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Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

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Re: Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

#191

Post by lupire »

bootloop wrote: post #176
jnsaff2 wrote: post #158

So I had a buddy, he was a junior-ish very talented dev in this big retailer where I was working as well. This retailer obv had massive campaigns for black friday, but also obv very shitty and inflexible systems. This buddy of mine found that the black friday promotions pricings import failed 5 min before midnight. Meaning that not only would there be no black friday pricing, there would be no pricing at all on the s…

I don't necessarily think he should have been compensated based on the (theoretical) loss of money. He was employed after all. And properly someone else would haved saved the day early enough anyway. But 25$ is quite an embarrassment. Nothing would have been better in that case.

> And properly someone else would haved saved the day early enough anyway.

According to the story, no. The regular employees in the regular system failed, and OP person decided to act like an owner and save the company, outside of job responsibilities, covering up for management's failure to build and test a reliable system. Did the OP person get paid like an owneror promoted to a leadership position for being a leader? No.

Re: Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

#192

Post by throwaway74829 »

PopAlongKid wrote: post #20

>that form allowed the company to then tax me on that ‘gift’ as income, Wrong. There is no "form" needed for taxation, it is required by the IRS (in U.S.) and the company does not "tax" anyone. Employer gifts (other than de minimis amounts) are taxable compensation. (see IRS Publication 15-B for details). A good employer will "gross up" cash gifts to cover the taxes.

> Wrong.

Must you really be this blunt?

Re: Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

#194

Post by lupire »

vintermann wrote: post #165
bayindirh wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very simplistic and very narrow perspective about gifting when looked from this side. I don't consider gifts as the items solely. The person who brought the gift spent some time pondering what would I like, gave his/her best shot. Spent time and funds to acquire this and gave it to me. Yes, it might not be the exact item I'd get; yes, it might not be crazy expensive (or just flat out cheap and simple). But…

I agree, but there are different kinds of gifts. There's "I remember you and I want to show that I care about you" gifts. These days, I'm ambivalent about such gifts, whether it's giving them or accepting them. It's not the love I'm ambivalent about, it's just that it's also usually a ... thing. Which takes up space. But there are also "Man, you've got to see this!" gifts. Not just something that the receiver will li…

IOW, there are no bad gifts, only bad relationships.

Re: Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

#195

Post by OJFord »

tboughen wrote: post #18
MichaelCollins wrote: post #11

> It’s also best to avoid socks. Everyone already has socks, and realistically, they will likely also get socks from someone else during the holiday season. What is this crap? Socks are the best gift. Didn't the author stop to wonder why everybody gives people socks during the holiday season? Because virtually everybody uses socks, because socks wear out fast, because new socks are the most comfortable and it's alway…

I’m glad that works for you, but it doesn’t for me. The one ‘life hack’ that’s ever worked for me is to own a single type of sock (white, cotton, Nike). The entire batch of 30 pairs was bought at the same time so they wear evenly, meaning all socks match with all other socks. When I get down to a few functioning pairs, into the bin they go and a new batch is ordered. My family knows not to buy me socks…

I'm baffled that someone would settle on 'white, cotton, Nike' as the most appropriate one sock model to own.

Re: Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

#196

Post by segmondy »

jnsaff2 wrote: post #158

So I had a buddy, he was a junior-ish very talented dev in this big retailer where I was working as well. This retailer obv had massive campaigns for black friday, but also obv very shitty and inflexible systems. This buddy of mine found that the black friday promotions pricings import failed 5 min before midnight. Meaning that not only would there be no black friday pricing, there would be no pricing at all on the s…

Let's say he was giving 500,000GBP. 10%

Great right? You have just given folks incentive to plant problems and reap the reward. You might say, they can audit and if you caused the problem, you don't get the reward. Great! Now, let's collude with another team mate, I cause they problem, they fix it, we split the rewards.

Once you give monetary incentive, folks start figuring out ways to game it.

There was an agreement on how much he was paid, the company paid that. Doesn't matter if he saved 5M in profits or not. What if he had failed? Or what if he was the reason the pricing import failed? Would it be okay for the company to penalize him by clawing back some of the money he had been paid in the past?

Re: Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

#197

Post by lupire »

jerlam wrote: post #83
bayindirh wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very simplistic and very narrow perspective about gifting when looked from this side. I don't consider gifts as the items solely. The person who brought the gift spent some time pondering what would I like, gave his/her best shot. Spent time and funds to acquire this and gave it to me. Yes, it might not be the exact item I'd get; yes, it might not be crazy expensive (or just flat out cheap and simple). But…

Yes, this is a very utilitarian and pessimistic view of gift giving, and probably not great for me to have. I've been shaped by years of required and thoughtless gift giving. Items of low value, carefully selected, actually work really well for gifts! I think the process of curation can dramatically increase their perceived value, compared to a "serious" gift. But at some point, you just have too much stuff of all ki…

That advice is for the old materialistic pre-climate-change/infinite-renr world.

Re: Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

#198

Post by pelagicAustral »

tboughen wrote: post #18
MichaelCollins wrote: post #11

> It’s also best to avoid socks. Everyone already has socks, and realistically, they will likely also get socks from someone else during the holiday season. What is this crap? Socks are the best gift. Didn't the author stop to wonder why everybody gives people socks during the holiday season? Because virtually everybody uses socks, because socks wear out fast, because new socks are the most comfortable and it's alway…

I’m glad that works for you, but it doesn’t for me. The one ‘life hack’ that’s ever worked for me is to own a single type of sock (white, cotton, Nike). The entire batch of 30 pairs was bought at the same time so they wear evenly, meaning all socks match with all other socks. When I get down to a few functioning pairs, into the bin they go and a new batch is ordered. My family knows not to buy me socks…

I get what you're saying but this is totally impracticable for some people. I mean, just thinking about myself, I work in a smart/casual environment and I wear a few different outfits over the week, I cannot allow myself the tenacity to not match my socks with the tone of my shirt.

Re: Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

#199

Post by willcipriano »

jnsaff2 wrote: post #158

So I had a buddy, he was a junior-ish very talented dev in this big retailer where I was working as well. This retailer obv had massive campaigns for black friday, but also obv very shitty and inflexible systems. This buddy of mine found that the black friday promotions pricings import failed 5 min before midnight. Meaning that not only would there be no black friday pricing, there would be no pricing at all on the s…

Sometimes the lack of reward indicates a cover up. I've seen my manager turn white while in a room with his boss and he made a joke about the cost of pizza he was providing and I replied with "take it out of the million or so I saved you last week". He didn't tell his boss that I worked 48 hours straight to resolve a problem my manager created.

Re: Employee gift ideas that make people feel bad

#200

Post by bombcar »

taffronaut wrote: post #142
DocTomoe wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often, this is a side-effect of tax code weirdness. In my legislative framework, branded stuff is considered "advertisement", which can be given out with any amount of value to employees. Non-branded stuff - or money - would be taxable income. With a tax rate of up to 48%, that's a difference, and paperwork for the employee. So I have a very nice thermos with my employer's logo on it, and I am quite happy about it.

Unfortunately a lot of custom branded swag is sold B2B by companies who have not much idea about quality and are just branding so-so unbranded junk. Conversely I was happy to receive an iFixit pro toolkit with our company logo embroidered on the outer instead of the iFixit logo.

The key to finding good branded stuff is to find the stuff first, then figure how to brand it.
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