I worked for a while for Thomson Reuters, where some years ago somebody in charge read that companies with value statements performed better than those that did not. So they hired a 3rd party consultant to write down their values and they had these posted all over the walls. They also had posters of stuff like "the mood elevator" pasted up in the kitchen: https://themoodelevator.com/ Everyone I felt like I could talk…
The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
161–170 of 348 posts
Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
#162We need to find a name for a gesture so small in its generosity that it ends up being offensive. No bonus would have left me disappointed, but a $50 bonus would have made me angry. Like when Delta gave a food voucher to make up for a 5-hour delay on a 30-minute file. The voucher was for $3. Fuck Delta.
There is a name for that. It is "damning with faint praise."
Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only about one-quarter of Indians eat beef, so it's not at all safe to assume that any random group of Indians you encounter will be majority beef-eaters.
Well then they can get the pork chop
Pork isn’t popular amongst meat eating Indians either. Just look at your local Indian restaurant menu. You will see very few, if any, pork dishes.
Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
#164I worked for a company that was always handing out cheap tokens of their "appreciation" (we all knew they didn't appreciate the employees but I guess they figured pretending might reduce turnover). Sometimes it was a free pretzel or water ice, other times it was a Thank You email that sounded like it was written by some cheap marketing AI. You could also get a "Shout Out" in the monthly newsletter that nobody read, b…
Here's my story: A place I worked at one time had the vending machines removed. The owner's neice was overweight and died of cancer and had other health issues, so he didn't want any of the rest of us making poor deciisions and ending up like her So they took the vending machines out. Great, now we need to go to the gas station a block down the road to get a candy bar, chips, or afternoon soda. One particularly hot d…
Was at a place that did something similar, but at least they replaced it with free (if crappy) coffee and giant bowls of fruit. I actually appreciated it, even if it was a touch “we want to pay lower Health insurance premiums” paternalistic.
Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
#165My own personal favorite, from my GM, explaining why the sales team was getting six-figure bonuses for an extremely successful year entirely driven by engineering, which was getting barely four figures:
“Sales people are motivated by money; engineers are motivated by fun work. So just do your job and have fun!”
I’m not even interested in money, just a little respect would’ve been great! Needless to say, I quit shortly thereafter.
Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
#166I worked for a company that was always handing out cheap tokens of their "appreciation" (we all knew they didn't appreciate the employees but I guess they figured pretending might reduce turnover). Sometimes it was a free pretzel or water ice, other times it was a Thank You email that sounded like it was written by some cheap marketing AI. You could also get a "Shout Out" in the monthly newsletter that nobody read, b…
You and I must have worked for the same company. Did the owner's wife also get "employee of the year" at the annual Christmas party?
Haha no, but I'm sure if we combined work stories we could easily get enough material for a few more 'Horrible Bosses' movies.
Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
#167Oh, man, don't get me started. Two short ones: I did a stint in professional services and billed for 2600 hours @ $250/hr for a total of $650k. Essentially worked 12+ hour days for a year, and got a bonus of $1000 before taxes. I quit within a month. Next up was an appreciation gesture where we were thanked for all of our extra hard work with a pack of "Extra" gum and a delivery of baked potatoes (with all the fixing…
So much of these reminds me of the Discount Speakers Bureau in Dilbert:
Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
#168At a company I worked at it was bonus time. Bonuses had been a point of contention forever as the company always bugled the metrics and despite a lot of talk bonuses were hard to account for. So anyway they announce a "Christmas Bonus": $50.... I mean I'll take $50 but it felt like such an empty gesture. Just a few years earlier I had gotten $150 bonus while working at a pizza joint. The HR person who sent out the su…
$50? Bloody luxury!
Why, when I was young, well, about 20 years ago at least, the small team that included me was offered a bonus to get something done on time. We worked hard and hit the deadline. The very afternoon we delivered it, I was made redundant.
They gave me a week's severance pay. Unfortunately I had a contract both sides had signed that they'd forgotten about, which entitled me to a month's pay. I waved that in their face (very carefully, I literally did not put it past them to grab it off me and rip it up, they would do that). They paid up.
My share of the bonus? They told me I had no proof so I wasn't getting anything. I took them to the small claims court and got it all plus interest.
It took 18 months but I knew how much they hated losing money, and how they loved screwing people over just because they could.
The biter bit. I enjoyed myself.
Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
#169I worked for a while for Thomson Reuters, where some years ago somebody in charge read that companies with value statements performed better than those that did not. So they hired a 3rd party consultant to write down their values and they had these posted all over the walls. They also had posters of stuff like "the mood elevator" pasted up in the kitchen: https://themoodelevator.com/ Everyone I felt like I could talk…
It's a problem of delegation. Some executive "reads" some whitepaper (I.E. gets told about offhandedly by their buddy at the golf course), and thinks that it sounds like a great way to prove their "doing something" about moral or diversity or whatever. They then turn around and tell someone under them to "make it so", who does a tiny bit of research and then passes that off to someone under them. Eventually this arrives at someone with a clue who actually does some research and figures out this is an idiotic idea, but at that point you'd basically be telling your bosses bosses boss that he's a moron, so instead you just play along, get it done, and hope everyone forgets about it in a couple months.
Re: The worst morale-boosting gesture I've experienced
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
A “straight forward romance book” would still be inappropriate
Really? I gifted romance books before to women. Not publicly, since I've never been in a situation to do so. They've all been happy about it since I always get them something random that they would never pick. Or is it that people really don't gift books? I remember the original book cover to 50 Shades was like a tie or something. It actually looked like a "tasteful" book if you didn't know better. Literally, I would…
Firstly you shouldn't reward significant work achievements with a cheap book. That's tone deaf no matter what the book is.
Secondly if you do pick a book, you can at least try to make it relevant to someone's actual professional competence - something useful, but not insultingly peppy.
Thirdly if you're going to do that, you can ask them what they want, in a way that indicates you value their competence and opinion.
Gifts and rewards are all about social signalling, hierarchies and statements of relative value. The messages are understood whether or not you're aware you're speaking that language.
If you get it wrong, it's not just demotivating for the person, it's demotivating for everyone else too.
And no, you don't have to be super-serious about it. Jokey gifts are fine, although riskier than something straight. If the culture can take it, they're a good choice. But you have to be very sure that is the culture.