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Folks Online Share Similar Stories After Guy Tells How He Understood His ‘Cheap’ $15 Company Christmas Gifts Were Actually Bought By Manager
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Folks Online Share Similar Stories After Guy Tells How He Understood His ‘Cheap’ $15 Company Christmas Gifts Were Actually Bought By Manager

Interview With Author Folks Online Start Sharing Similar Stories After A Guy Tells How He Realized That ‘Cheap’ Corporate Christmas Gift He Received Was Actually Bought By The Manager ThemselvesFolks Online Share Similar Stories After Guy Tells How He Understood His ‘Cheap’ $15 Company Christmas Gifts Were Actually Bought By ManagerGuy Was Furious About The 'Cheap' Gift He Got From His Company Until He Understood The Manager Spent Almost $200 Of Her Own Money On Team GiftsGuy’s Upset About The ‘Cheap’ $15 Gift He Got From His Company Until He Finds Out His Manager Actually Spent Nearly $200 On Gifts For 12-Person TeamGuy Feels Disappointed About The 'Cheap' Gift He Received From His Company Until He Realizes The Manager Spent Nearly $200 Of Their Own Money On Gifts For TeamAfter Realizing That Disappointing Corporate Christmas Present He Got From The Company Was Actually Bought By The Manager Themselves, Guy Regrets His ReactionFolks Online Share Similar Stories After Guy Tells How He Understood His ‘Cheap’ $15 Company Christmas Gifts Were Actually Bought By ManagerFolks Online Share Similar Stories After Guy Tells How He Understood His ‘Cheap’ $15 Company Christmas Gifts Were Actually Bought By ManagerFolks Online Share Similar Stories After Guy Tells How He Understood His ‘Cheap’ $15 Company Christmas Gifts Were Actually Bought By ManagerFolks Online Share Similar Stories After Guy Tells How He Understood His ‘Cheap’ $15 Company Christmas Gifts Were Actually Bought By Manager
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We all need some perspective in life every once in a while. Having your own opinions and understanding is great and all, but seeing things through a different lens is the healthy thing to do.

A Reddit user recently posted some very appropriate perspective regarding sub-par Christmas gifts from companies and how it’s not always the case that corporations are funding this type of employee encouragement, but rather team leads and managers might also have a hand in this. Or the only hand.

More Info: Reddit

It’s always nice to get a Christmas gift from the company—makes you feel appreciated

Image credits: Nathan (not the actual photo)

So, Reddit user u/daddy-daddy-cool, with whom Bored Panda got in touch, paid the r/YouShouldKnow subreddit, a part of the website dedicated to all things people ought to know, a visit with a message of receiving.

“Over the past few months, people have been showing the shoddy ‘gifts’ that their companies have been giving to them, whether it be for the holidays or as a ‘thank you’ for slaving away during the early months of the pandemic lockdown,” explained Daddy Cool why he ended up posting his story in the first place.

“In one post, somebody shared a picture of an orange they received, and when someone commented that it might have been paid out of the manager’s own pocket, that triggered a cascade of thoughts and memories which led to me remembering the situation with my own manager 25 years ago.”

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But what do you do when you feel like it was a ‘cheap’ gift? This Reddit user gave people some perspective on ‘cheap’ gifts

Image credits: daddy-daddy-cool

In particular, he shared a story from 25 years ago. It was Christmas time, he was working what he called his ‘first real job’ after college. His friends were all bragging about all the cool Christmas gifts and benefits they got during that time, and he too was due to get something.

Come Christmas, and his direct manager hands him an envelope. “Here’s the fat Christmas bonus I hear everyone talk about,” he thought to himself. So, he eagerly opened it to find a $15 gift card to one of the local retail stores.

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He was furious. Was this all his hard work and dedication amounted to? 15 bucks? Not even bucks, a discount of sorts at a very particular venue. He was furious through the day, and even the whole weekend. He even tried to get his girlfriend furious with him. But instead of joining in on the hate, she extinguished the situation with some perspective.

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Image credits: daddy-daddy-cool

“That was nice of her, spending her own money like that.” And that’s when it hit him—his team was the only one who actually got a gift in the company, so it made sense the manager was funding this.

She gave $15 to each member of her team, of which there were 12, so nearly $200 from her own pockets. That was a pretty significant sacrifice that ought to have been appreciated. And OP did appreciate it once he understood this.

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Image credits: daddy-daddy-cool

“Personally, I was lead to believe (by TV mostly) that the Christmas bonus was something that all companies did for their employees,” elaborated Daddy Cool. “As a young, naive person, you assume that the ‘boss’ is a ‘benevolent king or queen’ or at worst, ‘benevolent dictator’, loaded with cash, spending it frivolously on anything and anyone. Combined with the belief that rewards are guaranteed for those who work hard, I had a strong expectation that I would receive a generous gift.”

The post got a fair bit of attention from people online, garnering over 38,600 upvotes and a good handful of Reddit awards. And it got people in the comments talking. And speaking of talking, folks online started sharing their own stories of Christmas bonuses. And while this does happen often that managers fund gifts for their teams, others told stories of how managers fought for bonuses from corporate or how other companies solved this issue.

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Many started sharing their own stories on the topic of corporate Christmas gifts

Unfortunately, Daddy Cool left the company (not because of the Christmas gift, don’t fret) later that summer, so he doesn’t know if anything really happened the next year—whether the team got together to thank the boss, if she continued funding gifts, or did corporate take over, and whatnot.

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“Some commenters jokingly commented that I should post my YSK in the antiwork subreddit as a retort to the anti-corporate message they broadcast,” concluded Daddy Cool. “I actually strongly support the current antiwork movement. It provides a very important platform for honest, hard-working people being robbed blind by their employers. People deserve better, and antiwork is helping to open their eyes.”

“You can be grateful to your managers and still demand better from corporate. You can still appreciate that your managers spend their own money, while being angry that corporate put them in a position to do so.”

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You can read the story and see all the comments in full right here. But before you click that link, or click on a different article, tell us your corporate Christmas gift stories in the comment section below!

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Robertas Lisickis

Robertas Lisickis

Author, BoredPanda staff

Read more »

Some time ago, Robertas used to spend his days watching how deep the imprint in his chair will become as he wrote for Bored Panda. Wrote about pretty much everything under and beyond the sun. Not anymore, though. He's now probably playing Gwent or hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures for those with an inclination for chaos.

Read less »
Robertas Lisickis

Robertas Lisickis

Author, BoredPanda staff

Some time ago, Robertas used to spend his days watching how deep the imprint in his chair will become as he wrote for Bored Panda. Wrote about pretty much everything under and beyond the sun. Not anymore, though. He's now probably playing Gwent or hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures for those with an inclination for chaos.

Saulė Tolstych

Saulė Tolstych

Author, Community member

Read more »

Saulė is a photo editor at Bored Panda with bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design. The thing that relaxes her the best is going into YouTube rabbit hole. In her free time she loves painting, embroidering and taking walks in nature.

Read less »

Saulė Tolstych

Saulė Tolstych

Author, Community member

Saulė is a photo editor at Bored Panda with bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design. The thing that relaxes her the best is going into YouTube rabbit hole. In her free time she loves painting, embroidering and taking walks in nature.

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K Witmer
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I bought all my employees north face coats for Christmas and gave them a weeks pay as a Christmas bonus. It's not hard to treat your employees like the valuable asset they are. I also pay them 20$ an hour plus benefits. I'm so sick and tired of hearing corporations can't pay their employees a living wage. It's all lies.

Dodo
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think the "We can't pay our employees a living wage" thing has a silent "and still give ourselves an insanely bloated salary" at the end. I seriously doubt there's a business that can't pay it, there are just owners who want all the money themselves. I'm glad you're not one of them.

Load More Replies...
Holly Stevens
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I work for a private senior Care company that makes 500 million a year. They did not give us covid pay, no Christmas bonus, they stopped giving corporate Christmas gifts and the residents gifts as well, we got a pie this year. So my boss, for my department out of pocket, got each of us a lunch bag, water bottle, home made cookies and home made hot chocolate kit. For 40 or so people.

Summer Mason
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This along with personal reasons.... why I quit health care. I loved my patients soo much but even they told me I was worth more than the pay. Man.....if you live in the USA we need to boycott big Healthcare systems. Yeah people may suffer under care. But fk man....we deserve to be treated with respect pay and protection from the employer. You get burnt out doctors and nurses in the er. And mistakes get made over it that kills people. It's not okay. We are worn out. Physically and emotionally. I'm currently in a law suite cause my husband and I lost our son and it comes to find the hospital he went to could of saved him but didn't with out our permission. They dnr him.

Load More Replies...
Maryanna Baldridge
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My husband, who worked for a major aerospace company funded by the government, always had to pay for the Christmas party and small gifts on his own. It is one thing when you have a few employees to include. It's quite another when you have almost 60 employees he had to include.

Load More Comments
K Witmer
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I bought all my employees north face coats for Christmas and gave them a weeks pay as a Christmas bonus. It's not hard to treat your employees like the valuable asset they are. I also pay them 20$ an hour plus benefits. I'm so sick and tired of hearing corporations can't pay their employees a living wage. It's all lies.

Dodo
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think the "We can't pay our employees a living wage" thing has a silent "and still give ourselves an insanely bloated salary" at the end. I seriously doubt there's a business that can't pay it, there are just owners who want all the money themselves. I'm glad you're not one of them.

Load More Replies...
Holly Stevens
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I work for a private senior Care company that makes 500 million a year. They did not give us covid pay, no Christmas bonus, they stopped giving corporate Christmas gifts and the residents gifts as well, we got a pie this year. So my boss, for my department out of pocket, got each of us a lunch bag, water bottle, home made cookies and home made hot chocolate kit. For 40 or so people.

Summer Mason
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This along with personal reasons.... why I quit health care. I loved my patients soo much but even they told me I was worth more than the pay. Man.....if you live in the USA we need to boycott big Healthcare systems. Yeah people may suffer under care. But fk man....we deserve to be treated with respect pay and protection from the employer. You get burnt out doctors and nurses in the er. And mistakes get made over it that kills people. It's not okay. We are worn out. Physically and emotionally. I'm currently in a law suite cause my husband and I lost our son and it comes to find the hospital he went to could of saved him but didn't with out our permission. They dnr him.

Load More Replies...
Maryanna Baldridge
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My husband, who worked for a major aerospace company funded by the government, always had to pay for the Christmas party and small gifts on his own. It is one thing when you have a few employees to include. It's quite another when you have almost 60 employees he had to include.

Load More Comments
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