Employee Appreciation Lunch

In My Humble Opinion
1

I didn’t want to derail the other thread about restaurants, coupons, and invitations so:

What do you think about a boss who announces what he called an “Employee Appreciation Lunch” and then later goes around collecting five dollars from each employee to pay for it? I and a few others were bothered by it and others didn’t seem tho think there was anything unusual about it. The dividing factor appeared to be between those who had worked for private industry for quite a while and those who had worked for government most of their lives. By the way, this was at a government job. I suppose you could have chose not to participate and stay out of the break room at lunch break but that didn’t seem right either. What bothered me the most was the boss insisted on calling it an “Employee Appreciation Lunch.”

2

It tells me the company is not giving an “Employee Appreciation Lunch” in lieu of raises, it can’t even afford an “Employee Appreciation Lunch.” Or your boss is ripping off the employees,

3

I guess you employees are supposed to be appreciating each other; it sure doesn’t sound like the boss does.

Seriously, that’s the tackiest thing I’ve heard of in a long time.

4

I think the boss should change the name to something more accurate, like, “Who wants to go in on pizza for five bucks lunch.”

5

That’s fucked up.

6

I guess the “appreciation” part is for the employees kicking in for their own lunch.

And five bucks? Guess it won’t be caviar and truffles, eh?

7

I think it’s an insult and the boss is an idiot.

What was for lunch? I do wonder–$5 won’t cover lunch, maybe it’s subsidized but not paid in full. But still.

8

This right here. To me, there is a difference between an Employee Appreciation Lunch, where I’d assume that the company is picking up the entire tab; and a “Hey folks, we’re having Pizza Day in the lunchroom on Tuesday. Cost is only five bucks for pizza and soda.”

In the latter case, the employer may well be subsidizing the lunch, and the employees can probably guess that it is; but it seems to me that no reasonable employer would express appreciation to its employees by flat-out asking the employees for money to fund an employee appreciation event.

9

They misspelled “employee depreciation lunch.”

10

Let me guess: the people who were okay with it were the ones who worked for military or government most of their lives? This is common, because there is no petty cash or easy way to fund such an event other than to have the employees pitch in money. The event itself is the appreciation, and there will likely be short speeches given, little awards and certificates presented, and stuff like that. I’m not saying it’s right… but it’s quite common. We do an event around here that welcomes new employees and farewells the leaving employees. This occurs about once every two months, and everyone has to pay so that there is food served, roses for incoming/outgoing spouses and family members, etc.
Oh, that’s the other funny part. So, the people leaving will all get some kind of plaque or going-away gift as a sign of appreciation and acknowledging all their hard work over the last few years. Guess who pays for that? The recipient!

11

My experience with mil/gov’t exactly matches @Bear_Nenno’s. All part of the game and fully expected / understood by all.

Conversely a lot of businesses think they can buy loyalty & enthusiasm for $5/mo of pizza instead of paying real wages. And amazingly it works on some folks sometimes. Which encourages the extra douchy of bosses to go one better and have you buy your own loyalty & enthusiasm with your own money for the pizza! Criminals.

12

See, and my experience working in government my whole life doesn’t match that at all. Yes, retirement parties and such are not thrown/hosted/paid for by the employer but rather by the co-workers. But it is never the boss organizing or collecting the money - he or she might have suggested the idea to someone else behind the scenes but that’s it. In one of the governments I worked for , a supervisor or manager collecting the money would likely be considered an ethics violation.

But “employee appreciation lunches” and such are not paid for by the people being appreciated - they are paid for by the person/persons doing the appreciating. So all of the professionals in my office might chip in for lunch on Administrative Professionals day , or a manager or supervisor might buy lunch/breakfast/coffee and donuts for their staff. Without being reimbursed - because “government”.

13

Many years ago the company I worked for had an Employee Appreciation lunch and brought in pizza for the entire staff. Then literally the next day they laid off about 2/3 of the temp staff. So for many years afterwards, whenever an employee appreciation lunch was announced, my first (tongue in cheek) reaction would be “Oh no, we’re all getting fired!”

As far as the OP, yeah that’s really tacky.

14

It’s a scam and the Boss is cheating you. In the cited example, the Boss either put the pies on company plastic or insisted on a receipt and put it on his expense report. Either he or the company deducts it off of their taxes as “a business expense”. The IRS (and the company auditors) have no idea he’s back-pocketing $5 per employee, so his little “kick-back” is virtually invisible.

Document the practice and report it through proper channels as an ethical violation.

In a different situation, I was once asked if I wanted to go out for lunch with the Boss at a prior company. I said sure. When the time came, we were driven to a really expensive super-swanky restaurant that was way out of my budget. As the car was parked and locked, I said, “Hey, I don’t know about this. This place looks expensive.” I was told by my direct report not to worry about it. The Boss said I was going to love it.

Lunch was magnificent, served in courses. Obviously we skipped all of the alcohol, but it was fine eating. Then the bill came.
“OK, everyone pony up $100…” < total shock >

Now the bill without alcohol for the four of us was $260… so I was kind of shocked that we were paying for the Boss’s lunch. Second, I only had $80 on me to my name. The other employees were pissed, but they made up the difference and the cash was slid over to the Boss. The Boss then pocketed the cash, took out his company plastic, and paid for the whole meal.

His final words on the matter? “Thanks, boys… now I have money for the casinos tonight.”

If I had driven, I would have excused myself to the potty, walked to the car, driven home and emailed them my resignation. Needless to say, I always said no to lunch out going forward.

(As it was, the company had a lot of booking keeping discrepancies with the bank (you don’t say) and was shuttered a few months later)

15

Was it made clear beforehand that there was a charge to attend the lunch? If so, that’s a bit tacky, but everybody has a choice whether to participate or not, and getting pissed about it would be an overreaction.

But if it was implied - or worse, stated - that lunch was on the company, and then they made you pony up, that’s way beyond bad form. It’s ethically questionable and would be a red flag to me regarding working for this company at all.

16

This definitely wasn’t the case. This was a government job and it just doesn’t work that way as other posters have pointed out. I understand that completely. I was just peeved that he insisted it was an “Employee Appreciation Lunch.” He didn’t start asking for money until a couple of days later.

17

Oh, and let me get my rant in. In the private sector, pot luck isn’t a treat!

I am so happy for those of you who love to cook and have time to do so, and have a house full of stuff to just whip something up.

Pot lucks for many single people are a de motivator and that goes triple if you commute by public transit.

And, yes, if it’s $5 for the pizza, make sure it’s well known. I generally opt out of those if it’s possible. Not because I can’t afford the $5, but I’m tired of the hoarding shit show and me getting stuck with some bizarre veggie combo

18

Life imitates a Dilbert cartoon.

19

Bosses should never, ever, ever, be collecting or receiving money or other things of value from employees, for any reason. Bosses should be paying out of pocket for this kind of thing.

20

We had a canoe/kayak release party. It was stated ahead of time that boat rental was employees’ responsibility. the company (or my boss) paid for beverages though.

Brian