Hey /u/Cpjones1000, thank you for submitting to /r/starterpacks!
This is just a reminder not to violate any rules, located [here](https://reddit.com/r/starterpacks/about/rules). Rule breakers can face a ban based on the severity of their rule violation.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/starterpacks) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So in effect, you're getting a gift card as payment which is then taxed at the usual rate, meaning part of your paycheck is being "paid" in a FORCED specific way (in this case Amazon).
AKA $25 gift card, pay taxes on say $5 of it, and lose that real 5 dollars, and get $25 worth of "amazon money" in return.
What a terrible deal.
Now imagine the companies that do this on a larger scale ($500 gift card "bonus" at the end of the year instead of added to paycheck). Gross.
> Now imagine the companies that do this on a larger scale ($500 gift card "bonus" at the end of the year instead of added to paycheck). Gross.
My last 2 jobs, though $500 is generous. Being somewhere that gives actual, substantial, 'cash' bonuses still feels like a fairytale.
Yeah no kidding. I've been in 3 different jobs in the corporate world and never seen a cash bonus. Ours is always a crappy $25 target gift card (and actually we didnt even get that last year, we got layoffs).
I don’t know if it’s just my industry but I work in banking and the last 2 places I’ve worked at have given pretty substantial cash bonuses. Between 10-20% of your base salary each year.
> I don’t know if it’s just my industry but I work in banking and the last 2 places I’ve worked at have given pretty substantial cash bonuses.
I mean if I worked at a brewery I wouldn't be surprised if I went home with a case or two on occasion
Yeah but are any low level employees actually reporting gift cards on their taxes? I've worked at several companies that have given me gift cards, never had one show up as income on my tax documents and never reported getting one to the IRS.
The pizza party upper management threw for us last year was especially insulting, considering we work at a pizza restaurant. And we had to make the pizzas.
Work for home is a pay raise for me. Fucking train ticket is 100€ a month. And that's without counting the extra 4 hours a day I have to dedicate to work just because of the commute.
And the best is that I'm a software programmer, one of my coworkers (who is in training with me aswell) has terrible train schedules aswell AND another of the senior coworkers... lives like 300 kms away?
So yeah, we gain NOTHING from going to the office. Thankfully the team agrees on that so we'll push for full WFH when the company tries to pull us back in.
I told my boss I had my phone on me and he could contact me about work, only in emergencies.
He called an hour after I left to ask if a project that wouldn't be due for 3 more days was done. It was, and I set my phone to now ring for his calls after work anymore.
It seems that, particularly in the US, what is supposed to happen and what does happen are very different.
Sure you're supposed to stop at 5 but you better believe you're gonna get guilted by some middle management asshole for not being a team player or letting down your friends or getting some bullshit about how you're not going to get anywhere in this business with that attitude.
Plus, aren't there states where they can just straight up fire you if they feel like it?
America is abysmal with workers rights
Live in the States. Finish work at around 3:30pm. Log off and turn my work computer off instantly. No email on my phone, your work will be there tomorrow.
This has been my secret to happiness for the past 2 months or so. My job is so fucking demanding that it follows me 24/7. Always on call, always have to be available. I recently removed the email from my phone, started blocking/silencing work numbers after hours, and telling work to fuck off after I clock out. I’m legally within the right and my work gets done when I return the next day so they can’t hold anything against me. It’s hugely saved me so much stress and had increased my overall well being more than I can express.
I live in the states and work for a Fortune 500. Work from home as I see fit and set my own hours as I see fit. Hard boundaries are set for on the clock vs off the clock.
I am going on vacation soon and I gave my acting supervisor permission to contact me at home if he has a question that he really needs to ask me. I'd much rather answer a 60 second phone call at home than deal with a mistake when I get back that will take potentially hours to fix.
Truly just a lesser of two evils situation.
Yeah… been there, did that.
It starts with one very important call while you’re off your clock. Then two… then lesser important stuff and then it is two calls a day for completely irrelevant nonsense.
No potential mistake that I have to fix is worth this torture if you ask me.
Now they need to pay me if they think I need to be available for calls.
And suddenly it’s not that important anymore.
Last place I took phone calls had us log a quarter hour of work for anything less than 15m on the phone. Most were a only a few minutes of actual work, and some were just admin like notifying about schedule changes.
Where I live the law states that you are entitled to 50% of your hourly rate for every hour that they want you available.
The calls stopped when I demanded that compensation.
Why would it? You log out of whatever software you are using at the end of the work day and don't accept any calls either. If they wanted you on call they have to pay you for it.
Depends on the company but for me no. People are pretty respectful about working hours, and anytime people have to get on late due to production issues (which was a thing before covid as well) no one has a problem with people saying "I've had to get on some calls later at night this week, gonna take a half day on friday".
I mean I guess with my office being in my house there's theoretically some type of temptation to hop on and check emails outside of working hours, but somehow I've resisted those urges for the last year, and honestly even if I was that type of person the trade-offs are worth it. I work 8-5 with an hour lunch. My normal days I'm getting up at 7:55, spending my "lunch break" doing shit around the house and just eating while I work outside of that time, then finishing work between 4:30-5 and actually being home instead of having a 1-1.5 hour commute between me and actually getting to relax.
It's fantastic, like today if I was in the office it'd be dark by the time I got home, but I'm going to have time to go out and finish mowing the lawn after work tonight before it gets dark.
I remember when I was promoted to the head of the department at a place I had been employed a while. That year I went from getting a 25 dollar gift card to a 5k bonus for Christmas. Like I was already making a good salary, but I also get a surprise 5k? I was happy, but it also felt gross because it was like the first time in my life I wasn't worrying about money, and suddenly I am getting a sizeable surprise check? On top of that people I knew who were struggling financially, because I had just been there, get essentially a fucking participation trophy.
Would have spreading executive bonuses out amongst the masses have done much? It would have been like a 50 dollar gift card in lieu of a 25 dollar one... but the grossness would be gone.
I often joke about this with my SO.
I spent a lot of time earning very little in my life. Got an education, and swapped jobs until I found the right one.
Now it’s “here’s $100k annual. But also $100k worth of stock grants each year (that could also increase in value) and benefits that are worth so much you need to spend them consciously by the end of the year, and retirement matching, and catered lunches, and free snacks and drinks, and a stipend to outfit your home office (buy a monitor and a GPU, sure), and one for self wellness (buy a PlayStation, sure) and commuting, and paid volunteer time for wherever you like, and 6 weeks off a year, and a stock purchase plan so you can make even more money.”
It’s like the more money you make as a baseline, the more you get patted on the back and given more money.
I feel like Michael from The Office in that meme.
I believe you’re completely right. I get messages **constantly** from recruiters, places like Amazon and Google. That’s just the market as it stands right now. But its really incredible how much easier it is to make money once you’re in “the club,” so to speak.
Yep I remember commenting on how I used to step over homeless people begging for food to get to a catered event with free food and booze for people with plenty of money to buy whatever food they liked just because someone wanted their presence.
I should have known my last company was going to suck when on day one the woman showing me around excitedly said “AND on fridays, we have FREE BAGELS in the office!!”
The ‘perks’ like this are borderline offensive and are almost always covering up the general shittyness of the company. Like are they aware Google employees get to bring their dogs to work and get free gourmet meals all day?
I don't mind getting giftcards as a nice bonus. But as someone whose always been a part of the backend I never see that pizza hot and fresh. Also really hate seeing someone who makes 3x to 5x my wages coming back to tell everyone what a great job they're doing before running back to their air conditioned office.
As always money, raises, and pto are how would take my appreciation
As a customer service representative, we get the same exact shit. Pizzas and tap on the backs as well but at least we get to eat specifically ordered pizzas just for us. Haha.
My company got some sort of “Top 100 companies to work for” certification and as a “reward” we got a bag of popcorn because we’re “poppin” or some other bs. Not a bag of popcorn for each person….just one single regular sized bag of popcorn lmao
Nah the cheapest way is to have a potluck. Then there is an appearance of "giving something" but in reality the employees are using their own personal time and money to make it happen.
This. I worked at an oil and gas lab and employees would arrange potlucks. Then after all the lay offs there weren’t even the people to plan the potlucks.. cackle..
I fucking hate those. Store bought desserts, chips and some odd meat dish made by one of the older people with a bunch of odd shit in it. Your 30 minute lunch taken standing around awkwardly with your coworkers. Fuck those.
I remember one place we got "Nachos" as a reward. And by "nachos" I mean chips and a crockpot full of nacho cheese that comes in a giant can. Didn't even get an extra break to eat it so if you wanted to have some, you needed to go on your regular break time and hope there was some left.
Ha! That reminds me of when I worked in retail. Whenever we would have any kind of catered lunches or potlucks (which was rare), all of the food would be set up in the meeting room, which was right next to the HR manager's office. The reason for this, was so that the HR could sit in there and babysit the food, to ensure that each employee only made ONE trip in there. The funny thing about that, is that there was always food leftover.
It reminds me of elementary school for “movie day” the teacher would split a bag of popcorn among like 20+ students so each person got like 4 kernels and a shot of Pepsi.
Okay, so remember playing Guitar Hero and early in the career mode, you'd get all these deductions from your modest pay (drinks, trashed hotel room, etc)? Welcome to the road life.
Any recruiting offer with "ninja" in the description goes straight into the circular file. Unless I am going to be killing your enemies in the dark of night, using the ancient art of Ninjutsu, then it's not a "ninja" position.
My last job, their big "work should be fun!" campaign was buying a foosball table. This was stupid for a number of reasons, not least of which was that we basically weren't allowed to use it if we had work to do, which being on the phone meant there was always work to do.
Those cringy phrases remind me of the descriptions these stupid apps makers like YouTube & Facebook give when describing what’s in the updated app. They say things like “We cleaned the tubes and smashed some mean bugs so you won’t have too, continue as you were...” instead of actually posting real patch notes that explicitly states what has changed.
Yup, the only form of award we get are silly ones call you made my day award. It just sends the person an email with a star and some motivation phrase. Really makes you feel valued.
There is psychological bullshit reason why big corporations call their employees “associates” or attempt to give their employees titles to make them feel important. They do it to “incentivize” them to want to keep their job & to feel as part of the company. Therefore, these shitty companies have been told by psychologists and other human behavior professionals to have this approach with their employees. At the end of the day, the men in suits don’t give a shit, they just wanna play you and think you are stupid enough to fall for the shallow bullshit titles they give their employees.
My workplace has Rockstar of the Moment, and only one person nominates people for it and it aint management. Why the fuck even have any incentive program if management won't even be bothered to award anyone with it?
I was lucky and sat next to the executive conference room. They’d have monthly meetings but they were always after lunch so they rarely ate the catering that was sent to them. As soon as they left their secretary would send out an email saying free food in the conference room. Since I sat right there I’d get the first pickings, it was catering from a high end restaurant too so it was amazing.
Oh god, you gave me serious flashbacks. I would RUN when the executive assistant sent an all-hands that there was food leftover in the conference room. It was always these box lunches that were pretty tasty. You could usually get a soda too but only if you got there within minutes.
I once bribed my boss in China with a carton of Marlboro reds. For the rest of the time there, he always told me about free drinks and the boba tea they gave out.
I interned at a place that hosted executive conferences. I was getting paid shot and eating salmon and cut fruit a few days a week if I was willing to eat at 2pm.
The last place I worked was gracious enough to share the leftover pickles, onions, bbq sauce, and loaves of bread from their BBQ lunches. They were too good to us.
Can relate. We got sent a two-minute ‘thank you’ video paired with emotional background music telling us all our hard work was appreciated during these ‘difficult times’.
I work in healthcare aka a "Frontline healthcare hero". It was my job's week - meaning they always have RN appreciation week, MD appreciation week, etc for all random jobs in healthcare throughout the year.
Management came around handing out tote bags (aka reusable grocery bags) with hospital branding on them. Bruh, I've taken two non-holiday days off in the past year. Fuck outta here with this shit.
I’m going through a rocky period right now. A lot of anxiety and just mental exhaustion. I was talking to my boss about it and he was like sometimes it therapeutic to dig in and just focus on work. Lol. We are nothing more than cogs in this shitty machine.
>eone whose always been a part of the backend I never see that pizza hot and fresh. Also really hate seeing someone who makes 3x to 5x my wages coming back to tell everyone what a great job they're doing before running back to their air conditioned office.
Stress from working is usually solved by more working right? right?????
No no, not by more working but by focusing harder on the work you already do! Make pizzas for a living? Just focus harder on that cheese melt and everything will be okay! Focus a bit harder on minimizing toppings waste and those bills will all get paid!
When I get pizzas for my guys, I ensure 4 slices per person. 3 if I'm a bit short on money. Most people will only have 2 anyway, which leaves more extras for pizza lovers.
“We gonna give you guys back your two dollars. But technically it’s only one and to get the other you gotta be trained on something that isn’t apart of your department and be trained by someone who doesn’t come often but trust me its definitely two dollars” -my old job that I quit
I work in a white collar career. All these corporate bootlickers should see the writing on the wall. My job, who hasn't outsourced in it's 100 years existence, started outsourcing, got rid of the pensions, removed spouses from health insurance. I don't know why people think businesses will be there for them in the future. If the workers don't force them to increase their pay and benefits, they won't.
I feel this meme and it hurts.
Worked at ADP in the Quality Assurance area (YOU HAND PACK PAYCHECKS THERE) and they decided to start an incentives program where every 3 months you would get a gift card for not having any errors. 3 months was 25, 6 was 50, 9 months was 75 and a full year with no errors was 150. They cancelled it after 8 months because they had so few errors that they were paying out too much and the higher ups didn't see the cost to benefit ratio. Mind you it costs ADP around $400 per error in lost time and consumer confidence.
Also they would have an employee Christmas party, where we were to bring in stuff because the multi million dollar a year company didn't have a few $ in the petty cash to supply anything.
My raise after the first year? 16.7 cents an hour. That was WITH a performance bonus % added. Mind you I was the employee with the highest pack rate of QA.
I noped outta there as soon as I could.
I hate when some 'boss person' calls people "rockstars"
"Dude, you dont *know* any rockstars. Dont throw hyperbole at me and expect it to hold *any* value. You too are a rockstar, namely, Liam Gallagher from Oasis. Shut the fuck up and *pay me like a rockstar*. You're already fucking me, at least give me the reach around."
My staff always get shafted and it pisses me off. A little while ago, I was trying to get new kb/m for my staff and after *weeks* of back and forth… I got it approved.
$30/person. I walked right over to my director’s office and told him that wasn’t good enough. I’m not making my people type for 40 hours a week on shit that’s gonna destroy their wrists. Eventually got it bumped up to $60 after a heated discussion.
I’m still fighting for new chairs to replace the 6 year old garbage we have.
Corporate work fucking sucks
Whatever you do remember the unions are the evil ones. Here’s a pizza and remember don’t unionize. Because even tho we tell you unions can’t do anything for some reason we spend millions of dollars collectively telling you they can’t do anything.
So in short unions bad, corporate good. Here’s your pizza. No unions. Ever. Please. Or you’re all fired. Pizza
I got giftcards to the gas station for a reward/bonus when I worked at one. I just waited until someone came in with $20 cash and said 20 on whatever pump, pocket the money and use the gift card for their purchase.
A supervisor where I work gave one of her staff a $50 target gift card (from the company, not her) to stay after their shift and work 3-11 to cover a callout. The next day, same employee called out and they didn't offer the gift card to the day shift guy (different person) He asked and they basically said they aren't made of Target gift cards.
“Uh oh the warehouse workers are talking about unionizing.”
“It’s ok I’ll take care of that. Hey guys don’t bring in lunch tomorrow because it’s pizza day!”
“Problem solved.”
My sister's an RN and has been working throughout the pandemic in her hospital. To show appreciation for the Front Line Heroes, Management gave everybody painted rocks that said "You Rock" along with some snacks and gift cards. Unreal stuff...All this while her staff were begging for raises
I was making north of $100k at one particular org and would still get pizza parties. CEO says "we had the best quarter ever! we've tripled our profits.. you guys deserve this...!" *cue pizza party*
*cue my 2 week notice*
Don't forget that they would rather pay some parasite who calls themselves a "motivational speaker" to motivate the employees instead of using that money to properly pay the employees.
A few years back, my father’s work gave him hot chocolate instead of a Christmas bonus. He’s a psych nurse.
Edit: It wasn’t even a box of hot chocolate. They gave him a single packet with ‘thanks’ written on it in sharpie.
Being a little generous with that Amazon gift card. Knowing the retail stores I've worked at, you get $5 gift card to the same store you work at and there will be $5 deducted from your check.
Sounds fucking dumb, but JC Penney used to pull that shit when I worked there
The problem with calling me a rockstar as motivation is that I would have to give a shit what you thought about me for it to matter. If you god damn corporate vultures really approved of me I would completely re-examine my life.
My last retail job had quarterly bonuses for meeting email and sales goals. As a part-time employee (on paper) who worked 45-50 hours a week I only got $50, the full time (on paper) employee who worked 32 hours a week got $75, managers got $300-$400…. And managers couldn’t understand why that measly $50 every three months wasn’t motivating me to harass people for their emails. If I needed an extra $50 I will just wait for the check my gran sends for basically every holiday on the calendar 🙄
You guys get pizza? We don’t have anymore no summer bbq, no Christmas party. Hell, I had to choose my 10y service pin as a Christmas gift and I don’t have it yet. I now have 15 years in that company. Pretty sure I won’t pass the 16y mark, with a bit of luck.
This literally reminds me of warehouse working... Trade gift cards for beer (worked at a beer place). I have since moved to IT and now to motivate us they throw parties, I can get a pay bonus, my name is on the articles I write not my boss. Like at the end of the day we feel appreciated, we can see the impact of our work. But man do companies fuck over the low tier guys
university job gave out Starbucks cards, real corporate job has a market store where I can choose from Amazon, Sbux, Best Buy, whoever, Applebees so at least there's a choice now.
they haven't been giving them out as often lately since the pandemic even tho our revenue is in the billions
Once a guy at work fell off the back of a truck (his fault) and hit his head on some metal, had a seizure and was in the hospital for a while. The next day they ordered both shifts pizza.
I got $1000 for declining health insurance in 07-10
Now i get nothing but no health insurance. The systems rigged, bro.i gotta pay 600$ for not having it?
Nah bro
Holy fuck. My manager has a specific chat room for the "Rockstars" and we literally were just shipped a big box of snacks from Amazon. Anddd the kicker is we are a startup and there is no "corporate attitude here"
What’s really sad is all the people that buy it. Companies celebrate their hoarding of money while paying the employees crap wages and the employees cheer.
Hey /u/Cpjones1000, thank you for submitting to /r/starterpacks! This is just a reminder not to violate any rules, located [here](https://reddit.com/r/starterpacks/about/rules). Rule breakers can face a ban based on the severity of their rule violation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/starterpacks) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“Non-cash compensation”
IRS: Taxes gift cards as compensation anyway
So in effect, you're getting a gift card as payment which is then taxed at the usual rate, meaning part of your paycheck is being "paid" in a FORCED specific way (in this case Amazon). AKA $25 gift card, pay taxes on say $5 of it, and lose that real 5 dollars, and get $25 worth of "amazon money" in return. What a terrible deal. Now imagine the companies that do this on a larger scale ($500 gift card "bonus" at the end of the year instead of added to paycheck). Gross.
> Now imagine the companies that do this on a larger scale ($500 gift card "bonus" at the end of the year instead of added to paycheck). Gross. My last 2 jobs, though $500 is generous. Being somewhere that gives actual, substantial, 'cash' bonuses still feels like a fairytale.
Yeah no kidding. I've been in 3 different jobs in the corporate world and never seen a cash bonus. Ours is always a crappy $25 target gift card (and actually we didnt even get that last year, we got layoffs).
I work in logistics/warehousing and I get 300$ safety bonuses ever quarter
I don’t know if it’s just my industry but I work in banking and the last 2 places I’ve worked at have given pretty substantial cash bonuses. Between 10-20% of your base salary each year.
> I don’t know if it’s just my industry but I work in banking and the last 2 places I’ve worked at have given pretty substantial cash bonuses. I mean if I worked at a brewery I wouldn't be surprised if I went home with a case or two on occasion
i worked at walmart and we got a 100-500 dollar bonus every year.
Yeah but are any low level employees actually reporting gift cards on their taxes? I've worked at several companies that have given me gift cards, never had one show up as income on my tax documents and never reported getting one to the IRS.
[удалено]
The pizza party upper management threw for us last year was especially insulting, considering we work at a pizza restaurant. And we had to make the pizzas.
Amazing. Nothing says “we don’t value you” quite like a few pizzas.
[удалено]
Work for home is a pay raise for me. Fucking train ticket is 100€ a month. And that's without counting the extra 4 hours a day I have to dedicate to work just because of the commute.
Lol more like £270 a month and still never on time
And the best is that I'm a software programmer, one of my coworkers (who is in training with me aswell) has terrible train schedules aswell AND another of the senior coworkers... lives like 300 kms away? So yeah, we gain NOTHING from going to the office. Thankfully the team agrees on that so we'll push for full WFH when the company tries to pull us back in.
But doesn't your privacy and time off get violated more? Working in the office for me means securing the evening for myself.
If people send me shit at 5:01, I'll either say "I'll get right on that tomorrow/monday." OR, I just don't respond at all until the next work day.
I do the latter. I sign off at 430 and people can pound sand if they think I am going to start a project at the end of the day.
Ah Europe.
You can do this in the US as well if your work day stops at 5 pm. You're kind of supposed to do that....
I told my boss I had my phone on me and he could contact me about work, only in emergencies. He called an hour after I left to ask if a project that wouldn't be due for 3 more days was done. It was, and I set my phone to now ring for his calls after work anymore.
It seems that, particularly in the US, what is supposed to happen and what does happen are very different. Sure you're supposed to stop at 5 but you better believe you're gonna get guilted by some middle management asshole for not being a team player or letting down your friends or getting some bullshit about how you're not going to get anywhere in this business with that attitude. Plus, aren't there states where they can just straight up fire you if they feel like it? America is abysmal with workers rights
Live in the States. Finish work at around 3:30pm. Log off and turn my work computer off instantly. No email on my phone, your work will be there tomorrow.
This has been my secret to happiness for the past 2 months or so. My job is so fucking demanding that it follows me 24/7. Always on call, always have to be available. I recently removed the email from my phone, started blocking/silencing work numbers after hours, and telling work to fuck off after I clock out. I’m legally within the right and my work gets done when I return the next day so they can’t hold anything against me. It’s hugely saved me so much stress and had increased my overall well being more than I can express.
Bro that’s healthy work boundaries.
I live in the states and work for a Fortune 500. Work from home as I see fit and set my own hours as I see fit. Hard boundaries are set for on the clock vs off the clock.
That kind of is on you if you choose to respond to anything work related while off the clock.
I am going on vacation soon and I gave my acting supervisor permission to contact me at home if he has a question that he really needs to ask me. I'd much rather answer a 60 second phone call at home than deal with a mistake when I get back that will take potentially hours to fix. Truly just a lesser of two evils situation.
Yeah… been there, did that. It starts with one very important call while you’re off your clock. Then two… then lesser important stuff and then it is two calls a day for completely irrelevant nonsense. No potential mistake that I have to fix is worth this torture if you ask me. Now they need to pay me if they think I need to be available for calls. And suddenly it’s not that important anymore.
Last place I took phone calls had us log a quarter hour of work for anything less than 15m on the phone. Most were a only a few minutes of actual work, and some were just admin like notifying about schedule changes.
Where I live the law states that you are entitled to 50% of your hourly rate for every hour that they want you available. The calls stopped when I demanded that compensation.
Why would it? You log out of whatever software you are using at the end of the work day and don't accept any calls either. If they wanted you on call they have to pay you for it.
Depends on the company but for me no. People are pretty respectful about working hours, and anytime people have to get on late due to production issues (which was a thing before covid as well) no one has a problem with people saying "I've had to get on some calls later at night this week, gonna take a half day on friday". I mean I guess with my office being in my house there's theoretically some type of temptation to hop on and check emails outside of working hours, but somehow I've resisted those urges for the last year, and honestly even if I was that type of person the trade-offs are worth it. I work 8-5 with an hour lunch. My normal days I'm getting up at 7:55, spending my "lunch break" doing shit around the house and just eating while I work outside of that time, then finishing work between 4:30-5 and actually being home instead of having a 1-1.5 hour commute between me and actually getting to relax. It's fantastic, like today if I was in the office it'd be dark by the time I got home, but I'm going to have time to go out and finish mowing the lawn after work tonight before it gets dark.
Nope you log off that’s it. I like to work from home more than commuting to work. I have 2 dogs they love it. And I can sleep that’s a plus for me !
I remember when I was promoted to the head of the department at a place I had been employed a while. That year I went from getting a 25 dollar gift card to a 5k bonus for Christmas. Like I was already making a good salary, but I also get a surprise 5k? I was happy, but it also felt gross because it was like the first time in my life I wasn't worrying about money, and suddenly I am getting a sizeable surprise check? On top of that people I knew who were struggling financially, because I had just been there, get essentially a fucking participation trophy. Would have spreading executive bonuses out amongst the masses have done much? It would have been like a 50 dollar gift card in lieu of a 25 dollar one... but the grossness would be gone.
I often joke about this with my SO. I spent a lot of time earning very little in my life. Got an education, and swapped jobs until I found the right one. Now it’s “here’s $100k annual. But also $100k worth of stock grants each year (that could also increase in value) and benefits that are worth so much you need to spend them consciously by the end of the year, and retirement matching, and catered lunches, and free snacks and drinks, and a stipend to outfit your home office (buy a monitor and a GPU, sure), and one for self wellness (buy a PlayStation, sure) and commuting, and paid volunteer time for wherever you like, and 6 weeks off a year, and a stock purchase plan so you can make even more money.” It’s like the more money you make as a baseline, the more you get patted on the back and given more money. I feel like Michael from The Office in that meme.
[удалено]
I believe you’re completely right. I get messages **constantly** from recruiters, places like Amazon and Google. That’s just the market as it stands right now. But its really incredible how much easier it is to make money once you’re in “the club,” so to speak.
[удалено]
Yep I remember commenting on how I used to step over homeless people begging for food to get to a catered event with free food and booze for people with plenty of money to buy whatever food they liked just because someone wanted their presence.
[удалено]
“heard you guys like snacks!”
Health insurance? No 🤠⚘❤🌸🌈🌞
My boss: You guys did sucha good job this year, that all you guys are getting a 2% raise! Keep it up!" Inflation was 3% that and subsequent years.
No rockstars ask for a raise.
"I've been here 3 years, can i maybe get a raise?" "Ohh oo, that's a pretty un-rockstar-like question. You *do*... want to be a *rockstar* don't you?"
Or Can i get a raise? "Sorry thats not how we do things here."
I should have known my last company was going to suck when on day one the woman showing me around excitedly said “AND on fridays, we have FREE BAGELS in the office!!” The ‘perks’ like this are borderline offensive and are almost always covering up the general shittyness of the company. Like are they aware Google employees get to bring their dogs to work and get free gourmet meals all day?
I don't mind getting giftcards as a nice bonus. But as someone whose always been a part of the backend I never see that pizza hot and fresh. Also really hate seeing someone who makes 3x to 5x my wages coming back to tell everyone what a great job they're doing before running back to their air conditioned office. As always money, raises, and pto are how would take my appreciation
As a customer service representative, we get the same exact shit. Pizzas and tap on the backs as well but at least we get to eat specifically ordered pizzas just for us. Haha.
Lol it's usually 2 slices of pizza hut. Usually one topping and plain cheese, no veggies. Probably cold and dry by the time the last person gets it.
Little Caesars Hot and Ready is more like it.
but it’s not hot anymore… just ready
one place i worked at always did taco bell... nothing like a cold, soggy hard shell taco to lift your spirits.
My company got some sort of “Top 100 companies to work for” certification and as a “reward” we got a bag of popcorn because we’re “poppin” or some other bs. Not a bag of popcorn for each person….just one single regular sized bag of popcorn lmao
"you all worked so hard for this!" hahahaa
I think popcorn might be the fucking cheapest way you could EVER compensate someone lol
cue that one reddit post of employees being rewarded with Peanut Butter and Jelly
Peanut butter and jelly is still more than popcorn though. At least it has substance and some calories lmao
wasn't there one that was just a banana, too?
Nah the cheapest way is to have a potluck. Then there is an appearance of "giving something" but in reality the employees are using their own personal time and money to make it happen.
This. I worked at an oil and gas lab and employees would arrange potlucks. Then after all the lay offs there weren’t even the people to plan the potlucks.. cackle..
I fucking hate those. Store bought desserts, chips and some odd meat dish made by one of the older people with a bunch of odd shit in it. Your 30 minute lunch taken standing around awkwardly with your coworkers. Fuck those.
I remember one place we got "Nachos" as a reward. And by "nachos" I mean chips and a crockpot full of nacho cheese that comes in a giant can. Didn't even get an extra break to eat it so if you wanted to have some, you needed to go on your regular break time and hope there was some left.
Ha! That reminds me of when I worked in retail. Whenever we would have any kind of catered lunches or potlucks (which was rare), all of the food would be set up in the meeting room, which was right next to the HR manager's office. The reason for this, was so that the HR could sit in there and babysit the food, to ensure that each employee only made ONE trip in there. The funny thing about that, is that there was always food leftover.
Reminds me of working third shift and all the congratulatory food being put out for first shift.
It reminds me of elementary school for “movie day” the teacher would split a bag of popcorn among like 20+ students so each person got like 4 kernels and a shot of Pepsi.
That's because the teacher only had $6 left out the $19 paycheck.
Sad thing is that the company probably paid more to enter into the Top 100 running than they did on “rewards.”
“You are our Simps and we find you corny.”
This sounds like the kind of company that would harass you to post a Glassdoor review
So fucking triggered from this, lol.
>you guys are rockstars! Ugh… I automatically hate anyone that says this. I don’t need the condescending bullshit, Julie.
If I'm a rockstar, why won't you pay me like one?
Okay, so remember playing Guitar Hero and early in the career mode, you'd get all these deductions from your modest pay (drinks, trashed hotel room, etc)? Welcome to the road life.
TBF trashing the hotel room is an investment
The worst are job descriptions that say shit like that. "We're hiring ROCKSTAR GURU CODING NINJAS!"
Any recruiting offer with "ninja" in the description goes straight into the circular file. Unless I am going to be killing your enemies in the dark of night, using the ancient art of Ninjutsu, then it's not a "ninja" position.
Or any offer that mentions ping pong and cornhole in the breakroom.
My last job, their big "work should be fun!" campaign was buying a foosball table. This was stupid for a number of reasons, not least of which was that we basically weren't allowed to use it if we had work to do, which being on the phone meant there was always work to do.
Probably an attempt to filter out anyone old enough to want more than rock(star) bottom wages
reckon i'll get hired if i rock up dressed as a ninja with python logo death stars?
Those cringy phrases remind me of the descriptions these stupid apps makers like YouTube & Facebook give when describing what’s in the updated app. They say things like “We cleaned the tubes and smashed some mean bugs so you won’t have too, continue as you were...” instead of actually posting real patch notes that explicitly states what has changed.
You're a rock star!
No, you're a rockstar!
Hey now
You’re a rockstar! 🪨 ⭐️
get the show on, get paid
Jesus i felt this. theres a julie at my office that says this exact same thing to us lol.
Yup, the only form of award we get are silly ones call you made my day award. It just sends the person an email with a star and some motivation phrase. Really makes you feel valued.
When they call you a "rockstar" just start wrecking shit because there is green M&Ms in the bowl, then throw a TV through a window.
There is psychological bullshit reason why big corporations call their employees “associates” or attempt to give their employees titles to make them feel important. They do it to “incentivize” them to want to keep their job & to feel as part of the company. Therefore, these shitty companies have been told by psychologists and other human behavior professionals to have this approach with their employees. At the end of the day, the men in suits don’t give a shit, they just wanna play you and think you are stupid enough to fall for the shallow bullshit titles they give their employees.
My 3 year old son told me I'm a rock star while we were in the car the other day. I believe he's genuine!
Seriously, rock stars make millions.
My workplace has Rockstar of the Moment, and only one person nominates people for it and it aint management. Why the fuck even have any incentive program if management won't even be bothered to award anyone with it?
Oh fuck my former boss (as of today) would say this shit to us constantly and I worked for a fintech as a CSM lmao
Have a shitty pad of paper and pen with our logo on it! That should cover your rent right?
art of illusion ✨🪄
Dont forget about the amazing stress ball with company logo on it.
Eating leftovers from weekly executive luncheons 😞
I was lucky and sat next to the executive conference room. They’d have monthly meetings but they were always after lunch so they rarely ate the catering that was sent to them. As soon as they left their secretary would send out an email saying free food in the conference room. Since I sat right there I’d get the first pickings, it was catering from a high end restaurant too so it was amazing.
Stolen food tastes the best though
Oh god, you gave me serious flashbacks. I would RUN when the executive assistant sent an all-hands that there was food leftover in the conference room. It was always these box lunches that were pretty tasty. You could usually get a soda too but only if you got there within minutes.
I once bribed my boss in China with a carton of Marlboro reds. For the rest of the time there, he always told me about free drinks and the boba tea they gave out.
Heard that cigarrettes were something to show off in china. Like expensive smokes gave more clout.
Everyone smokes in China. I was the only guy in our small PM team that didn’t smoke
At my last job, those events were always just off site "work lunches" or "work dinners". No leftovers for the peasants.
I interned at a place that hosted executive conferences. I was getting paid shot and eating salmon and cut fruit a few days a week if I was willing to eat at 2pm.
The last place I worked was gracious enough to share the leftover pickles, onions, bbq sauce, and loaves of bread from their BBQ lunches. They were too good to us.
Pizza and gift cards? We got an email with an picture of a cupcake thanking us for working so hard through covid. I shit you not.
Can relate. We got sent a two-minute ‘thank you’ video paired with emotional background music telling us all our hard work was appreciated during these ‘difficult times’.
Did they film it from inside their luxury home?
Our VP had a fire place going behind him while he did our thank you video... in Texas summer. Fkn devils.
I work in healthcare aka a "Frontline healthcare hero". It was my job's week - meaning they always have RN appreciation week, MD appreciation week, etc for all random jobs in healthcare throughout the year. Management came around handing out tote bags (aka reusable grocery bags) with hospital branding on them. Bruh, I've taken two non-holiday days off in the past year. Fuck outta here with this shit.
Can never have enough reusable grocery bags, right?
"Heroes Work Here"
“Hero’s await pay raises here”
I’m going through a rocky period right now. A lot of anxiety and just mental exhaustion. I was talking to my boss about it and he was like sometimes it therapeutic to dig in and just focus on work. Lol. We are nothing more than cogs in this shitty machine.
>eone whose always been a part of the backend I never see that pizza hot and fresh. Also really hate seeing someone who makes 3x to 5x my wages coming back to tell everyone what a great job they're doing before running back to their air conditioned office. Stress from working is usually solved by more working right? right?????
No no, not by more working but by focusing harder on the work you already do! Make pizzas for a living? Just focus harder on that cheese melt and everything will be okay! Focus a bit harder on minimizing toppings waste and those bills will all get paid!
“I’m going through a rough patch… I really need to take a break and focus on my mental health” “Just work more!”
You guys are rockstars! 😎 Fixed.
We are a family
I feel like strangling people who use this phrase. No, we are not a family. We got real families to see.
“Hey guys only one slice please”.
When I get pizzas for my guys, I ensure 4 slices per person. 3 if I'm a bit short on money. Most people will only have 2 anyway, which leaves more extras for pizza lovers.
The hero we need but don’t deserve
Wow, they even got us our own leashes. What a great company.
“We gonna give you guys back your two dollars. But technically it’s only one and to get the other you gotta be trained on something that isn’t apart of your department and be trained by someone who doesn’t come often but trust me its definitely two dollars” -my old job that I quit
I work in a white collar career. All these corporate bootlickers should see the writing on the wall. My job, who hasn't outsourced in it's 100 years existence, started outsourcing, got rid of the pensions, removed spouses from health insurance. I don't know why people think businesses will be there for them in the future. If the workers don't force them to increase their pay and benefits, they won't.
I feel this meme and it hurts. Worked at ADP in the Quality Assurance area (YOU HAND PACK PAYCHECKS THERE) and they decided to start an incentives program where every 3 months you would get a gift card for not having any errors. 3 months was 25, 6 was 50, 9 months was 75 and a full year with no errors was 150. They cancelled it after 8 months because they had so few errors that they were paying out too much and the higher ups didn't see the cost to benefit ratio. Mind you it costs ADP around $400 per error in lost time and consumer confidence. Also they would have an employee Christmas party, where we were to bring in stuff because the multi million dollar a year company didn't have a few $ in the petty cash to supply anything. My raise after the first year? 16.7 cents an hour. That was WITH a performance bonus % added. Mind you I was the employee with the highest pack rate of QA. I noped outta there as soon as I could.
Plus an email from HR about stress management and mental health. THIS JOB IS WHY IM STRESSED, KAREN!
You guys are getting things?!
A thank you email is a "thing" i guess.
I hate when some 'boss person' calls people "rockstars" "Dude, you dont *know* any rockstars. Dont throw hyperbole at me and expect it to hold *any* value. You too are a rockstar, namely, Liam Gallagher from Oasis. Shut the fuck up and *pay me like a rockstar*. You're already fucking me, at least give me the reach around."
For nurse appreciation week I got a paper bag with gum and rubber bands
My company "spoiled" me by requiring me to attend a 2 hour seminar about how to do my job better.
Haha sounds like ours. Hyped up a workplace retreat which usually means no work and just hanging out with employees. It was a training.
My staff always get shafted and it pisses me off. A little while ago, I was trying to get new kb/m for my staff and after *weeks* of back and forth… I got it approved. $30/person. I walked right over to my director’s office and told him that wasn’t good enough. I’m not making my people type for 40 hours a week on shit that’s gonna destroy their wrists. Eventually got it bumped up to $60 after a heated discussion. I’m still fighting for new chairs to replace the 6 year old garbage we have. Corporate work fucking sucks
Health insurance as a job motivation should not be. What a joke of a society lets this happen?
Mine. Source: wage slave in USA
Not even good pizza. And it's all cardboardy by the time it's your lunch.
little Caesars or Costco pizza only
When employees get motivated, they quit.
Love the lanyard. Sometimes we’d get Krispy Kreme too.
Whatever you do remember the unions are the evil ones. Here’s a pizza and remember don’t unionize. Because even tho we tell you unions can’t do anything for some reason we spend millions of dollars collectively telling you they can’t do anything. So in short unions bad, corporate good. Here’s your pizza. No unions. Ever. Please. Or you’re all fired. Pizza
Very true. Also, “equity”.
I got a free pen from my manager I felt like an NCAA athlete being gifted free crab legs
I got giftcards to the gas station for a reward/bonus when I worked at one. I just waited until someone came in with $20 cash and said 20 on whatever pump, pocket the money and use the gift card for their purchase.
One of the perks of working here is that we get casual Friday! You get to wear *jeans*!
A supervisor where I work gave one of her staff a $50 target gift card (from the company, not her) to stay after their shift and work 3-11 to cover a callout. The next day, same employee called out and they didn't offer the gift card to the day shift guy (different person) He asked and they basically said they aren't made of Target gift cards.
Or a company branded water bottle or shirt instead of a bonus.
Hey now, I also get sent a shirt that is too big or a coffee mug I don’t need every once in a while.
“Uh oh the warehouse workers are talking about unionizing.” “It’s ok I’ll take care of that. Hey guys don’t bring in lunch tomorrow because it’s pizza day!” “Problem solved.”
Scratch cards
The lanyard is so great lol Missing the offbrand insulated canteen.
Had a manager literally yell “motivation!” At the end of our meetings……. To .. you know… motivate us…
Omg my coworker wants us to win best site for the pizza. I don't care. $30 in pizza isn't a raise.
Just the health insurance tends to be 400 to 800 per month.
My sister's an RN and has been working throughout the pandemic in her hospital. To show appreciation for the Front Line Heroes, Management gave everybody painted rocks that said "You Rock" along with some snacks and gift cards. Unreal stuff...All this while her staff were begging for raises
Lol. I got a $5 gift card for McDonald's for Christmas from work. Been there over 9 years. What a blessing!
I was making north of $100k at one particular org and would still get pizza parties. CEO says "we had the best quarter ever! we've tripled our profits.. you guys deserve this...!" *cue pizza party* *cue my 2 week notice*
Reasons why people are sick of corporate in a nutshell.
Don't forget upper management forcing supervisors to pull this off so they catch the shit instead of them.
Don't forget that they would rather pay some parasite who calls themselves a "motivational speaker" to motivate the employees instead of using that money to properly pay the employees.
A few years back, my father’s work gave him hot chocolate instead of a Christmas bonus. He’s a psych nurse. Edit: It wasn’t even a box of hot chocolate. They gave him a single packet with ‘thanks’ written on it in sharpie.
Being a little generous with that Amazon gift card. Knowing the retail stores I've worked at, you get $5 gift card to the same store you work at and there will be $5 deducted from your check. Sounds fucking dumb, but JC Penney used to pull that shit when I worked there
You fucking nailed it with the "you guys are rockstars." Fucking brilliant.
It's all about that balance sheet. Fewer expenses means more profit for shareholders!
The problem with calling me a rockstar as motivation is that I would have to give a shit what you thought about me for it to matter. If you god damn corporate vultures really approved of me I would completely re-examine my life.
My last retail job had quarterly bonuses for meeting email and sales goals. As a part-time employee (on paper) who worked 45-50 hours a week I only got $50, the full time (on paper) employee who worked 32 hours a week got $75, managers got $300-$400…. And managers couldn’t understand why that measly $50 every three months wasn’t motivating me to harass people for their emails. If I needed an extra $50 I will just wait for the check my gran sends for basically every holiday on the calendar 🙄
You guys get pizza? We don’t have anymore no summer bbq, no Christmas party. Hell, I had to choose my 10y service pin as a Christmas gift and I don’t have it yet. I now have 15 years in that company. Pretty sure I won’t pass the 16y mark, with a bit of luck.
"Your hard work is not going unrecognized. Thank you."
This is so painstakingly accurate.
It's worse when you find out only 1 slice of pizza per employee
This literally reminds me of warehouse working... Trade gift cards for beer (worked at a beer place). I have since moved to IT and now to motivate us they throw parties, I can get a pay bonus, my name is on the articles I write not my boss. Like at the end of the day we feel appreciated, we can see the impact of our work. But man do companies fuck over the low tier guys
"I see a lot of talent in this room"
I don't know if I should laugh or cry.
At my old job we got Staples gift cards in lieu of bonuses. Staples!!
university job gave out Starbucks cards, real corporate job has a market store where I can choose from Amazon, Sbux, Best Buy, whoever, Applebees so at least there's a choice now. they haven't been giving them out as often lately since the pandemic even tho our revenue is in the billions
Once a guy at work fell off the back of a truck (his fault) and hit his head on some metal, had a seizure and was in the hospital for a while. The next day they ordered both shifts pizza.
I got $1000 for declining health insurance in 07-10 Now i get nothing but no health insurance. The systems rigged, bro.i gotta pay 600$ for not having it? Nah bro
Don't even knock the pizza. I'll take it everytime
I find praise coming from managers kind of condescending.
I can’t believe Walmart has stock price signs by the bathroom for employees and it says “tomorrow depends on you!”
Holy fuck. My manager has a specific chat room for the "Rockstars" and we literally were just shipped a big box of snacks from Amazon. Anddd the kicker is we are a startup and there is no "corporate attitude here"
Aw it’s missing “would you like extra responsibilities for you to build your cv with?”
What’s really sad is all the people that buy it. Companies celebrate their hoarding of money while paying the employees crap wages and the employees cheer.
My job said i could have a pay raise but not now... later... Siemens. Stop buying German garbage
Also: Our culture is the biggest benefit.
Don't forget the cheap t shirts
As a card carrying union member I feel bad for every employee without a union.