People Are Sharing "The Cheapest Holiday Bonuses" They've Received From Their Bosses, And I'm Asking Santa For A New Job This Year
Reddit user u/nimfrank asked, "What cheap/terrible holiday 'bonuses' are people starting to receive from work this year?" and the stories came FLOODING in. I was prepared for some bad ones, but the audacity of some of these bosses and companies truly blew me away.
Here are the top-voted responses:
1."We got 'a digital cake.' It was literally a photo of a cake attached to an email as a thank you. There's a grocery store across the street."
"Everyone should stay home for a day or two, and when asked why, say you were working and send a picture of you at your desk you took the day before. 'It's the same thing, right?'"
2."My wife got a flyer with a QR code so she can pick her own gift from a list of five company-branded items (sweatshirt, speaker, water bottle, etc.). Only the checkout link is broken, so she can't actually order anything."
3."We get a mandatory work party which will cost each of us $25 to attend."
4."I work in sales on a top performing team. Our team got the same book on how to be a better at sales. We are supposed to read this book on our downtime (whenever that is), and then management wants to go over the book chapter by chapter in our weekly team meetings. This 'gift' was not well received on the team. There’s been talk about sending management a book on effective leadership or 'management for dummies.'"
5."My boss sent out a $10 Starbucks gift card the day he also laid off 10% of our staff. The words, 'It’s not a layoff, it’s a coffee break' is now a banned phrase on Teams/Slack."
"I got a $5 Starbucks gift card from work for my two-year anniversary. 😂😂 That's not even one drink at Starbucks."
6."I used to work at the Cheesecake Factory, and one year they gave everyone a cheesecake. From Costco."
7."One year, work bought everyone a ham. Didn't matter if you couldn't eat ham. They were delivered to your desk mid-day. There was not enough room in our fridge to store them all. It was weird. Every year prior to that we got cash."
8."I get paid monthly, and it's quite common where I live. As a 'bonus,' we are getting paid on the 15th rather than the 30th. Basically...January payday is 45 days away."
9."We got told we were getting nothing. And the management excuse was, 'Well, not everyone celebrates Christmas, so it wouldn't be fair.' My colleague hit the nail on the head and responded with, 'I've never heard diversity weaponized until I heard that.'"
"It's an end-of-year bonus. The year is still going to end for everyone."
10."Nothing. It's been three years of nothing in a row. Of course, 200 of us did get notice that our jobs end on December 31 this year. Even better — IT thought it would be good to do a phishing email test that looked like the company gave everyone a $50 Amazon card. To say people were pissed is an understatement..."
11."I was handed a stack of holiday cards and told to sign all of them. Once I was done, I was then told that I was the last person to sign them so I could choose mine...really felt the thoughtfulness of 20 people rapidly signing cards."
12."We used to have quarterly bonuses based on individual performance at my old job. It was usually between $1,000 and $5,000. One year, we had exploded with growth, and our sales had literally doubled from the previous year. My owner was super excited to hand me a fat padded envelope with my bonus in it before he and his wife left for the month to head to Aruba. I opened it in my car before I headed home, and inside was a Shun Folding Steak Knife. Apparently, it was so I could carry my own steak knife to all the fancy restaurant dinners I was going to be having..."
13."I got one tall boy of Bud Light. Just watched the CEO leave in a new Porsche while typing this. Had to hold back my feelings of throwing the can at him."
14."Our office tradition is that each supervisor gives us $20 gift cards. Then the employees group together and buy each supervisor a $100 gift card. It's ridiculous. But this year is special. This year, one supervisor has decided they don't want to participate because they 'can't afford it' after taking their $100 gift card from the staff already."
15."My company sent one box of candy for our 14-person team to share."
And finally...
16."Don't get an official bonus, but might get a tangerine from the boss."
What the most pathetic or saddest bonus you got at work? Comment below!
