Company Christmas Gifts / Bonuses? 1330
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?"
iPod!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Count yourself lucky... (Score:3, Interesting)
Where I work, I write software for all kinds of stuff, but get about 60p more per hour than when I was at the museum telling customers where the loos were. I have to work late each day next week to save up hours so we can have the afternoon off to go to a pub lunch. That is what we get for christmas. Nothing. Nada. No time off for the christmas lunch (which we are paying for). My dept isn't doing badly, but the others are finding it tough, hence the austerity measures.
totally surprised.... (Score:1, Interesting)
You got a party?! (Score:1, Interesting)
My bonus.. (Score:3, Interesting)
2 Years ago, Last year, This year. (Score:5, Interesting)
What the - ! (Score:3, Interesting)
Considering how the economy is right now, I expect you will see a bunch of "you're lucky you have a job" flames.
Incidently, I got turkey money - a gift certificate for a major supermarket chain. We usually get a bonus if the company sells a certain amount of product, but due to extenuating circumstances (drawn out price negotiations with a major customer which means we'll sell a lot of product next year but didn't hit our forecast at all this year) we won't be getting anything.
And we're fighting off a hostile takeover right now, so I may just get a pink slip for christmas (or have to move to another city, if I'm lucky).
Merry fucking Christmas everyone
Could be worse (Score:4, Interesting)
You got a bobble head CEO?!?!? (Score:2, Interesting)
You should feel lucky...
Fake Money in Exchance for Real Money (Score:2, Interesting)
-Mike
As an employee of county government...... (Score:4, Interesting)
Nothing
Zip
Nada
Not even a thank you.
911 dispatch wants to know where to physically find me on xmas and new years tho in case communications go out as I am on call for that, without pay.
Of course I would much rather have nothing compared to your gag gift doll. That's just sick.
Potluck lunch and a coat drive (Score:5, Interesting)
Free pizza (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm so sick of that crap (Score:1, Interesting)
I worked in a very small team in an ISP helpdesk for about 18 months, during that period of time at one point the company which owned us opted to spend 600$ (AUD) on helium filled balloons, some cake and some bottles of coke for the team for morale / congratulations purposes.
Now since there was only 16 team members total, I felt quite pissed that they simply didn't get me a 20$ voucher, 20$ cash, 2 movie tickets or something else.
When will companies learn that MONEY TALKS to some people - there's no better pat on the back than someone saying "here we like you, we respect you and to reward you we will pay you a little more"
20$ isn't much but it's better than a desk covered with fucking balloons.
Damn HR departments.....
Just a dinner (Score:3, Interesting)
Especially considering that companies must lower costs. If it was a bigger company then it might be different....oh and I only get christmass day off. I guess thats the down part.
Go work for a Swiss bank... (Score:5, Interesting)
One year, right after the merger between UBS and SBC, we had to go to the post office to collect an item from the bank. It turned out to be our employee Christmas card... by registered mail... strange... then I opened it up: 30g of gold was in there! Two little bars from the previous two banks, and a 20g bar from the merged bank.
The London employees were pissed off... they got really tacky watches, blue ones for the men, red ones for the ladies...
Oddly right in the middle of the whole Nazi gold thing too... oh well... the Swiss are good folks but political correctness isn't always high on their list... and shown in both cases...
Re:You Are A Spoiled Brat... (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh, how true.
So let's break some things down:
The CEO? A vain, spinesless, mismanaging jerk. The action? Giving an idol of himself to others.
The AC? A bit of a coward, angry, possibly wanting to go postal. The action? Telling the entire world how hard his CEO bites.
You? A jerk in the highest order. The action? Pretending you are better than others.
Feel free to say what you will about me. But I don't feel better than you, except perhaps in attitude.
>Sure, the bobble-head was in poor taste, but complaining about the freebies you got, or complaining because you didn't get enough freebies is just plain childish.
And if it were a flaming bag of shit left on the employee's doorstop, would he be obliged to send a thank you note to the CEO?
Com'mon. It wasn't in poor taste the way hading a $0.10 candle out to someone as a christmas gift is in poor taste. It's nasty in the way giving a condom to a eunic for Christmas is a statement of your opinion of the person.
At Nortel Networks... (Score:5, Interesting)
I now work at an academic institution where I've been attending various holiday parties every day last week and there are a few next week as well. I'm not sure if there are holiday bonuses or other things to come.
--CTH
Re:Let me guess... (Score:5, Interesting)
hell, if you work in IT at all and want to vent about your bonus, send me an email.
</self-interested plea>
Re:Christmas bonus - why? (Score:2, Interesting)
1) Treat them like they deserve with a nice bonus and then lay them off 01/02/03.
2) Thank them for all of their hard work and through them a nice Christmas party.
Judging by your comments you have never truly held a position of responsibility. Next time, please
think before you speak.
And for the record I am an Engineer.
Huzzah we get to work another year!! (Score:4, Interesting)
This year we've told that there is basically no money, but instead of simply adjusting the payout per grading we're told that no one will get a 1, 60% will get a 2 and the remainder, 40% will get a 3 which this year carries no bonus at all. The pool for the 2's will be cut in half. Now if you were counting on a 1 you were probably expecting a 15%-20% payout (20-25% for same grade if you are a manager), which this year will be reduced to a 2 grading which itself will be cut in half to about 5% payout. And the rest of everyone else gets a "YOU SUCK" rating that goes in the HR record. Which is just fucking lovely if you want to transfer internally and your last evaluation was "YOU SUCK".
They could avoid this by giving everyone the same rating they were supposed to get and simply tell everyone that there are basically no bonuses this year except for those with the Godlike powers of the glowing green sun of Krypton. Instead they've turned the workforce into a brutal Darwinian game where everyone trods on the skulls of their fallen enemies.
God I love this business, give me a grail of human blood!!!
Re:Amazon gift certificates (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What I got (Score:1, Interesting)
That and the fact that this will pretty much be the last gravy train (ha!) year for SD. I mean fuck, we're charging $249 for a fluorescent display, a 10Mbps Ethernet transceiver, some perl scripts, and commodity audio chips. How long do you think we've got until a would-be Turtle Beach prices us out of our own market? And I was just getting to like these new offices.
hold on a second. (Score:3, Interesting)
I worked 3 years at a company and never got a bonus, got a less than 2% raise and had ONE Christmas party, where I had to pay for drinks. Buck up. Three days after Christmas 250000 lose unemployment checks.
Re:Christmas bonus - why? (Score:4, Interesting)
In Japan, it is illegal for the lowes-paid employee in any given company to be paid less than a specified percentage of the highest-paid employee. It's a bit of a socialist tendency, but there's definitely some thought behind the law.
Re:Christmas bonus - why? (Score:3, Interesting)
Uh...he expects it because he negotiated said deal when he was getting hired. If you feel that you can negotiate similar perks, go for it.
Are they that much better educated or hard working? Probably not. Are they really that good of a manager? Probably not. It's hard not to be lazy when you have a staff of assistants and your leather chair and hardwood desk are so comfy after that prime rib lunch today...
Whether or not CEOs deserve their pay is up to debate (I suspect they don't, and that the reason that they get paid so highly is because they frequently know/are friends with members of the board). However, that has nothing to do with expectations *after* their contract is signed.
I don't buy the whole "times are tough" bullshit when stuff like this goes on. I'm talking about hooking people up with less than a $1000 to show some appreciation for those who stick around and put up with company politics, backstabbing, and egos.
"I deserve extra because I worked here and interacted with people." What?
Re:Measurement matters as much as the bonus itself (Score:5, Interesting)
1) They don't have enough understanding of the business market/human resources/financial situation to know if a given set of goals are reasonable.
2) They don't know the work routine of their employees enough to tell when one person has contributed more than another, and
3) They certianly don't know enough about it to codify a reward system months in advance of the actual competion of the work.
This is particularly common in small companies with rapidly shifting company goals and projects.
At my company (Score:1, Interesting)
The owner of the company worked for many years in corporate-minded jobs, and decided to get out of the rut and form his own company. As an internet company, he's made it through the dot-bomb and today's bad marketplace. Amazing that thinking different and treating your workers like THEY are the important part of the company, not the shareholders or managers, makes a company still viable.
American Companies are Evil (Score:2, Interesting)
In contrast I look at Japanese companies and the way they operate. These companies will operate at a loss and refuse to fire workers simply to keep them happy! A professor once told me of a Japanese company that many extra workers and not enough projects to keep them busy. So, they just had the workers build an amusement park, for no other reason than to keep them employed! The company actually moved into a new market, and made a large, gambling investment, just to keep their workers happy! I would kill to work for someone who wanted me to work for them that much!
"Holiday Bonuses" are deadly (Score:5, Interesting)
In essense, he said, "The worst thing you could ever as a company is to start giving out a Christmas bonus. Once you start giving them out, you can't stop without coming off as a total schmuck."
He added that if a yearly/periodical bonus *must* be given, it should be [phychologically] tied to some other, less-prominent holiday like Thanksgiving (in the US) or some summer holiday, etc.
Once people get used to getting a "gift from Santa" it is very easy to miss it and get all pissed because they are somehow being robbed of something they deserve.
Re:Christmas bonus - why? (Score:1, Interesting)
Of the few parties that we have had this year we haven't had one yet where we monkeys had to pay for the food or drinks or anything else for that matter.
Oh yeah, I got 10% raise a couple of months ago.
As a childless, single person.... (Score:1, Interesting)
The xmas party was today, but the office is getting reamed over it because corporate is pissed that they spent a couple of hundred bucks on fried chicken from brown's, in our own office.
Yet, the ceo got another huge bonus.
Oh, and btw, I don't drink latte's. I don't buy crap. I spend $2.00 a day eating at Smackdonald's and getting the dollar menu items. Bringing my own soda to work helps a lot.
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:3, Interesting)
I was thinking that if we don't know the company name after 00 odd posts then it must be a troll. The chances that there would be only one slashdotter working at a company whose CEO makes $60 big ones...
However, I now know what to get the staff for Xmas...
Re:Christmas bonus - why? (Score:3, Interesting)
But the reasons you mention are THE reasons why I run a company that has and continues to put more and more emphasis on automation. I no longer want workers. Seriously. Workers whine. They make excuses. They bitch when *I* start a company, put in a couple years of 80-100 hour weeks working alone, never take a vacation, and then when I take them on, they bitch they should be earning $30/hour instead of their $20 or point to the Mercedes as the reason they "have low salaries".
It's my company. I started it. I still put in 70 hour weeks. I hired because I thought I was doing the area some good with increasing jobs. $40,000 a year to hire or the trouble and maintenance in the equipment that does something similar, I went for the hire. Boy was I wrong. What a freakin pain in the ass employees are. I was heavy into automation before, but had a handful of easy, well-paying jobs that workers just continue to fuq up.
You put them first? Good for you. Maybe your business depends on people to handle things. Mine is very simple and happens not to need to. (Simple, damn good product, little customer service needed--I am the customer service.)
Don't need the grief, don't need to pay their retirement, or benefits, don't need the excuses, don't need to hire yet another person to hire (HR department) or handle the wages and taxes (accountants).
And if you read the above as being "about the money", you misunderstand. Workers have tremendous "overhead" beyond money. Time. Hassle. The wages are not the problem--it's the time messing with their needs so much so that you are spending half your time worrying about worker related issues than the company. But, again, maybe you're company is based on the need for workers; mine happens not to be.
I get pissed off when people compare their salary to a CEOs. Or a CEO touting how great they are to their workers (which seems largely similar to the $65 million/year CEO). I am not a CEO per se, but a business owner. But yeah, maybe the CEOs shouldn't be earning that. I'd rather see teachers earn that. But then I don't hear people bitch as much about teen pop stars. I see my workers spend their money on CDs and DVDs. Watch sports fanatically. Most of sports stars don't deserve their salaries. Doctors, scientists, trial lawyers, many do not deserve the outlandish sums of money (measured in 10s of millions a year, and if you think that's incorrect, you need to look into the top tiers of those professions) but are, admittedly, more deserving.
And yet what do the workers complain about the most? Their boss. How much their boss makes. What their boss has. How much work they shoulder (I did their job and more previously when I started up; I know the work that it entails.). What crap.
You want to give to your workers, good for you. It's probably unlikely you're going to auction off your car to keep an employee. You say take a pay cut so workers don't have to. Good for you. Odd that it wasn't take a pay cut so your workers get paid for. Even you have limits. Easily arguably better limits and criteria, but still limits.
Me, I'm finishing up the automated packer. Investment? $20,000. Even the electric company in my area is getting rid of workers through automation--no more meter readers. It's all automated though the lines. Don't have to worry about wages/salaries or pensions. And that cost them $165 million, which they feel they are going to recoup in less than 20 years.
You want more, good. But don't get pissed at me because I want something fair or the same, arguably by standards and time and sweat investment than you. Meanwhile, you accept the tiering and excessive incomes of Brittany, Justin, or Shaq, then bitch about your boss, you're a hypocrite.
Re:If we're lucky... (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously, I'm just happy to have a steady paycheck coming in, even though I'm only making 33% of what I was making two years ago. Also, I'm happy to be back working at an IT job and not working in a liquor store (that was a hellish six months I spent earlier this year.)
Considering that we're a start up company and I'm the only one that actually works full-time for the company I didn't really even expect a bonus -- the owner isn't even collecting a salary yet.
However, my boss, cool guy that he is, used his frequent flier miles to get me tickets to fly home for Christmas. Easily the best Christmas bonus I've received in 10+ years working in IT.
I suppose the least I could do for him is plug our company on Slashdot. For webhosting and online project management [jdahosting.com] check us out. Ugh, that sounds cheesy. Tis the season I suppose.
Re:Whining about Christmas bonuses is pretty sorry (Score:5, Interesting)
One of our managers slipped up one day when a computer was stolen and stated "Damnit! that's going to come out of our bonus again" This leads us to believe only upper managment is receiving a bonus although we were all told we would be getting a bonus quarterly..
We commonly hear " You guys need to get sales up or we will not have a bonus this quater " Then we hear nothing!! Not even hey we didn't make enough to give out a bonus this quarter, nothing..
Yes we should ask about our bonus, but honestly I think we all fear our current economy and don't want to make any waves, But is it not wronge for them to simply dismiss something we were told we would receive? When I took my job I figured in my salary + my vacation + my estimated bonus.. All the sudden I feel robbed when I reflect on it. Especially when I am praised for the great work I am doing, if I want lip service I will go on a date.
Let me close by saying, I like my job. In fact I have turned down higher paying positions simply because I like my working environment. But when times get tight I start to ask myself if I should be looking for employment elsewhere.
Re:Christmas bonus - why? (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, they ended up working out a contract where we only changed up to time-and-a-half, so a few weeks I was told to shift hours around, but it was still pretty nice. And after a few months, emergency legislation was passed to put things back to "normal."
Best Company Christmas Bonus to Date (Score:5, Interesting)
I was very sad to go, and I felt more than a little guilty about the fact. Last week, my wife and I received some very persistant invitations to my former employer's Christmas party; my wife went, since I was out of town, and received a prorated Christmas Bonus and a lot of general good will from the owner of the company and the staff.
Usually when an employee leaves a company for a bigger position elsewhere, an undercurrent of nastiness follows: the company and its people resents the loss of the employee. This company, though, insists on keeping a very friendly relationship with me, including repeated open invitations to stop by and mooch coffee.
The bonus was pretty meager, compared to what I remember from the
Last year, this year (Score:5, Interesting)
This year, I'm a lowly contractor and if I'm lucky they'll renew my contract in January.
Last year I was working for the spawn of Satan, and had been actively looking for something, anything to get me out of that hell hole for months.
This year, I'm doing interesting work in a less stressful and less fucked-up environment.
You can keep the $11,000.
Re:Whining about Christmas bonuses is pretty sorry (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's a better idea : send something to the wife and 9-month-old daughter that I've neglected while working 15 hour days slaving to ship a product that that's been plagued with management problems. Me, I'm just glad being gainfully employed, but my family deserves a little something for the patience they've had with me being at work a ton.
I worked at a company once that bought the wives flowers and dinner at a local restaurant right before crunch time. It went a long way in pacifying the spouses, which means employees are happier and more likely to tolerate working long hours. Wish more companies would get a clue like that, and not just at Christmas time.
Re:At UPS... (Score:2, Interesting)
* the corporate term for UPS employees. It's stupid, and I hate it.