For those of you complaining that you got a bagel, a hamburger, or just a holiday, let me tell you what I get:
No bonus
No raise (last raise September '99)
No party
No stuff
Work the day after Christmas.
Twice the workload (since half the staff quit and will not be replaced).
The constant threat of being laid off(they call it motivation).
We are a game company that released a game this year. No release party, although one was promised that was apparently a lie.
My employer sent us all (with a guest) to a dinner theater. Not my usual cup of tea, but it was fun. And I’m off work until the 27th.
And today my boss called and delivered news of a 5.88% raise and a 14.1% bonus. In a way I wish he hadn’t told me that it was only half of the bonus he’d recommended. The big boss nixed that because I haven’t been there a year yet. Oh well, it gives me something to work toward. Not having been there a year is also the reason I’m not in the 401K yet, so I don’t know what kind of matching the company did on that.
All in all, I’m really pretty happy with it. I haven’t had a Christmas bonus since sometime in the 1980s.
At our office Christmas party, I got a throw blanket and my husband got an aromatherapy system (including pulsating lights and “soothing” sounds). But I don’t think this counts as a gift from my employer since we donate money all year long to the “holiday party fund.” (This is a state agency, they don’t use tax-payer money to buy us nice stuff.) Our Board members did buy us a butt-load of candy which we’ve been working on for several days now. I’m about candied-out. Otherwise, our bosses don’t do a whole lot for us for the holidays. We don’t get Christmas bonuses or anything like that. Oh, but we do get “Governor’s Day,” which is an extra day off, either the last business day before Christmas or New Year’s or the first business day after. So a day’s pay for doing nuthing’ in addition to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays… I guess that’s kind of like a bonus.
I got a pen. Granted, it was a nice pen, but still. I pull 60 hours a week, work whenever needed, and bust my ass for them for a pen? Whee. At least I wasn’t considered general crew…they got stuck with this yankee swap thing, my manager bought all the gifts though. I’ve never seen such lame crap. My personal favorite was the girl who walked away with a drain unclogger. I thought she was going to cry…
But hey, at least they’re letting me take next week off!! (Unpaid, of course, but hey!)
