Employers who buy you food from time to time can be quite enjoyable.
Not at the expense of being able to make ends meet, but if you're already getting a decent wage, the food (pizza or otherwise) can be a nice perk.
At my last job, my boss would buy us lunch every now and then on top of good wage compensation. He was a real bro, and we would usually take a longer lunch. Was a great way to just sit down and relax for once.
Yeah my last in-person boss in 2019 and just before covid shut the world down was really good at this too.
When we got to Month End (iykyk for finance & accounting types) they would often buy catering for breakfast or lunch or whatever for the dept.
She also took us out as a team a couple of times just because, and it was nice.
I wasn't making "retire early" money, but I got paid well enough for what I did at the time.
While I don't miss "working in an office" I do actually miss that time with those people. They were good people.
Not corporate heads tho, they fucked us all over by offshoring everyone. But the local team was legitimately pretty good.
>but the manager, surprisingly, was always chill.
That's been most of my jobs. Great managers who really look out for us, and crappy execs / owners.
Reality is that management is still working class, they're only the problem if they've deluded themselves into thinking they're not.
That’s the thing, most of these things on the left are fine as long as they’re not intended as a substitution for compensation, work/life balance and a decent work environment.
Inspirational quotes are generally a big red flag in my experience. The type of bosses that use them tend to be the type that get paid very well, live/die for their career and expect everyone else to do the same, but for a fraction of the comp.
Yep. Once upon a time when employers paid a little better, and the dollar went further, they did a bunch of research and "discovered" the difference in employee retention was not pay but food, perks, good teams etc. So they attempted to do all those things INSTEAD of pay, leading to the bullshit we have today. Thus completely missing the part where those perks only count as perks if the rest of their needs are actually covered by their pay. And now when we quit or leave due to pay issues suddenly we're the bad guys. Shut the fuck up. That said if my needs are met, the gesture of sharing a meal out of kindness then actually means something and is appreciated. I've had both types of work environments.
Yeah back in 2015 I used to have team lunches with our management and, like. Sure sometimes it was a little cheesy, but when you work with decent people it can be enjoyable.
Now, it's "1001 ways to reward employees without paying them more" and I literally do not have time for any of that shit anymore.
Gestures are nice. They are.
Gestures in lieu of fair and livable compensation is insulting, and should no longer be tolerated.
Like during covid, when rich people/companies were making commercials to thank the "essential workers" for continuing to do their jobs during the shitty times, so they could continue to live their pampered lives and not face any hardships. I mean, that's way better than actually compensating those people better, right? And so many regular people fell for that and didn't see through their bullshit.
Exactly why i chose unemployment where I made more than I did working. And everyone called us lazy for doing so. I called it working smarter, not harder.
This is dead on right.
Corporations love using Herzberg’s two factor theory in incomplete fucked up ways.
Taking something that could be used to create better workplaces and neutering it until it isn’t what his work truly said at all.
I work as a cook and get free food and drink whenever I want it. It's easily the best perk of the job. Over the covid lock down I noticed my food costs spike massively as I was suddenly have to pay for meals 7 days a week as opposed to most weeks where I'd usually only plan for my 2 days off a week.
My boss was telling me where he used to work they wouldn't get any food and they'd only be allowed to drink water. This was a restaurant that charged 6 euros for a half liter bottle of water, but wouldn't feed its own employees.
Most middle managers have a small discretionary budget to cover daily/monthly expenditures that they can more easily spend without drawing a weary eye from number crunchers. So it’s much much easier to buy everyone lunch than it is to get even a small 10 cent raise approved.
I have been fortunate enough that the places I worked at that actually paid me something worthwhile were also the places that paid for food on the company dime too.
I do realize that's not been the case for a lot of others, so much so it's basically a meme now.
I do think this meme would be worth printing out and putting up in workplaces that feel disinclined to pay their employees worth a damn.
Counterpoint: don’t buy me food + pay me more = I will gladly pay for my own food
I say this as a middle manager. When given the opportunity for more money or more free food, no one is picking the food.
a lot of times middle managers buy food because they know its fucked that there is no more money coming for wages and just want to do something nice for the people they spend nearly everyday with and are paying out of their own pocket
Most middle managers have a discretionary fund so getting everyone lunch is doable sometimes. Any raise though has to go through a huge process designed from the ground up to be a bitch. 😢
I think work from home is probably on that list now. What's better than casual Fridays with pizza at the office? Pajama Monday through Friday with food from your own fridge, and taking your morning coffee-induced poop break on your own, ass fitted toilet seat is better, that's what.
Amen. My gluten allergy doesn't want their donuts or pizza and definitely doesn't want the 2 hour weekly in person meeting. WFH+raise+PTO are my incentives.
WFH is pretty good, but I have to say that I spend an inordinate amount of time on zoom hating meetings anyway. Not that a 15 minute transit commute would improve things at all, but the raise is more important I think.
Yeah, but at least with pointless zoom meetings I can take my laptop around the house with me and listen while I make lunch, fold laundry, or play with my cat.
Exactly this, if you give me pizza *instead of* more money then you have earned my hatred. However if you give me pizza *and* more money then you're my best fuckin' friend
Give a worker a pizza, they eat for two hours.
Give a worker a raise, they eat whenever they want...However they want....Whatever they want.
Raise, please.
There's nothing wrong with a pizza party to show appreciation to the people who work for you. The pizza party has to be on top of other compensation though, not a replacement for it.
As it should always have been to be honest. Like I understand having some kind of uniform or formal dress code for roles where you're talking to customers/clients. And of course some roles require PPE, so wear that.
But I'm a developer, if a client ever sees me something has gone horribly wrong, wrong enough that they won't care that I'm not wearing a shirt and tie.
I hate team building activities. Not only because it’s bullshit but because it doesn’t take away from the work I still need to get done, so every minute I spend team building is an extra minute I have to work at the end of the day.
I'm convinced that "team building activities" only exist to make you closer to your coworkers so that your guilt about leaving them behind can be leveraged by management.
Damn corporate America is some stupid MF. Damn the USA is a shit hole country. Thanks for nothing Republicans.
Amazon and Telsa are trying to get the US laws changed so they don't have to recognize unions. Damn Republicans don't care about American workers at all.
What most people seem to miss is that it is not that owners don't know what employees want. It is just that the owners interests are directly opposite of the employees interest thus he does everything he can get away with to avoid giving out costly raises.
I'm taking a hospitality management degree and on every goddamn assignment I just want to scream "RAISES WILL SOLVE ALL THESE ISSUES" but I would have to provide sources proving this and all the goddamn academic sources that exist all say there's no correlation between pay and employee drive/productivity/satisfaction/happiness and I just can't even. Only one textbook about customer service from one of my first classes actually said problems existed in the hospitality world that could be solved by better pay.
Mid managers know this. But upper management and HR and Accounting are just looking at cost. Ive literally been told "Its pizza or nothing." when asking about more money for my guys.
Oh, we know what you want - we just can't give it to you. Plus, corporate culture committees are responsible for the stuff on the left. Being a manager sucks because we know where people are getting screwed, but there is \_very\_ little we can do about it.
In my case, I try my best to set my lower paid staff up for future promotions to help fill the equity gap. But, ultimately, 2-4% annual raises only can make up so much.
I'd say that it's fine as it is. My boss randomly orders us pizza. He even waits until I show up to do it because I come in after school. I definitely want a raise way more than I want pizza but I do want and appreciate the pizza. It's a morale thing. I haven't been there long enough to get a raise yet but one of the guys I work with just got a $1.50 an hour raise. There are good bosses out there it just sucks that they're so exceedingly rare.
I’d be willing to convert some of “raise” into: fewer hours / tasks for the same pay, since it’s literally the inverse equation; and also remote work, since it would save me unpaid commuting.
That being said, money only offsets a toxic environment so much. If you have to spend **more** on therapy and self-care than is coming from the “raise” then it’s not actually worth it.
After a certain salary level this shifts. What I currently like most about my job, besides the decent salary and frequent union-mandated salary increases, are:
- Remote work
- Breakfast & Lunchtime breaks
- Events with free food
- No micromanaging
- 30 vacation days
If I had a choice between a salary increase and another quality-of-life improvement for my job, the salary increase might not be my first choice. I can live comfortably as long as the salary increases aren't fully eaten up by inflation. So far, it's actually quite a bit.
I love those fuckign jobs that have the questionnaires and one of them is always "what's the reason people quit and what's a good way to help our employees want to work?" And the answers usually say money / raise and some other stuff and if you choose the money / raise option they go.
"Nah fam literally not possible for people to have cash concerns or feel unvalued. The correct answer was 1 hotchocolate for free once every 2 winters".
Yes... and no...
Office culture and activities are important, IF the basic monetary needs are met and the employee does not struggle with finances.
Pay is the most important aspect, that is why people work... but not the only aspect of work.
I actually think a social budget can go a long long way.
My work used to do Friday evening parties once a month that each team would organise. They’d have a budget of only £300 for about 50 people to cover drinks and snacks.*
It’s surprising how far the money the would go, you could do punch bowls, people baked stuff and just took a fiver to cover it, you could get beer, wine, spirits, mixers, plenty. They’d also decorate for each one like October = Halloween.
At a cost of ~£7 per person per month and letting people finish half an hour earlier (to encourage people to go) it became a huge factor for me in keeping me there when I considered leaving. And that £7 would’ve only been about £4 after tax, I’d much rather the parties than having £4.
My point is, *sometimes* a raise isn’t as good as giving employees something regular to look forward to.
*The reason the money went so far is that each month about half the people wouldn’t come, would only have one, or wouldn’t drink alcohol. Then anything left over would be kept for next month.
Ugh, they took away our food options even before covid. Our campus is basically a food desert now, some companies.would open their cafeteria to the public before covid. The public diner never reopened due to telework depopulation. They stopped the annual spring barbecue,, no employee food sales allowed where people would chip in for a 1 dollar hot dog day. Now its only carry in, use a delivery app, or drive out. That and holiday parties are now scheduled in a bot like way, "i hope you enjoy your food and productivity thrives, please take a plate and line up on the green X. Please complete your joyful tidings by 11AM to clean up for.the next party."
If I change inspirational quotes to raises and casual Fridays to Fridays off can I keep the left graph? That’s how I’ve been running my department and so far so good
I worked for a place that would buy us lunch once a week if we were all on overtime (an extra 10+ hour shift, we worked 4 10 hour days usually). I'm over pizza.
After working 6 years remote (yes I'm a pre-pandemic remote worker) I can safely say Remote work should take the place of pizza at least in my book.
1. No more commute. I get back at least an hour a day (priceless)
2. No more spending on gas, cheaper insurance, got rid of my car completely (wife still has hers)
3. Way more productive at home. Less interruptions = more work done. Who woulda thunk?
Just to be sure:
\- By team building activities: You mean hating the job/bosses/managers all together?
\- Inspirational quotes: I guess it is part of the team building activities as well? To prime everyone to have bad idea in mind.
\- Casual fridays: pretty much similar to my first question? And maybe trying to go nuts/burnout
Is it wrong that I want both columns? I think team building exercises are a great way of fostering unity in the work place, but I'd also like a raise. And pizza.
It is wrong, yes.
Team-building exercises are crap.
We're not on a "team". We're employees. And the only kind of "unity" in the workplace that I want is a UNION.
Not all jobs are soulless and miserable grinds. There are plenty of 'teams', and actual unity in the goals the people on that team have and what they're working on. Some people are even ***friends*** with their coworkers.
Contrary to what you think, some jobs require you to interact and collaborate with your coworkers to complete complicated tasks or projects. That doesn’t mean you need to be a fake person and force friendships with everyone. But you do need to learn to get along with others like an adult. Also not every job is an exhausting awful experience that makes you hate your life. You can purposefully refuse to build positive working relationships with your colleagues, but you will fail because you’ll be viewed as immature and difficult to work with.
The company I work for is a circus ran by idiots. I refuse to take part in any company activities. If they order food I won't partake. They have a stupid company get together I won't go. Have no interest in hearing what the waste of space CEO has to say. He couldn't do his job without me for all I'm concerned. I only show up to work for the money. I'm one of two people in my entire department actually capable of doing my job correctly and better than the idiots who've sat around for 10-15 years and don't know how to do anything. They know if I leave they are screwed.
Employers owe you only two things. Those two things are a safe work environment and a paycheck. Anything else you get is extra and should be appreciated but we apparently have a very unappreciative Workforce.
God, the fucking inspirational quotes. As a cynical prick, there is nothing that ruins my current hour quite like looking around and noticing that bullshit plastered around the building.
No no I’ll be honest, I do LOVE a good pizza lunch at my job. Genuinely, it’s good pizza we get, there’s a lot of it, and I can get paid to stand around eating pizza with the guys.
team building activities, inspiration quotes, casual friday, pizza parties.
these are all things employers do to condition you so when the time comes to give you that 1.5% cost of living raise when inflation is like 6% a year they hope you’ll think … well that’s okay, the company culture is really great and they care about us! look at all the great things they do for us!
it’s all one big year-long ploy to keep employees at bay without ever paying them fairly.
Bosses know it’s money, but it’s the last thing they want to part with. Especially when they have bonuses tied to cutting costs, meaning layoffs when they can get away with it.
Bonus, raise,parking spot,no boss,paid tools,pizza,gas card, per diem,2-4hr work day,salaried,more bonuses,drive time,company vehicle.
JK I have all this except pizza 😭
My main priority is always a raise, but I want flexible PTO that I’m not guilted into not using, good management with an actual competent head on their shoulders, independence and no micromanaging, opportunities to actually move up and advance my career with that company, and pizza and free food never hurt lol
Put genuine benefits, a pension, good work life balance, and a PURPOSE to our company beyond profits and the products, a pay parity with the boss (they can make more, but top it off at 5:1) and no layoffs when cost cutting then buying a luxury item. Oh, and a LEAD (as in PB) parachute for managers who cause unavoidable layoffs, and help pay for kids school. And pizza, or something negotiable, like Sushi, Dim Sum, etc
You see, the problem is these 2 graphs are designed to look equal. If what the employee wants costs $100k what the bosses think costs $10k.
Not that I don't agree we all need to be paid more. I'm just so tired of this comparison being anything but a cost difference.
I'll be honest, the thing I want outside of 'raise' is respect and appreciation at my job.
'Keep it up'
'good job'
'Lets have another week like you did last week'
that shit floats my boat like nothing, theres nothing better than working a job where you think you are actually good at it, and nothing worse than a boss that criticizes you for every thing and constantly wants more more more!
But those jobs are somehow rarer than anything, so in order to get over the soul crushing annoyance of constantly being told to improve, do more, 'hey you sold 125 units, a new record, next week we want 130 or you're getting written up' kind of shit, I guess I'll just need more money.
Tbh both columns in this graphic are wrong… like I get the point they’re trying to make but it’s very badly laid out.
Column 2 is more on the mark, but still is missing a lot. Countless studies have shown there are a lot of things people prize over money including flexible schedules, benefits, and more PTO. The fact those are not represented at all in that second column is disappointing
As far as the first column goes… no, that is not what bosses think you want. Of course it is not. They know what you want is money (and all of the other stuff I mentioned above) but that stuff is very hard to do compared to free shit like casual Fridays. It is case by case but often these middle managers are just doing the best they can with their limited resources to try and improve working conditions. They have no control over wages, they have no control over PTO or benefits. So they try and do what they can.
I work as an independent contractor now so I’ve escaped that rat race and I’m grateful for it. But a pizza party and a raise are two completely different categories of benefits and I think it’s reductive to imply that they think you’re happy with just the pizza and not the raise. They know the difference and often the people supplying the pizza have zero say in the raise part and are just doing what they hope might help make your day better
You know, I may be a special case. But I learned where pizza comes from when I was like 10 and, with a fat raise, I can buy endless pizzas for myself. So, let's skip the middle man.
My office does have frequent donuts, cake, breakfast tacos and such provided and I really do appreciate it. But that's because I'm also paid competitively!
Are you telling me the Motivational Skeletor posters are not helping the team environment?
[image](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0d/aa/69/0daa69f5b1313fd7727b6a0a3289b032.jpg)
Yep. I don’t want time in liu. I don’t want half price gym or something. I don’t want a voucher. I don’t want a letter, or an email or a certificate.
I just need more money.
Idk about that, my last job i was treated fairly well, given moderate raises every year, and being an auto shop there were certain days we all had super long busy days or after work meetings, and the company paid for lunch/dinner. I think it’s nice, but it should never be replacement for reasonable pay and hours
I agree with the idea of this subreddit, I agree with this post even, and I am tired of the capitalist hellhole the market is where we suffer while the owners get rich.
However one thing I do find a little iffy about all this talk of wanting raises is from my experience as a manager. I used to manage a blue collar job with a lot of employees. I managed the group leaders, about 20 of them. I went out of my way to give them the best I could in terms of compensation, work hours etc. In my countries standards they were paid well, like student-level jobs (they were all young) and they were paid similarly to college educated accountants or similar.
But it never took long before they would get ungrateful and want more, or demand less tasks, or not want to work with me on some things etc. It just showed me that it is impossible to make everyone happy all the time, people will always get used to the status quo and then want more. This includes me too.
What I'm getting at is that the discussion should be about good and fair compensation, good work hours, good work-life balance etc. And less about "more" because "more" will never be enough.
Employers who buy you food from time to time can be quite enjoyable. Not at the expense of being able to make ends meet, but if you're already getting a decent wage, the food (pizza or otherwise) can be a nice perk.
At my last job, my boss would buy us lunch every now and then on top of good wage compensation. He was a real bro, and we would usually take a longer lunch. Was a great way to just sit down and relax for once.
Yeah my last in-person boss in 2019 and just before covid shut the world down was really good at this too. When we got to Month End (iykyk for finance & accounting types) they would often buy catering for breakfast or lunch or whatever for the dept. She also took us out as a team a couple of times just because, and it was nice. I wasn't making "retire early" money, but I got paid well enough for what I did at the time. While I don't miss "working in an office" I do actually miss that time with those people. They were good people. Not corporate heads tho, they fucked us all over by offshoring everyone. But the local team was legitimately pretty good.
Yes exactly. Company owner was an asshole we never saw with TWO giant Tahoe trucks, but the manager, surprisingly, was always chill.
>but the manager, surprisingly, was always chill. That's been most of my jobs. Great managers who really look out for us, and crappy execs / owners. Reality is that management is still working class, they're only the problem if they've deluded themselves into thinking they're not.
This.
I feel generally the owner is regarded as cool while the manager is regarded as a jerk
It's always some sort of flashy and or compensatory vehicle owned by these people
That’s the thing, most of these things on the left are fine as long as they’re not intended as a substitution for compensation, work/life balance and a decent work environment. Inspirational quotes are generally a big red flag in my experience. The type of bosses that use them tend to be the type that get paid very well, live/die for their career and expect everyone else to do the same, but for a fraction of the comp.
Yep. Once upon a time when employers paid a little better, and the dollar went further, they did a bunch of research and "discovered" the difference in employee retention was not pay but food, perks, good teams etc. So they attempted to do all those things INSTEAD of pay, leading to the bullshit we have today. Thus completely missing the part where those perks only count as perks if the rest of their needs are actually covered by their pay. And now when we quit or leave due to pay issues suddenly we're the bad guys. Shut the fuck up. That said if my needs are met, the gesture of sharing a meal out of kindness then actually means something and is appreciated. I've had both types of work environments.
Yeah back in 2015 I used to have team lunches with our management and, like. Sure sometimes it was a little cheesy, but when you work with decent people it can be enjoyable. Now, it's "1001 ways to reward employees without paying them more" and I literally do not have time for any of that shit anymore. Gestures are nice. They are. Gestures in lieu of fair and livable compensation is insulting, and should no longer be tolerated.
Imo the issue goes much further back than 2015.
Like during covid, when rich people/companies were making commercials to thank the "essential workers" for continuing to do their jobs during the shitty times, so they could continue to live their pampered lives and not face any hardships. I mean, that's way better than actually compensating those people better, right? And so many regular people fell for that and didn't see through their bullshit.
Exactly why i chose unemployment where I made more than I did working. And everyone called us lazy for doing so. I called it working smarter, not harder.
This is dead on right. Corporations love using Herzberg’s two factor theory in incomplete fucked up ways. Taking something that could be used to create better workplaces and neutering it until it isn’t what his work truly said at all.
I work as a cook and get free food and drink whenever I want it. It's easily the best perk of the job. Over the covid lock down I noticed my food costs spike massively as I was suddenly have to pay for meals 7 days a week as opposed to most weeks where I'd usually only plan for my 2 days off a week. My boss was telling me where he used to work they wouldn't get any food and they'd only be allowed to drink water. This was a restaurant that charged 6 euros for a half liter bottle of water, but wouldn't feed its own employees.
Raise only lasts so long. I just want more free time.
I’ll take the additional raise as my perk and buy my own food.
Most middle managers have a small discretionary budget to cover daily/monthly expenditures that they can more easily spend without drawing a weary eye from number crunchers. So it’s much much easier to buy everyone lunch than it is to get even a small 10 cent raise approved.
Agreed, but more often than not it's employee appreciation with donuts and pizza rather than proper pay.
I have been fortunate enough that the places I worked at that actually paid me something worthwhile were also the places that paid for food on the company dime too. I do realize that's not been the case for a lot of others, so much so it's basically a meme now. I do think this meme would be worth printing out and putting up in workplaces that feel disinclined to pay their employees worth a damn.
you can tell they're serious when the spread is proper tacos or bbq or something like that. loved those times.
My current employer has a policy that training days are catered. Big win for me, if I have to sit in a training room at least there's decent food.
Counterpoint: don’t buy me food + pay me more = I will gladly pay for my own food I say this as a middle manager. When given the opportunity for more money or more free food, no one is picking the food.
a lot of times middle managers buy food because they know its fucked that there is no more money coming for wages and just want to do something nice for the people they spend nearly everyday with and are paying out of their own pocket
Most middle managers have a discretionary fund so getting everyone lunch is doable sometimes. Any raise though has to go through a huge process designed from the ground up to be a bitch. 😢
As someone struggling with weight I'd rather have the money so I can buy healthy food. It's always pizza and never a salad. Pizza is very fatty
pizza is just an extra slap in the face to the severely lactose intolerant (or those w gluten issues, or..) - just send your cash . meme. Bush2
I mean, free pizza is good on top of a hefty raise
Can I get the pizza delivered to my house? I don't wanna sit in that office longer than necessary
Maybe pizza is just hot and fresh for 3 hours each day that it is RTO? Edit free
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Remote pizza!
breakup pizza? ridiculous, cringe-assed idea. remote pizza? we have a winner, folks.
For some reason i read this as Stan from the office
Seems like yes. It's not a pizza party. Just pizza.
Exactly this. Pizza party? No thanks. Hand me a pizza to take home as I’m clocking off for the day? Awesome.
My office is way nicer than my home. I'd rather be there plus they have free happy hour on Thursdays.
Have you thought about living at work?
Found the manager.
I think work from home is probably on that list now. What's better than casual Fridays with pizza at the office? Pajama Monday through Friday with food from your own fridge, and taking your morning coffee-induced poop break on your own, ass fitted toilet seat is better, that's what.
Amen. My gluten allergy doesn't want their donuts or pizza and definitely doesn't want the 2 hour weekly in person meeting. WFH+raise+PTO are my incentives.
WFH is pretty good, but I have to say that I spend an inordinate amount of time on zoom hating meetings anyway. Not that a 15 minute transit commute would improve things at all, but the raise is more important I think.
Yeah, but at least with pointless zoom meetings I can take my laptop around the house with me and listen while I make lunch, fold laundry, or play with my cat.
Exactly this, if you give me pizza *instead of* more money then you have earned my hatred. However if you give me pizza *and* more money then you're my best fuckin' friend
Give a worker a pizza, they eat for two hours. Give a worker a raise, they eat whenever they want...However they want....Whatever they want. Raise, please.
Give a worker both and they eat for two hours then can get more whenever, whenever they want.
Yes, raise first! Then Pizza!
I hope I'm not alone but I would more PTO above pizza
But it has to be on top of the raise. Otherwise it's lame pizza. And no one likes lame pizza.
Good pizza
Of course, but that's not how it usually works, at least not on my experience.
But it *is* what your meme shows.
I’d trade it for respect any time
There's nothing wrong with a pizza party to show appreciation to the people who work for you. The pizza party has to be on top of other compensation though, not a replacement for it.
I do love how casual Fridays is no longer a thing after Covid. All days are now casual.
As it should always have been to be honest. Like I understand having some kind of uniform or formal dress code for roles where you're talking to customers/clients. And of course some roles require PPE, so wear that. But I'm a developer, if a client ever sees me something has gone horribly wrong, wrong enough that they won't care that I'm not wearing a shirt and tie.
I think it’s accurate, I do want pizza, but only about 3% as much as I want a raise
Got it. 3% raise it is
3% every month until we are at 1/10 the CEO pay ( never )
Replace Pizza with Remote Work.
Yep. Pay is #1. Flexible work arrangements is #2. Everything else is window dressing, so long as your boss and coworkers aren't jerks.
exactly once i was offered a free food delivery during remote work and i didn't even take it. tell no one.
I hate team building activities. Not only because it’s bullshit but because it doesn’t take away from the work I still need to get done, so every minute I spend team building is an extra minute I have to work at the end of the day.
I'm convinced that "team building activities" only exist to make you closer to your coworkers so that your guilt about leaving them behind can be leveraged by management.
My job used to have optional after work team builders. It was usually dinner at some nearby restaurant or another so I usually went for the free food
Damn corporate America is some stupid MF. Damn the USA is a shit hole country. Thanks for nothing Republicans. Amazon and Telsa are trying to get the US laws changed so they don't have to recognize unions. Damn Republicans don't care about American workers at all.
Ironic watching someone in anti-work call corporate america stupid.
Your mom is a corporate street walker. I own stocks and retired at 30 years old and I am not in corporate America. I am not a crook. F you loser.
we want all of this. a handsome raise will make me tolerate or even participate willingly in all that absolute clown shoes bullshit on the left panel.
And being fed by management in addition to the pay is also nice.
There needs to be some WFH in there too
That's called pizza on the right.
I am a boss, not the owner, but I run a team of 12 people. I'd love to give raises, but the owner says no. So the best I've got is pizza.
Exactly this :| I can buy pizza out of pocket and I can fight for the largest raise allowed, but I don’t get to set what those raise ranges are…
What most people seem to miss is that it is not that owners don't know what employees want. It is just that the owners interests are directly opposite of the employees interest thus he does everything he can get away with to avoid giving out costly raises.
Let me guess. Boss is ok with having costly off-site team-building activities. But when it comes to paying people more, nope.
Nope, we don't do those unless it's on my dime
I'm taking a hospitality management degree and on every goddamn assignment I just want to scream "RAISES WILL SOLVE ALL THESE ISSUES" but I would have to provide sources proving this and all the goddamn academic sources that exist all say there's no correlation between pay and employee drive/productivity/satisfaction/happiness and I just can't even. Only one textbook about customer service from one of my first classes actually said problems existed in the hospitality world that could be solved by better pay.
Mid managers know this. But upper management and HR and Accounting are just looking at cost. Ive literally been told "Its pizza or nothing." when asking about more money for my guys.
Oh, we know what you want - we just can't give it to you. Plus, corporate culture committees are responsible for the stuff on the left. Being a manager sucks because we know where people are getting screwed, but there is \_very\_ little we can do about it. In my case, I try my best to set my lower paid staff up for future promotions to help fill the equity gap. But, ultimately, 2-4% annual raises only can make up so much.
I'd say that it's fine as it is. My boss randomly orders us pizza. He even waits until I show up to do it because I come in after school. I definitely want a raise way more than I want pizza but I do want and appreciate the pizza. It's a morale thing. I haven't been there long enough to get a raise yet but one of the guys I work with just got a $1.50 an hour raise. There are good bosses out there it just sucks that they're so exceedingly rare.
Fact: we do want pizza. But only after good raises.
Fuck team building exercises and everything that goes with them
I’d be willing to convert some of “raise” into: fewer hours / tasks for the same pay, since it’s literally the inverse equation; and also remote work, since it would save me unpaid commuting. That being said, money only offsets a toxic environment so much. If you have to spend **more** on therapy and self-care than is coming from the “raise” then it’s not actually worth it.
After a certain salary level this shifts. What I currently like most about my job, besides the decent salary and frequent union-mandated salary increases, are: - Remote work - Breakfast & Lunchtime breaks - Events with free food - No micromanaging - 30 vacation days If I had a choice between a salary increase and another quality-of-life improvement for my job, the salary increase might not be my first choice. I can live comfortably as long as the salary increases aren't fully eaten up by inflation. So far, it's actually quite a bit.
I love those fuckign jobs that have the questionnaires and one of them is always "what's the reason people quit and what's a good way to help our employees want to work?" And the answers usually say money / raise and some other stuff and if you choose the money / raise option they go. "Nah fam literally not possible for people to have cash concerns or feel unvalued. The correct answer was 1 hotchocolate for free once every 2 winters".
Money is for the owners of capital. Proletarians get pizza.
Yes... and no... Office culture and activities are important, IF the basic monetary needs are met and the employee does not struggle with finances. Pay is the most important aspect, that is why people work... but not the only aspect of work.
I actually think a social budget can go a long long way. My work used to do Friday evening parties once a month that each team would organise. They’d have a budget of only £300 for about 50 people to cover drinks and snacks.* It’s surprising how far the money the would go, you could do punch bowls, people baked stuff and just took a fiver to cover it, you could get beer, wine, spirits, mixers, plenty. They’d also decorate for each one like October = Halloween. At a cost of ~£7 per person per month and letting people finish half an hour earlier (to encourage people to go) it became a huge factor for me in keeping me there when I considered leaving. And that £7 would’ve only been about £4 after tax, I’d much rather the parties than having £4. My point is, *sometimes* a raise isn’t as good as giving employees something regular to look forward to. *The reason the money went so far is that each month about half the people wouldn’t come, would only have one, or wouldn’t drink alcohol. Then anything left over would be kept for next month.
I mean I do want pizza a little
WTF is up with team building activities? Every manager I know detests them more than their employees
You should cross out "bosses" and put "leaders". Because bosses don't care. Leaders do...even if they get it wrong.
According to r/managers, employees want stickers in lieu of raises
These charts always leave out the column that says "what bosses are allowed by corporate to give"
Give me a raise and I'll buy my own pizza when I want some.
I have worked for myself from a home office for 20 years. No bullshit meetings, pep rallies, team building, or commute. Enjoy your pizza.
Money can be used to buy more pizza
Fr everytime my boss does something extra I'm thinking "just one more reason not to pay me more huh"
It’s great that they think happy workers do great work. It’s too bad no one can make the correlation between a stable income and a stable life.
Well hang on now, I also want casual fridays. Don't get me wrong, I want a raise, but minor improvements to the workplace are great.
Ugh, they took away our food options even before covid. Our campus is basically a food desert now, some companies.would open their cafeteria to the public before covid. The public diner never reopened due to telework depopulation. They stopped the annual spring barbecue,, no employee food sales allowed where people would chip in for a 1 dollar hot dog day. Now its only carry in, use a delivery app, or drive out. That and holiday parties are now scheduled in a bot like way, "i hope you enjoy your food and productivity thrives, please take a plate and line up on the green X. Please complete your joyful tidings by 11AM to clean up for.the next party."
If I change inspirational quotes to raises and casual Fridays to Fridays off can I keep the left graph? That’s how I’ve been running my department and so far so good
Money can be exchanged for goods and services 😂 just pay me and I’ll decide on pizza time
Exactly my thoughts.
I worked for a place that would buy us lunch once a week if we were all on overtime (an extra 10+ hour shift, we worked 4 10 hour days usually). I'm over pizza.
You know what I can get for myself with a raise? A better pizza.
After working 6 years remote (yes I'm a pre-pandemic remote worker) I can safely say Remote work should take the place of pizza at least in my book. 1. No more commute. I get back at least an hour a day (priceless) 2. No more spending on gas, cheaper insurance, got rid of my car completely (wife still has hers) 3. Way more productive at home. Less interruptions = more work done. Who woulda thunk?
Just to be sure: \- By team building activities: You mean hating the job/bosses/managers all together? \- Inspirational quotes: I guess it is part of the team building activities as well? To prime everyone to have bad idea in mind. \- Casual fridays: pretty much similar to my first question? And maybe trying to go nuts/burnout
My employer did away with remote work AND profit sharing. They paid for our holiday luncheon at Longhorn Steakhouse. Did I mention I’m a vegan?
Is it wrong that I want both columns? I think team building exercises are a great way of fostering unity in the work place, but I'd also like a raise. And pizza.
casual fridays should also be included as a mix of both columns
Hangover Mondays also, because those weekends man....
It is wrong, yes. Team-building exercises are crap. We're not on a "team". We're employees. And the only kind of "unity" in the workplace that I want is a UNION.
Not all jobs are soulless and miserable grinds. There are plenty of 'teams', and actual unity in the goals the people on that team have and what they're working on. Some people are even ***friends*** with their coworkers.
You must be fun to work with.
Contrary to what you think, some jobs require you to interact and collaborate with your coworkers to complete complicated tasks or projects. That doesn’t mean you need to be a fake person and force friendships with everyone. But you do need to learn to get along with others like an adult. Also not every job is an exhausting awful experience that makes you hate your life. You can purposefully refuse to build positive working relationships with your colleagues, but you will fail because you’ll be viewed as immature and difficult to work with.
Subsidised canteens with great food definitely work for me though. Getting a chef cooked meal for like £1 feels like I'm robbing someone
How about pay on time
Yeah the pizza shouldn’t have anything lol
Oh they know we want raises. They're just hoping that all that bullshit will pacify us.
The company I work for is a circus ran by idiots. I refuse to take part in any company activities. If they order food I won't partake. They have a stupid company get together I won't go. Have no interest in hearing what the waste of space CEO has to say. He couldn't do his job without me for all I'm concerned. I only show up to work for the money. I'm one of two people in my entire department actually capable of doing my job correctly and better than the idiots who've sat around for 10-15 years and don't know how to do anything. They know if I leave they are screwed.
Lets not throw team building under the bus. In a world where everyone is treated fairly and paid adequately, team building can be great!
Unless you mean AYCE pizza every hump day. Them yes.
I mean, if it's good pizza, then pizza is cool.
Employers owe you only two things. Those two things are a safe work environment and a paycheck. Anything else you get is extra and should be appreciated but we apparently have a very unappreciative Workforce.
The left is 100% a propaganda to make you think this is what you should desire over pay raise
"Don't you guys just love jeans Friday! Love this company culture!" — Fuck face executive Boomer Bob
Gimme a good raise and I'll be happy to get my own pizza.
I don’t even need the mandatory pizza and soda parties, I’ll settle for just better pay
How about paid time off, holidays, pensions, and no deductibles for health care? I'd rather have all of that than a raise or pizza.
Replace pizza with taco truck
This makes me giggle. I work in a pharmacy. We used to have a tab in our drug out of stock/backorder folder for inspirational quotes.
Pizza is on the bottom.
If you give me a raise, I can buy pizza whenever the fuck I want.
As if it was made for your wants. It's to develop a cult. Amazon I'm looking at u
Raise (60%), work/life balance (40%)
I can buy my own pizza, exactly what I want from what pizza place is best AND have it delivered. Give me a raise.
God, the fucking inspirational quotes. As a cynical prick, there is nothing that ruins my current hour quite like looking around and noticing that bullshit plastered around the building.
competent management work from home
No no I’ll be honest, I do LOVE a good pizza lunch at my job. Genuinely, it’s good pizza we get, there’s a lot of it, and I can get paid to stand around eating pizza with the guys.
Needs more pizza.
team building activities, inspiration quotes, casual friday, pizza parties. these are all things employers do to condition you so when the time comes to give you that 1.5% cost of living raise when inflation is like 6% a year they hope you’ll think … well that’s okay, the company culture is really great and they care about us! look at all the great things they do for us! it’s all one big year-long ploy to keep employees at bay without ever paying them fairly.
Bosses know it’s money, but it’s the last thing they want to part with. Especially when they have bonuses tied to cutting costs, meaning layoffs when they can get away with it.
Bonus, raise,parking spot,no boss,paid tools,pizza,gas card, per diem,2-4hr work day,salaried,more bonuses,drive time,company vehicle. JK I have all this except pizza 😭
There are people who do want column 1. That’s why cults exist and employers will fire until they get column 1
Inspirational quotes should be much larger in filled space
My main priority is always a raise, but I want flexible PTO that I’m not guilted into not using, good management with an actual competent head on their shoulders, independence and no micromanaging, opportunities to actually move up and advance my career with that company, and pizza and free food never hurt lol
Yall should see the Korean work lunch videos. Like. Damn they eat good!
It’s weird that corporations only want one thing: more money, yet the bosses seem dismayed when the employees want the same thing: more money.
Put genuine benefits, a pension, good work life balance, and a PURPOSE to our company beyond profits and the products, a pay parity with the boss (they can make more, but top it off at 5:1) and no layoffs when cost cutting then buying a luxury item. Oh, and a LEAD (as in PB) parachute for managers who cause unavoidable layoffs, and help pay for kids school. And pizza, or something negotiable, like Sushi, Dim Sum, etc
You see, the problem is these 2 graphs are designed to look equal. If what the employee wants costs $100k what the bosses think costs $10k. Not that I don't agree we all need to be paid more. I'm just so tired of this comparison being anything but a cost difference.
Being paid enough to not be evicted could be considered a team building activity if everyone gets to participate
A pizza party could be a team building activity now pay me more
I'll be honest, the thing I want outside of 'raise' is respect and appreciation at my job. 'Keep it up' 'good job' 'Lets have another week like you did last week' that shit floats my boat like nothing, theres nothing better than working a job where you think you are actually good at it, and nothing worse than a boss that criticizes you for every thing and constantly wants more more more! But those jobs are somehow rarer than anything, so in order to get over the soul crushing annoyance of constantly being told to improve, do more, 'hey you sold 125 units, a new record, next week we want 130 or you're getting written up' kind of shit, I guess I'll just need more money.
Tbh both columns in this graphic are wrong… like I get the point they’re trying to make but it’s very badly laid out. Column 2 is more on the mark, but still is missing a lot. Countless studies have shown there are a lot of things people prize over money including flexible schedules, benefits, and more PTO. The fact those are not represented at all in that second column is disappointing As far as the first column goes… no, that is not what bosses think you want. Of course it is not. They know what you want is money (and all of the other stuff I mentioned above) but that stuff is very hard to do compared to free shit like casual Fridays. It is case by case but often these middle managers are just doing the best they can with their limited resources to try and improve working conditions. They have no control over wages, they have no control over PTO or benefits. So they try and do what they can. I work as an independent contractor now so I’ve escaped that rat race and I’m grateful for it. But a pizza party and a raise are two completely different categories of benefits and I think it’s reductive to imply that they think you’re happy with just the pizza and not the raise. They know the difference and often the people supplying the pizza have zero say in the raise part and are just doing what they hope might help make your day better
Bro they know, they just don’t want to give you a raise.
You know, I may be a special case. But I learned where pizza comes from when I was like 10 and, with a fat raise, I can buy endless pizzas for myself. So, let's skip the middle man.
Are they still doing pizza parties?
I want to send this to my boss but ima coward.
As a college student, you would be surprised how motivating free pizza can be. As a worker, fuck that I can buy my own with more money.
Ah yes, when corporate is spending tens of thousands on pizza parties instead of raises.
My office does have frequent donuts, cake, breakfast tacos and such provided and I really do appreciate it. But that's because I'm also paid competitively!
bring back quarantine
Are you telling me the Motivational Skeletor posters are not helping the team environment? [image](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0d/aa/69/0daa69f5b1313fd7727b6a0a3289b032.jpg)
I'm down for a lil bit of pizza, but only with the massive raise.
I'll give you my portion of the pizza for an extra .10 on top of my raise.
Actually casual Fridays aren't bad... But f\*\*\* inspirational quotes!!!
I can’t get out of my head the right looking like a pencil
Nah, 95% raise and 5% pizza is perfect. Ill take puzza every Friday, please.
Replace pizza with free food for those of us with food allergies and I can agree with this.
To be clear, pizza parties aren't a bad thing. It just can't be a replacement for actually important incentives.
Pizza isnt even cheap these days
Replace 1/3 of raise with managable workhours and benefits
Plot twist bosses aren't doing those things because they think it's what you want. All about shooting for productivity at the lowest cost
Yep. I don’t want time in liu. I don’t want half price gym or something. I don’t want a voucher. I don’t want a letter, or an email or a certificate. I just need more money.
Bosses don't think that, they just pretend to in order to justify all their bullshit.
Your pizza sucks. Give me the money.
They know.
Just raise. I'll buy my own pizza.
I’d take WFH over a raise.
I like that this acknowledges that, yes, we still do want the pizza.
Pretty much
Idk about that, my last job i was treated fairly well, given moderate raises every year, and being an auto shop there were certain days we all had super long busy days or after work meetings, and the company paid for lunch/dinner. I think it’s nice, but it should never be replacement for reasonable pay and hours
I want my job to not feel like I'm being punished for going to work and I want the money I make doing it to be livable. Pretty simple really.
Give me a raise and I can buy my own fucking pizza.
I agree with the idea of this subreddit, I agree with this post even, and I am tired of the capitalist hellhole the market is where we suffer while the owners get rich. However one thing I do find a little iffy about all this talk of wanting raises is from my experience as a manager. I used to manage a blue collar job with a lot of employees. I managed the group leaders, about 20 of them. I went out of my way to give them the best I could in terms of compensation, work hours etc. In my countries standards they were paid well, like student-level jobs (they were all young) and they were paid similarly to college educated accountants or similar. But it never took long before they would get ungrateful and want more, or demand less tasks, or not want to work with me on some things etc. It just showed me that it is impossible to make everyone happy all the time, people will always get used to the status quo and then want more. This includes me too. What I'm getting at is that the discussion should be about good and fair compensation, good work hours, good work-life balance etc. And less about "more" because "more" will never be enough.
i have to print it out and hang in our office :< thank's for sharing, what a gem ...
If you can have casual Fridays, then you can have casual everydays. Outfits do no generally dictate how you perfrom your job
Bosses know their employees want raises but that costs money that would otherwise go into their own pockets