needs out of a "savings account". And prescription coverage? Their prescription insurance company is under criminal indictment and investigation for corruption, bribes and kickbacks in several states. They force doctors to re-write prescriptions not to generics, but to outright less effective drugs - and this is not heresay, they did it to me. When I refused to play along, they doubled my co-pay, then strong-armed my doctor to cancel the prescription altogether.
If he doesn't work it does he get 1x instead? If so, he's not really getting 2.5x for working it, but rather 1.5x.
I'm a QA director at a medium sized business messaging company (~2000 folks). Last year was my first year with the company and we all got a $25 amex gift card. And to add insult to injury, if you didn't use it in 3 months it expired. I buy some things (out of my own pocket) for my 9 staff -- usually some nice wine, gift baskets, and the like. I think its asinine to not give some sort of bonus for the staff. Anyway, Merry Christmas.
Cool! You got a $2400 bonus, from which to pay taxes on. But, then, I guess you could write it off as moving expenses. +2400-2400+59 = $59, I guess.
When bonuses have to be justified to shareholders and the organization is too large to do anything, they just suck up the available money at the executive level, and when they've had their fill, maybe they'll give some to the sleazy people in sales...
Me, bitter? No....
Are we entitled to great bonuses and parties or are we grateful to have them?
Atheism is the new cool, but we're still expecting perks for Jesus day?
Help me take back Slashdot. When did 'News for Nerds' become 'FUD and Conspiracy Theories for Extremist Nutjobs'?
My employer is pretty decent: about one weeks pay, cash in an envelope along with a little gift. At first I actually was a little bit disappointed that this year was the same as the last (in reality a little less given inflation) but after reading all these stories I'm quite thankful.
If all I ever got was a $15 gift card to some awful chain store I might very well go crazy and mow down upper management with an M16 one day. I don't know how people can tolerate such blatant disrespect for a year of hard work.
It's a celebration of the Winter Solstice, you insensitive clod.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
back in the UK here, somebody tried to get an IT contractor's xmas party going, as a lot of companies would not allow contractors to free xmas parties.
You had to pay for the priviledge to go to this thing. What made it worse was you knew that there was going to be like 2% women there and every pimp (aka recruitment consultant) in the city would be there too.
I don't know if they still do it but when I worked at Microsoft UK around 92-96 they always had a massive party in the summer. Like close the phones on a friday unless you were a premiere customer, and everybody bogged off to somewhere like brighton for an all expenses paid piss up. complete with one year, at a star trek themed event, ballmer appearing on video trying to do the live long and prosper vulcan salute thing. i also remember the grand hotel (best place in brighton) being drunk dry. there were so many people they took over the Thistle hotel as well, which is modern, atrium style, all the rooms being around a cental space. which was ok until at about 4am somebody decided to try and play "chopsticks" on the piano....
I'm a student. For the holidays, I get grades, and a bill for next semester. I'd gladly trade that for a 1/1000 chance at a gift certificate, or the jelly of the month, or two cookies, or a bag of hair, or a killer monkey.
Did you ever notice that the letters in "Slate" can be rearranged to spell:
least
stale
steal
Um... is Slate still owned by Microsoft?
Absolutely. Most reasonable people who have been working for a least a little while know to ask (or maybe I'm just giving people too much credit). For example, if you get an offer letter that says your job description may change over time (I actually received one with that phrase), you seriously need to ask what those changes will be. Since they bothered to mention it in the offer letter, they should have no problem telling you what those changes may be. If you don't get the answer you were hoping for, maybe you should reconsider accepting the job.
Last year, I worked for a telemarketer. On Thanksgiving, they gave away turkeys, like good 15 pound turkeys, which is a pretty darned stand-up thing to do. For Christmas they promised all employees in our section a dinner, paid for by the company. The big day comes around, and what do we get? $5.00 certificates for the Italian place in the food court of the mall (the telemarketer's office is in a mall). Bastards.
At my current programming job, they give gifts to employees yearly. The CEO had us all up to his office for snacks and drinks. This year he gave out what I'm wearing now, which is a rather nice bathrobe (company logos, etc., but they had to specially order them), probably worth well over $75.00. Last year, the employees got jackets. Total cost to the company? Maybe a couple of grand. Increase in morale, including myself? Priceless. See, I don't mind being told "No Christmas bonus/gift because we can't spare the money," I'm totally fine with that. But don't insult me if you're going to give me a gift, I appreciate knowing that the company somewhat cares about me, and isn't just placating me with some meaningless token that they probably got on the cheap because they felt the need to placate the employees.
I'll be honest, we're throwing science against the wall to see what sticks. -Cave Johnson
One year, 1999 I believe, while I was working at a large regional ISP, I got a company logo polo shirt as a bonus, as opposed to the $100 cash I received the year before. I thought it was a crappy gift, but it was a very nice shirt. I happened to wear it into work the day the CEO of the company told us all that we'd have to pay for the shirts and it would be coming out of our next paycheck. I told him he could have mine back. It didn't seem to register with him that he couldn't give us a gift and then demand we pay for it. I left a month later for a job that paid over twice as much.
As a consultant, my firm gave me a $250 gift certificate to Target and a really nice lunch. I spent most of it buying stuff for poor kids and families who needed stuff this Christmas through a local church charity. I figured that I made enough this year and anything I can do to help others is worthwhile. Plus, it breaks your heart when you see a kid asking simply for warm clothes or a jacket for Christmas.
Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...
I've been with a few companies so far, but this year I am working on contract for a firm in Ottawa, Canada. We are closed Christmas and New Years, so we get those two days off paid. They bought us all Greek take-out platters for lunch the other day, had a draw for 5 sets of movie tickets between 20 people, and draw for a pair of hockey tickets between 8 of us. In all my working for different companies I have never been treated so well, and its not even big things, but at least its better then nothing, or a draw for 1/1000. I even won the movie tickets with a 1/4 chance of winning. Just wish more companies were at least like the one I work for now.... sad knowing the next company will not be so nice.
Mod me down im a newf (wiki)
... consisted of a box of a dozen Dunkin Donuts doughnuts for a total of 57 employees. Oh yes, I work in retail, Kohl's Department Stores to be exact, and my Christmas bonus consisted of me losing most of my department associates this morning because our bosses decided to let go of the Xmas season temp workers on Christmas Eve. "Thanks for coming in this morning, your contracts have been terminated, and you can all go home. Merry Christmas." Bah humbug indeed.
And that's how.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/
Please note item #3. Thank you.
I work for the large software company that Slashdotters most like to make fun of. We got an email at the start of December announcing that our holiday party had "slipped to February."
I may not even go, but it was worth the laugh.
$450 *and* a subscription to the jelly-of-the-month club.
Bonuses, gifts, little tickets and vouchers for a bag of chips....What is wrong with all you whiners? Dont you see that this is wage slavery and you are going for it? Steal at least $1000 worth of supplies from work and sell them to make your own 'bonus'. Cheat on your expenses. Siphon gas from the company vehicles and sell it to your neighbour on a weekly basis. Sell the company secrets to a rival - get some serious dough going - fight back, you whining saps!
Remember, publicly-traded companies have to justify programs to shareholders. A company with a hundred thousand employees, giving them even a ten-dollar bonus is a million-dollar expense... and hard to justify for not getting anything tangible back.
Whereas smaller companies, sometimes, you can't afford it. This year, the company owner told us that Friday would be a paid day off because he didn't know if he'd be able to do cash bonuses (we'd lost a major client through no fault of our own). Nothing wrong with that.
quote:
You don't live in America do you?
I knew it!
I work for a major telecommunication company and we all received a $7.00 wallyworld giftcard for our hard work!
We get jack shit. This year they didn't even let us out our customary 2 hours early the last day; guess they figured with Christmas on a Monday it wasn't necessary. Also, is it just me or does a contract consultant have no right to bitch about not getting any kind of Christmas bonus? My god for what they're probably charging that company, they should be sending the CEO a ham.
One company I worked for declined annual raises, then management gave themselves leased Mercedes SUV's as year end bonus. We got calendars.
Myself and a few others quit the day we heard about the new vehicles.
We used to have New Year parties until local branch has grown up above 1000 people. This year local senior management decided to shut down those parties and asked all departments to take care themselves. Money which used to be spent on parties instead went to local schools as an equipment we produce.
I was a little upset because my bonus has been the same for 14 years, but it was ten one-hundred dollar bills in an envolope. This is at a small 9 man plumbing shop. I won't be feeling bad anymore!
I work at a family business, so although there isn't a christmas bonus, there's presents in it for me.
Also, when I was manning the register yesterday, I happened notice that someone in the navy got a $100 gift credit card valid anywhere, and I heard from them that this was the first year they did this.
"Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
I got fired for Christmas one year. The company that I worked for was a service company. Our account was being cut back. Less than two weeks before Christmas 2003, about 25 people were "let go".
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
...and even though i'm just a lowly warehouse monkey that's only been working there for five months (hey, they let me work around school as I need, and it pays pretty good), I got $1500+ in stuff: A $400 xmass bonus (grossed up for a $400 net, just like yours), $350 in free gas (given as a credit at the companies cardlock), a $250 gift certificate to a grocery store, a hoodie, hat, mug, and a $500 end of year bonus. Hell, the new guy who'd been there exactly FOUR DAYS got a $250 cheque.
Insanity, but there's just that much fucking money in oil that they can afford to do that.
Im Belgium everybody I know gets a 13'th month pay (wich is taxed at 60% or so, but better 40% of something then 50% of nothing). Also we get payed vacation, but that is not very relevant, unless you company closes during the holydays.
Many companies give some gift as well. I got 6 bottles of good wine (together with all my cow orkers) and other companies give things away as well. I have even once worked for a company where you could choose between a gift or giving the money towards a good cause, like the red cross. You could choose between 5 organisations.
Also an end of year dinner will be held on a departemental level.
I also see sometimes that people are negative for what they get. They say it isn't enough or that they do not like it or whatever. I must start writing their names down, because they won't appreciate the gift they get when they have a birthday. The means I won't have to buy them one.
It is a gift, not a payment. Do you tell you SO or family that you hate the gifts and think they could have bought you a bigger. more expensive one?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Have my own IT/consulting business and been working as a contractor ("the IT guy") for this company for about a year. Pull in a fixed ~$1,000 with a couple of office visits and a few phone calls a month. Imagine my suprise when I saw a $500 check on my server room desk, with a personalized "greetings and thank you" note from the company president. But again, I do go out of my way to serve the company's best interest, and this is an engergy company (read: oil) after all, even though a very small one.
that this guy would understand that his bonus would have federal taxes withheld from it: "When the CEO called me into his office to tell me about the Christmas bonus, I was genuinely surprised with the generosity," writes an employee of a thriving community bank in Florida. "When the deposit came into my account, it was 20 percent less than what he promised."
no kidding. On the Friday before Christmas.
Thaaaaaaaaanks.
Re-read your employment docs about whether or not they were going to actually pay for the moving expenses. If the docs say they would, but then they withheld, that doesn't sound right.
Also, you can deduct moving expenses.
http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc455.html
Also, since you worked half a year, your income in 2006 is probably low for the tax rate you're at and for the amount that was withheld. You should do your 2006 taxes early; you're likely to get a refund.
That's nothing! The first company I worked for deducted the company matched portion of the offered retirement account from the bonus checks.
to avoiding Christmas scrooges is whether or not you work for a company who is so PC-oriented (political correctness) that their idea of diversity is to suppress all religious celebration this time of year into something called a holiday party. To top it off they still have a tree (called a holiday tree) which is a Christmas icon but they neglect to recognize that fact. Where the menorah is I have yet to figure out, despite the diversity excuse the corporations always tout (I guess the Jewish people get to look at a holiday tree whether they like it or not). That behavior turns an attempt at political correctness into an inconsistent show of how stupid, ignorant, and insensitive corporations can be. If we can get past all that then I say anything that corporations do beyond that is just something to be thankful for because next year they may not even recognize Christmas at all (most don't recognize it now but instead recognize something called "the holidays" using a pine tree but even that may go away) so the original post could be last of its kind (except for the dupes of course).
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
The lucky stiff got a brand new G klasse - a Brabus tweaked G500 to be precise. Well, he works for himself and just got through a painful divorce, so, he needed something to soothe his pain. (I think I will get married, just so that I can get a divorce ... and have an excuse to spend 150 thou on a car.)
The best thing about this is that since he is VERY busy I'll get to drive it a lot ... while I fix my own, cheap ass, G - an old, 1986, GD300.
"Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead." A. Huxley
I work in a different field than most of the people on here, but I actually got a bunch of pretty damn nice stuff for Christmas. I'm a carpenter, working for a small remodeling company. This year, I got a decently nice DeWalt sawzall and drill combo in our "white elephant" game at the Christmas party. Then my boss pulls me aside and gave me a brand new compound miter saw. Come payday, there's an extra check for $150. This all from the gun-toting lunatic who pointed an assault rifle at me the day before, just to mess with my head (it was funny, in context, albeit inappropriate for most of y'all's work environments, I'm sure). The best part is that even though we primarily work in residential remodeling, we have some commercial work coming up next week, so the paychecks continue uninterrupted (construction is seasonal, even in TX, and you HAVE to be ready to miss some work in the winter). I love my job...
A few years ago I went to jail for fighting on Christmas Eve, my boss at the time bailed me out & took me to the titty bar on Christmas Day.
Nothing like going to the titty bar to get you into the spirit of Christmas, soo much giving.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
This year our Christmas 'party' was POTLUCK & pizza. If you don't bring anything it is $10 to get in !!!!!!
:-)
Most of said 'fuck it' and went out and had a nice lunch (with beer)
And our company isn't a 'strapped for cash' operation either, it is a BIG Tech company. I just don't get these 'half hearted gestures'.
happy FESTIVUS every one
Part of the compensation package is a maximum of 4 weeks salary every March. Basically, come tax season, they need to spend all the profit they've racked up so that they can retain their not for profit status. It's almost like government at end of the fiscal year, spend spend spend! Anyways, it's expected and I don't really look at it as the company doing something nice for me. It's just part of the package. Now the surprise was a $25 Regal gift certificate + $10 Chili's gift certificate. Dinner for one and a movie + snacks for two. Not a bad deal. *shrug*
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
Several things have combined to make this my worst holiday ever.
I'm flat broke. I just started a job with Google as a consultant, but haven't received my first check. I should have received it, but the consulting firm I'm working through screwed up. Let me make this very clear. This is not Google's fault. It's the best damn job I've ever had and I don't plan on ever leaving. They'll need to get about six burley dudes to drag my sorry ass out, kicking and screaming, if they don't choose to make me a full time employee. Anyway, my bank account is empty and I have less than $10 in my wallet. I couldn't buy anyone a present this year. I'll make it up after Christmas when I finally get paid and will be able to take advantage of the after-Christmas sales, but it still sucks that I couldn't get any gifts.
The money, however, is not what makes this year truly suck. It's the first year I am spending alone after separating from my wife. Nothing like the holiday season to make you really miss someone.
Bah, humbug!
Every year, we usually get a winter jacket and a sweater.
This year, nothing.
It turned out that the employee who was supposed to take care of ordering them didn't order anything and didn't tell anyone about it. The first the president of the company knew about it was at the Christmas party.
So on Friday, a couple of people sat down and did the ordering for the women up front. I don't think the men are going to get anything at all.
I have more coats than I need. But it will still bother me if only the women here get anything at all.
When you attempt to unionize you'll get labelled a communist or a liberal hippie so people would be discouraged to join you. If only others had a brain.
Several years ago, I worked in the web department of an advertising agency with very questionable business practices.
One year the COO sent out an email to the company informing us we would not be getting bonuses this year because profits had been low. The next day the CEO and President showed up in brand new matching Corvettes they bought for each other. I'm sure my bonus went to one of those tires
Strange huh? Are they the Golden children of the company?
Several years ago I worked for a major software company in Denver, Colorado. I won't say their name, but it started with "Q" and ended with "uark" ;-)
Anyway, My 1st year there they gave everyone a HUGE bonus of 10% of your annual income. I was TRULY dumbfounded. Then one week before the next Christmas they forced everyone to sign a document stating Christmas bonuses were to neither be expected or required. Well, that year we all got one, but it was greatly reduced. I was still happy to get anything at all.
The next year the company decided to experiment with us all by offering "$100.00" redeemable ONLY at a new online company store full of crap (and I DO MEAN CRAP) made in India. The problem is that everyone was ONLY given ONE DAY to "spend" all of the "money" given to us at the store. After 24 hours, the "money" expired. But this was just the beginning. Since this was an online store "experiment" the severs crashed almost immediately and most people could not "order" their "gifts" in time before their "money" expired. Oh but it gets better. The lucky few who actually could get to the "store" before it went to Hell in a handbasket, could not get their "gifts" until MARCH. The excuse given to everyone was that the crap was handmade and had to be delivered from India. Skip to March now and everyone gets an email stating they need to pickup their Christmas gifts. Problem is, everyone forgot what they ordered, and the "store" did not make receipts of what everyone ordered. The Solution: they just started handing out crap to anyone who would take it. Most people simply gave up and did not even attempt to pickup their "gifts." Needless to say, this form of Christmas bonus proved soooooo unpopular that it was NEVER attempted again.
Don't get me wrong. I never expect a Christmas gift or bonus from my employers. I am thankful for anything I receive, but I truly hated this half-assed attempt at Christmas cheer.
Years ago I was a field service tech, repairing PCs and laser printers for an office equipment reseller who was the dominant player in the region. One year-end meeting it was jubilantly announced that our department (16 guys) had produced more than $2,000,000 in PROFIT for the year - in gratitude, they gave us each 2 free movie passes.
(And believe me, that's just the tip of the iceberg with them...)
Perfectly Normal Industries
This was on b3ta.com recently. Personally, I doubt whether the old company I used to work for had much Christmas spirit. Read it and weep.
My web domain.
Unions are generally just another way for some other parasites to suck on the workforce - this time by 'leading' them.
Unions and such are not needed. Only thing is needed is the awareness of the 'people'. If people know and accept that some wage is very suckily low, and have the awareness not to go for it (unless they are desperate), there will be no exploit.
And as for the argument that says 'there always be desperate people', i can say only this : in a civil society there should be no desperate people. If you left out some people to be desperate, you ask for whats coming.
Check some european countries - there are good social security coverage in some of them - noone is desperate or starving - employers cant exploit nobody.
Read radical news here
How's this for a non-bonus, bonus.
Working for a fortune 250 company our bonus was based on performance. One year our objective was 32% gross margin. We finished the year with 32.4% gross margin. That meant we made or objective and qualified for a year end bonus. A good one too, like 10% of annual pay.
The rub. The bonus was considered an expense. To pay the bonus and add it to the B&E would drop us to 31.8% gross margin. So, although we busted our collective asses that year and met our objectives, they wouldn't pay the bonus because to do so would drop us below our objective.
It gets better.
Then came a brilliant idea from the management. What if they only paid the exempt managers? A percentage of the managers bonuses were paid from a corporate account. Wa-la. That would only drop our numbers to 32.1%.
I'll let you guess what happened that year. It was also the year I learned the meaning of corporate.
-[d]-
The employee who saw his bonus deposit 20% less than promised, likely was just seeing income tax being deducted from it. Christmas bonuses are like salary, a taxable benefit. Nothing the employer can do about that. Technically, any benefit they give you (e.g. a turkey) is a taxable benefit. (When I was a reasonably high paid developer, here in Canada, I saw christmas bonuses of $5000 be whittled down to $2500 after taxes. It's fact of life, be thankful for the intent.)
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I don't know about corporate Scrooges but a couple of years ago my brother, who earns over 200,000USD, gave me a multi-function penknife for Chrismas that had been a freebie sample to his company from a clutch manufacturer.
Ho, ho, ho.
uhm.. beats nothing; which according to the manheim steamroller christmas thing on the radio all day at work, is what most people get , as the christmas bonus was started by woolworth's $5 a year (i think they said something $110 in today's money) with a 5 year cap and was widely copied later but is presently (hoho) dying off.
waspleg
This year we all got photo printers with enough ink and paper for 90 pictures. Last year we got PSPs, the year before they got digital cameras. /Works for Sony...
Sounds like this happened a long time ago. It's past the point to press for the bonus, and it's not on his 2006 taxes.
Bearded Dragon
Some of the examples in the article came across as genuine insults to the intelligence of an average human. Personally, I'd rather get nothing than a "gift" or "bonus" that is insulting or demoralizing. And, for each of these so-called acts of generosity, it might not hurt to ask yourself - "What did the CEO get?"
After reading a lot of the posts here I thought I'd give just a little bit of generic legal advice: if your employer makes you work extra hours that are outside your contract, keep a copy of every communication to and from your employer regarding it. Then, if you can do it safely, protest a little. All this helps if you want to bring a breach of contract lawsuit later on.
What the fuck? Unions exist to get the best package for employees. All the employees. The employees know that if they don't stand together they will be fucked.
The key here is the word you missed where I bolded... unions don't exist to get the best package for ALL employees, they exist to get the best package for THE AVERAGE EMPLOYEE. If you are an above average,/b> employee, be it someone who is more skilled or more diven, unions get you the shaft, because they result in union dues being taken from your paycheque for a salary and benefits that are less than you could have negotiated yourself.
This is very good for you because it allows you to pay some people less then others. It may also be good for a few employees who get paid more then average. It sucks for the rest of your employees.
For starters, I guess you totally ignored the GP poster when he said that he, like I, am NOT AM EMPLOYER, er we EMPLOYEES, "cogs in the machine". We just happen to hate unions. The union idea that "everyone should be paid the same for the same job" is bullshit because, simply, people are not machines, and . Some do their jobs better, some do their jobs worse. The people who do their jobs worse than the average are obviously not happy and should not be working there in the first place.
I get 1.5x for every hour over 8 in a day and/or 40 in a week. Yes, I'm in IT and yes I live in America (U.S.A.).
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
the opposite of that would be this: http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/12/ 19/ap3269685.html
Guess what? They both bounced.
Here's a link to a story on bbc.co.uk about a Burberry factory in South Wales which is threatened with closure: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/620776 5.stm
What the article doesn't make clear is that the £30 voucher (around $55) can only be spent in a Burberry store and the nearest store is in London, a mere 170 miles away.
Do you mean "voila"?
Try working in dialysis, where if you perform exceptionally all year, work plenty of overtime because so many people quit, you just might get the company mandated maximum raise of three percent. Where year-end reviews consist of things like, "Oh, you were late three minutes six times this year .. that's not good. You really need to work on that."
And merry Christmas, here's a $20 Wal-mart card. Don't spend it all in one place. Company "party" is lunch, a tray of Subway sandwiches. I'd say about 4 or 5 foot-long subs cut up, for about 15 employees. And the sign put up that week suggested those who have the day off come in as well for the festivities. Woot.
This years bonuses? Well for Xmas, they catered a lunch for the department. In the big conference room. Thanksgiving? I have worked the last 4 of them. I get a different day off instead.
The "best" year? The day we came back after Christmas, I was fired. That was the year I had just come back from being out with cancer. The good news is that eventually, I won a lawuit against them, using the ADA law.
One fine year we received a bonus check and a letter in an envelope on Christmas Eve. The contents of the letter (paraphrased) were: What a nice way to invalidate the motivational value of the bonus. At least the cash was nice - something like 2 weeks salary.
Sometimes I wish I'd kept the letter. Mostly I try to block it from my mind.
A different year, different company, I was laid off for Christmas.
Stupidity... has a habit of getting its way.
I work for a mid-sized defense contractor. Last year at Christmas the company was in discussions to be sold so the owners could retire. Eventually we were sold for $88+ MILLION dollars at which time all the employee stockholders learned that the owners had 98% of the stock and we saw nearly none of the proceeds. The kicker was that our Christmas 'bonus' from the owners was a cheap plastic LCD monitor cleaner with the company logo (which no longer exists after the buyout). Even better is that the owners were so cheap that the only employees who had LCD monitors were them. We were all stuck with huge CRTs.
We got a great book http://www.amazon.com/Love-Dont-Leave-Ways-What/dp /157675250X as well as a corporate jacket!
I recently celebrated my 5-year service award with a major multinational. At the 5 year mark, i got to go to a special rewards website and choose one from among several token gifts.. there was a pair of GMRS radios there, so that's what I chose. About 3 paychecks later, I had a deduction of $24 for the income tax on the gift, which means they valued the gift at $95... I went to target at found the same pair of radios on sale for $26.99.
Hah...
I work for one of the Fortune 500. Our last Christmas party was in the year 2000. When the economy was down in 2001, the party was canceled. Since then the company has done very well with billions in profits and yet there's no Christmas party. There are no bonuses. No gifts. And we get just one day off for Christmas.
I'm a partner at an IT consulting company that employs >60 people. I've always told my fellow partners that it is better to give nothing than to give something that insults. "what would you think yourself if you got this" is a very good rule. Some examples in that article leads me to think someone forgot that employees are human, not cattle.
Although this habit of compairing gifts between each year apparent in the article leads me to think that one should never give anything. If you one year decide to spend some extra, do you have to do that every year else employees are disappointed?
I joined two users too late.
Thank you KB HOME!
I'm not kidding!
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
A company I invested in, not mentioning who, filed to go public this week. As I am in the top 20 shareholders, I got a copy of the documents being filed.
It seems that two years ago, after a settlement with Adobe over a small sum they owed the company, they paid ten million. Now I didn't know about this, nor did any of those that worked for the company... The document went on to say how this money was split... The CFO had reccomended that the company pay a full salary Christmas bonus to all employees (Its a smallish company), as in, if you were paid 50k a year, then that year you would of had a 50k bonus. And the rest of the money go as a dividend to the shareholders.
As that had not happened, the document described how the notion was rejected, and the CEO recieved 5 million. The head of HR got the other five million. The CFO? Nothing... The people? Nothing... The shareholders? Nothing...
On December 15th, I got a $250 holiday bonus. Four hour later, they laid me off. Fuckers.
I work for the most profitable division in the country. We set new records this year. Our bonus? The same as it is every year... $25 gift certificates to the local grocery store. Management makes 4 or 5 figure bonuses on top of their 6 digit salaries, but the people who make it happen? $25 christmas bonus, and the mandatory %3 raise every April (which barely keeps pace with inflation).
I'd rather they just didn't do anything, or made a charitable donation in our names or something. A christmas bonus should be just that, a "oh, wow, nice bonus"... not a slap in the face.
For comparison, my ex worked at a place that gave biannual bonuses based on profitability. She was there 6 months when she got a bonus equal to an entire paycheck. My roomie worked at the same place for less than a month, he still got a few hundred. The next year, thanks to some hard work and good business, he got a 2k bonus at the beginning of the year, and 5 or 6k at the end... pretty good compared to his 30k wage.
I don't expect thousands of dollars, but I do think that a bonus should at least be able to buy the turkey for the holidays. If it can't, it just seems like an insult... this is how much we think of your dedicated service. The point of a bonus is that it actually feels like a bonus.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
A company called Generac, which is 5 miles from where my parents live, just gave out fat bonuses based on how long the people have worked there. It seems like the checks average in the 10's of thousands. Imagine getting a $30,000 check when you're not expecting it.
7
Here's the full story:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=54487
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
It was called Corporate Downsizing but I think it was really a quarterly bonus for the puke who did the deed.
It was a real class act. I had never met this guy before in my life. He had had several Department meetings on days that I always had off, so I had not had the "pleasure" of meeting him. I just knew his name and knew that he had risen in the corporate ranks by outsourcing the functions done on a distributed basis for the company to a call-in and production center where it was cheaper to hire people for that job.
I'm still looking for work since the lay-off, despite my obvious and demonstrable skills. Lots of people reliant on my particular skills at my old place of work were very unhappy and were told to just can it or be canned.
On the brighter side, I was a perma-temp for the company and people still working there are presently being made to work six-day weeks in order to fill in the gaps in their schedules caused by my absence.
My wife works for a company that recently split. The manager at her level on the other side of the split decided to do an "office party." It started out as cookies, cakes, other stuff to nosh on and everyone would spend a few hours wishing each other politically-correct happy holiday and became ... nothing. The party was apparently cancelled and the manager decided he'd get everyone a bottle of wine instead. Now, I know where I can find a nice corked varietal for about $7 (USD). Let me see... He's probably out some $42 (USD) for the "party." Watch him expense that.
My wife, on the other hand, dropped something near $400 on a dinner out for one office worker who provides her with occasional assistance and six salespeople and their wives. We personally sprung for a bottle of something (wine had to be at least $20 per bottle and we bought a fair amount of quality harder stuff) and, while we were waiting for our table at a restaurant that did not take reservations, I purchased everyone several drinks and appetizers from the bar at about $180.
Laid off or not, one should celebrate the sacrifices people make for you. Has everyone forgotten the lessons imparted by Dickens in "A Christmas Carol?"
My New Year's Resolution: To find a job at a company that is characterized by a true acknowledgement of the hard work and sacrifice of its employees that actually produce.
Sorry about the rant, it's just the time of year.
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
Wow. I worked for a short time for a Geological Engineering consulting firm in the field. By the hour work, 84 hours / week, remote location, high stress work, plus additional work needed when problems arose (quite frequently). Was good pay, and remote field work isn't that bad in month young stints --especially when you're a young guy and it's all money in your pocket to pay off debt. Worked for four months, then went to school to get a M.a.s.c. Last week, I got a cheque in the mail for $1500 for a christmas bonus. Well, they just went pretty high on my list of places to apply to when I finish my Master's (in the same field). I couldn't believe a company would do that for just a short-timer like me. Could be the fact that my industry is booming (geological engineering / mining) though.
What a bunch of whingers, I'm working 96 hours (not counting unpaid overtime) between the 18th and 31st.
For the pleasure I get no bonus and I get paid at the same rate I do the rest of the year.
For the record I'm not working in a sweatshop in some third world country but for an Australian Telco.
Always remember, it could be worse!