Community Chat

[esmerelda]

@Laura14Sorry to hear you were less than pleased with a token Christmas gift from your employer.  As you've seen many here get nothing.

I thought you'd left that job...from your post in the Empowerment thread...but see now that you haven't.  And you haven't told them you're leaving, because...as mindreaders...they should be able to tell you're unhappy. 

Are you required to give some kind of notice?  Or is there contract that you won't agree to renew?

Happy to see the posts by those grateful for what they have without feeling they are owed more.

[CelticCrafter]

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@esmerelda wrote:

Sorry to hear you were less than pleased with a token Christmas gift from your employer.  As you've seen many here get nothing.

I thought you'd left that job...from your post in the Empowerment thread...but see now that you haven't.  And you haven't told them you're leaving, because...as mindreaders...they should be able to tell you're unhappy. 

Are you required to give some kind of notice?  Or is there contract that you won't agree to renew?

Happy to see the posts by those grateful for what they have without feeling they are owed more.

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@esmerelda In that thread she said empowerment was called stop complaining and start doing.

Seems as though she's still complaining. 

I'm surprised she didn't call the woman that came in with the card "some chick".

In this instance, the card could have been perfect with her name spelled correctly, written in caligraphy, with pristine gift cards inside and there still would have been something wrong with it.

Hope whatever this new career path is, it's something behind the scenes, working in a cubicle, all alone and not dealing with co-workers or the public.

[VaBelle35]

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@Laura14 wrote:

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@loridarlin1962 wrote:

My husbands company did turkey certificates at the grocery store. okay whatever, then in his next pay check twenty dollars had been deducted ,he ended up paying for his own stupid turkey!

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@loridarlin1962  I have moved to fourth!  OMG!  That might rival for first place!  

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Gift cards, no matter what amount, are taxable as a bonus.  So, consider about 50% of it is taxable.

I give a lot of gift cards out at work for games and drawings and I always make sure the winners know, in writing, that the card is taxable and they will see the deduction on their next check.

Only 1 person in 17 years has declined the card.

[CAcableGirl2]

@VaBelle35 Giving a gift is nice for you to do, but taxing them on the value sort of dimishes the gift since the card might not be for something they would normally be interested in.  I wonder if you could get them a little larger amount to cover the amount of the gift card.  Say, give them a $20 card and cover the couple of dollars on the card yourself for the taxes instead of giving them a $25 card.

We were told a few years ago that our use of a company vehicle was going to be taxed, but the amount is deducted and on another line added back to our paychecks.

[Bird mama]

@Laura14  Since you asked....

We haven't received gifts in a little more than a decade.  

When things started going downhill, we would receive a gift selection brochure.  One of the choices was the company sponsored Caring Program for Children (I work in health insurance).  They would send the gift selection brochure and then pressure you to check off that you wanted to donate the value of your gift to the Caring Program for Children.

The last gift we received was a book that described all of the art that was hanging in the buildings that made up our campus.

I don't mind that we don't get gifts - at least it beats the pressure we were under to give the gift amount back.

[Katcat1]

I am glad I am retired but the last law firm I worked at my lawyer gave me $500 for a Christmas gift.  I was happy.  He worked from home a lot so I would scan documents in and email to him.  I also reorganized all of his files and with the larger files I made indexes.  He was easy to work with so I was lucky.  

[willdob3]

@Laura14

That sounds like a sad, sorry environment to be working in.

I once worked for company that did not even wish any of us Merry Christmas. They were in horrible financial trouble... Months later we all lost our jobs...and celebrated by going out for dinner & drinks! Horrible job, that one!

Most companies have given a card, sometimes a small gift card or something. I’ve gotten nice, inexpensive gifts from bosses (as opposed to the company). Nothing much, but enough to acknowledge the holiday and the employee.

The company I currently work for is extremely generous with lots of employee appreciation events all year long. Lunches on the company (just because), etc. We’ve had a couple Christmas parties and I received very nice monetary - and other - gifts at both. We’ll have tempting food at work through New Years. It is a pretty wonderful work environment.

[willdob3]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

I work for a corporation that tells us we're valued, refers to us as a team... I do my job, no more no less.

A few years ago, I had a manager who sent us candy on Halloween, personal gifts at Christmas, took each of us to lunch quarterly. For her, we did more than what was required of us for a paycheck. 

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@occasionalrain

I had a manager once who was similar. The company referred to use the same way but the manager we had made things special. He treated us well (lots of lunches out, talks, worked with us and said he wasn’t our boss, but we were all team members working together). We gave him our best efforts and it was a wonderful time for all of us. The small gifts he gave us were thoughtful and appreciated. 

[Georgiagrama]

@Laura14

I've probably got you beat.  My daughter didn't get a bonus, she got let go 8 days before Christmas.   Walked up behind her while she was at her desk working, with a cardboard box for her things and an escort off the property.

Of course, she was one of the 1500 they let go --  then turned around 3 months later and started hiring like crazy.

Just use the gift cards and be happy you had a job for Christmas.  

[Wheatchick1]

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@Georgiagrama wrote:

@Laura14

I've probably got you beat.  My daughter didn't get a bonus, she got let go 8 days before Christmas.   Walked up behind her while she was at her desk working, with a cardboard box for her things and an escort off the property.

Of course, she was one of the 1500 they let go --  then turned around 3 months later and started hiring like crazy.

Just use the gift cards and be happy you had a job for Christmas.  

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Now that’s just cold!

One year DH got a great Christmas bonus and we took his vacation between Christmas and New Years. PLUS, they told him that starting when he returned on January 2nd he would be getting a substantial raise.  So we took a nice trip, shopped for some nice things for the house and had a great holiday with the knowledge that the next year was looking bright.

So imagine my surprise when DH returned home a mere hour after he had left for work.  He didn’t even have a job, much less the raise.  While we were out having a great vacation the bosses son in law had gotten laid off and the boss was more worried about his daughter than he was about us so he gave DH’s job to SIL.  DH was totally crushed and it took us awhile to recover.  To this day I have always gotten a bad taste in my mouth at the thought of getting involved as an outsider in a family owned business.  One thing that really ticks me off is nepotism.

We survived and life went on but we learned that if you didn’t have the last name Anderson you probably shouldn’t be the only non-Anderson in the company! Blood truly is thicker than water.  Ironically, they came crawling back about a year later and offered to let DH write his own ticket and he took great pleasure in telling them to shove it.

It did leave a scar though - DH and I were always nervous any time we took a vacation because we were afraid that we wouldn’t have a job to come back to.