Wow! I just checked and I did get one this year!
We hadn’t for the past 3 years, so that’s a lovely unexpected gift!
Wootz!
(And I don’t celebrate Christmas, so no one else is getting it! 
)
I agree with the majority sentiment. If we get bonuses, it’s because we had a good year. Sometimes the year has been good, sometimes not so much. There were a few years we all knew we were lucky as a non-profit to still have our doors open and that no one was laid off. No bonuses, none expected. We got bonuses this year, we’re doing pretty well right now, and the Board approved a little something extra. Mine was just under 1/2 a paycheck’s worth. I’m happy. I would also not be surprised if it was nothing, and still grateful for this job.
No. But I sure understand people feeling that the people who profit from their work are shitting on them.
That’s complete and utter crap, but I suspect you already knew that.
In the 70s I worked for a company that gave Christmas bonuses based solely on years worked there. IIRC, after about 30 years it topped out at some thousands of dollars. For 1 year the bonus was ten dollars. Before withholding.
So if I give them my ten cents, my name still goes on the card? Bitches.
Good stuff you said. We are unionized but I’m not sure that should matter, either you respect your employee’s or not, and as far as their profits go and although I don’t have real figures I know they had large profits this year ( doubled their last year sales alone) I guess I just feel that you should not expect any Gratitude if you don’t show any real respect
I have worked for the company for 12 years and should have mentioned that, sorry.
The quote was funny, The thing with my work place is that management try’s to make us believe they care thoughout the year in different way but it’s all talk always just talk and let me just say that all that talk rarely involes a thank you or job well done which if you ask most people thats all they really want. We were given a gift card in a plain envelope with no message of any kind we didn’t even know the value of the card until we used it. $30.00
I appreciate the gift. I don’t appreciate how they value me!
Don’t get bonuses of any kind where I work. Might get a salary increase at performance review time, but don’t expect it.
Closest thing we got was they put on a Xmas lunch yesterday for everyone for “free”. I got asked how many of my staff would go, I estimated 30 and got stung $15 per head deducted from my budget.
I just told them all, I’ve paid for this, make sure you go and chow down which they all did.
Funny that, giving them $15 in cash would have been considered insulting, giving them a free feed to the same value was considered nice.
It seems that most responces are of the just be grateful kind, which is ok. I just think as to what your saying that if the company could just be a little more upfront about the issue. It matters alot to most employee’s at this time of year when gifts, bonus, what ever you want to call them are handed out. Just what is management thinking when they sit down to figure out how they will treat us at Christmas time, is there any real thought of thankfulness or consideration of the spirit of the season or is it just the account calculating the out come for tax time?
Your a big person, I have more respect for you whom I don’t know then the people I work for. Just knowing you do the best you can means everything from $1.00 to $100,000 its the spirit in which you give it. Don’t hand out the same gift every year just because it’s what you did the year before, put some thought into it and make it somethng…(in the mind of the recipeiate). How you would it be if in stead of getting a $30 gift card every year you received the same teddy bear, year after year, you would need a big cave to keep them all in.
If you all pool your money you can hire a hitman and whack a few of the people in management. Hope they get the message for next year, eh?
I should have been clear in my scenario that all employees (union and non-union) got bonuses. It was just that the higher-ups knew they had to do something for non-union folks as it had been unequal for several years, in favor of those represented by unions.
That’s a downfall I see a lot in my line of work. It boggles my mind that supervisors can’t manage to say “Thank you” on a daily basis to people. I’d say that’s Management 101, but it’s more like Remedial Management.
Whether it’s a real bonus or a slap in the face would depend mostly on what sort of bonus the bigwigs got. If the majority of the workers got under a hundred bucks, while the suits got tens of thousands of dollars, well, that’s a slap in the face. If the suits are forgoing their bonus this year, in order to make sure that the rank and file got SOME sort of bonus, then the rank and file should be grateful.
The year I worked at Cracker Barrel, I got a card with a gift certificate. For $5. To Cracker Barrel. That was a slap in the face Christmas bonus–I would honestly have rather gotten nothing, like the people a step below in the star system got. Basically, they were saying “Have an in-shift meal on us. You know what? It’s Christmas, go nuts and order something fancy like the country fried steak!” Gee, I feel appreciated as shit.
But, it was still a step up from this year. We not only get no bonuses, I get the fun present of having to explain to my boss when we come back from the break why, when your employees get you a gift, it’s poor form to leave it sitting on the counter for two days.
Comparatively, the $30 sounds pretty damn good.
Yep, getting just a fraction of your family’s run-of-the-mill HVAC repair & tree removal money is like hitting the lottery to us wage-slaves struggling to raise a family on a measly $80k/year.
It’s hard to choose a favorite part of that post, though. I kinda like “that’s not even top-notch steakhouse or lobster money – I’d be INSULTED by that amount of free money” and “maybe that’s enough for a major engine repair on your broken down poor-person Impala – let’s call that ‘BETTER THAN NOTHING’, I guess.”
It’s hard to top “SOME (poor) people think I’m wealthy and live in a mansion, but it’s all relative,” though. It’s cool that you think people deserve bigger bonuses, but you took an interesting route getting there. You understand the plight of the $80k/year working poor, though, I’ll give you that.
OK, gotta go try to get the Impala running to make it to work tomorrow!