snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 20:37:17 GMT
Teacher here. Parents appreciate us during holidays and teacher appreciation week. School administration and district office does nothing. I would be interested what other teachers experience. It is sad that those that work in public service can not be allowed some money in the budgets for employee recognition and it falls on the parents and PTA/O.
All those people that complain about using public funds for such purpose are probably those that work for the private sector and receiving nice bonuses.
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 20:50:09 GMT
I’m a teacher. I get zero from parents. When I first started out, I got stuff for every holiday. As time has gone on (26th year now) the parent/student gift thing has dwindled down to nada. I always make sure I send in a Christmas gift with my kids- my son is in elementary so the office staff, principal, teacher, classroom aides. My daughter is in middle school so I send one for each teacher. Sometimes I get my life together enough to do an end of year also. I get a birthday surprise from the district office- last year was a fidget cube, year before $5 Starbucks card. I get praise from my principal and secretary on the regular. We randomly get staff room treats from other teachers who bring them in just because. For teacher appreciation we got a little post-it box of different sized notes from the HS parent club (I think that’s who it was from) The union does Panera boxed lunches for all teachers twice a year. snyder I wonder if these things are given to keep people “happy” and not looking elsewhere. Almost like the whole everyone gets a trophy thing.Oh, I'm sure a lot of it is trying to keep employees happy so they don't leave, but there is also a bit that is individual recognition and not the everyone gets a trophy thing. One of the recognitions my son received was for him fixing the photo printer. A gear was bent/broken and the part was ordered. The technician that fixes their equipment had emegency surgery and they were falling behind of customer orders, so son went in and looked at the machine and was able to fix it for the even though he's not very mechanically inclinde. They were so appreciative of him getting it up and going the gave him a gift card.
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 20:54:24 GMT
Those are baselines, obviously, but most people also need to receive regular acknowledgement and appreciation. It doesn’t have to be big or expensive or dramatic but it needs to be genuine. Being seen for their efforts makes a big difference to most people. It does, but when the baseline isn’t being met, some of those little “appreciations” feel like an insult. Like, we won’t pay you a living wage or any paid sick time, but here’s a chocolate and feel free to wear jeans on Friday. Yay. Definitely. And those employees will not give you 100%.
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 20:57:13 GMT
Yes! We started receiving profit sharing bonuses a few years ago. The past two years I have also received an additional bonus because my boss put me in for them. Additionally, earlier this year I received a performance award which was accompanied by an ‘after tax’ bonus. We have lunches several times a year. In August we had a catered bbq and an additional hour and a half for lunch. We have treats for different occasions such as ice cream, cookies, candy, etc. That is so awesome. I was thinking you worked for the IRS. If so, I'm totally amazed they have made changes to recognize their employees.
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 21:00:17 GMT
Before we were bought out by a soulless Fortune 500 company, I received profit sharing and performance bonuses. We never had lunches catered or received swag. After buyout, no profit sharing, no bonus, but lots of lunches and swag. To me, there is no comparison. Give me profit sharing and bonuses, keep your pizza. I think there should always be both. The tangible, financial recognition that the work you do benefits the larger team’s and company’s performance. But also the smaller, more personal and regular acknowledgements of you as a human, not just a cog in the machine. Wher genuine *appreciation* comes in and should be tailored to what you, as an individual, like. Things that show your manager sees and knows you and how you contribute- and not just productivity-wise, but holistically - to your team. I totally agree. Decent benefits too. The whole package.
|
|
|
Post by mbanda on Oct 23, 2023 21:02:22 GMT
I just started working for a new company in late September - after being with my previous employer for 20 years. I'm fully remote - have not met my manager or anyone else from the company in person yet. My birthday was a week ago and the company sent me a Sugarwish where I got to pick a treat to be sent to me. That was so fun - I loved it! I also got a text from the CEO on my birthday which was a Sunday (again never spoke to this person or met them) wishing me a Happy Birthday and that they were looking forward to meeting me in person in December at our company retreat. These two small things made me feel really valued and welcomed as a new person to the company. In the 20 years at my previous company (which was much larger by the way) nothing was ever done for birthdays (unless you were a favorite or the manager/director, etc). I was also recognized in a team meeting for getting new appointments my first two weeks there. They aren't stingy with praise and I appreciate that!
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 21:04:56 GMT
Not currently employed, but when I was...nope. In fact, they weren't allowed to give me the highest rating on performance reviews one year because I'd received it for the 2 previous years and it was tied to our (pitiful) salary increases. HR said that the highest increase had to go to someone else that year, so they couldn't even give me the highest review, even though the boss said I deserved it. (And yes, I confirmed that it was a real "thing" with an HR friend, so it wasn't just someone trying to let me down gently!) It's been almost 18 years since I worked there and it still irritates me! So not right.
Similar thing happened to me. We had pay for performance, which our raises were a % based on our performance evaluation rating. I had given one of my employees a 4.5 rating, sat and went over it with her. My boss rejected it and told me I had to change the rating because they had to stay within their pot of money. She was a newer manager and she didn't know the employees at all so how could she say she was not deserving of that rating. She was my best employee and to this day, she was probably the best employee I ever had.
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 21:11:24 GMT
I thought your title meant would your employer recognise you if they passed you in the corridor. Current job yes. Previous job, even with only about 25-30 employees in my branch, the management kept changing and I'm sure many of us were only recognised as employees by our uniforms... But your actual meaning? Our management is lovely. We all got bacon butties for working weekend vaccination shifts. We have been bought ice creams in exceptionally hot weather. Doughnuts have been left out in the kitchen by the management for anyone on shift. Pizza during out-of-hours evening meetings. And they arrange events like Christmas and summer parties for us, and once we each got a small bonus. But personal gifts? No. Had to chuckle when I read your post.
I worked at a micro tech company for about 5 years. The CEO always brought a sack lunch and ate in the employee lunchroom getting to know employees while eating lunch. I thought that was awesome.
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 21:13:19 GMT
Side story: I volunteered for ____. The Person who was in charge wanted to show their appreciation with a lunch for the volunteers. So, she asked us all to bring a dish for a lunch. --I never did see how I was "rewarded " with that lunch. Oh my gosh! I'm speechless!
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 21:15:07 GMT
My company uses Slack to communicate and they have Hey Taco implemented. Basically, you can give 5 tacos (emojis) per day out to fellow employees to say thanks or give recognition. Collecting tacos is fun because they come with certain rewards like 25 tacos for a $25 gift card or 100 tacos for a day off. It motivates you to thank people and also get motivated to earn tacos. It's a fun way to get recognition. This sounds fun. And you are so right. We need to show our appreciation to our teammates as well.
|
|
edie3
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,497
Jun 26, 2014 1:03:18 GMT
|
Post by edie3 on Oct 23, 2023 22:20:25 GMT
We got rewarded once for coming in during a bad snowstorm. There were probably 12 of us and we got 2 pizzas.
|
|
CeeScraps
Pearl Clutcher
~~occupied entertaining my brain~~
Posts: 3,831
Jun 26, 2014 12:56:40 GMT
|
Post by CeeScraps on Oct 23, 2023 22:50:55 GMT
Former teacher here........only the parents recognized us. Admin.....not so much
|
|
|
Post by Karene on Oct 23, 2023 23:05:25 GMT
Our biggest perk was $2500 worth of free products from our website using employee discounts codes that renew every 6 months. This is not as good as it was because starting in January, they are making us pay full price tax on the free products. This means I won't be ordering as much.
We get profit sharing every year, plus incentive program every six months which is has 3 parts. Two parts are how we do as a team and one part is how we do individually. If you get to a certain point you might get 50% of the total possible, 75%, 100% or nothing. Each part is separate so you could get nothing for one of the team parts, but get 100% for your individual part. The maximum is $400 which is not bad.
Our particular office manager also regularly buys us drinks and donuts from Tim Hortons. The company as a whole has recognition each month for certain offices, and people can give a shout out to certain people. They also have recognition awards where you get points to buy stuff from our internal swag store. (This one was made stricter because it was abused by someone who kept giving a co-worker awards so that they could get points and they made a deal that they could both buy stuff with the points.)
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 23, 2023 23:14:47 GMT
Our biggest perk was $2500 worth of free products from our website using employee discounts codes that renew every 6 months. This is not as good as it was because starting in January, they are making us pay full price tax on the free products. This means I won't be ordering as much. We get profit sharing every year, plus incentive program every six months which is has 3 parts. Two parts are how we do as a team and one part is how we do individually. If you get to a certain point you might get 50% of the total possible, 75%, 100% or nothing. Each part is separate so you could get nothing for one of the team parts, but get 100% for your individual part. The maximum is $400 which is not bad. Our particular office manager also regularly buys us drinks and donuts from Tim Hortons. The company as a whole has recognition each month for certain offices, and people can give a shout out to certain people. They also have recognition awards where you get points to buy stuff from our internal swag store. (This one was made stricter because it was abused by someone who kept giving a co-worker awards so that they could get points and they made a deal that they could both buy stuff with the points.)There always has to be those that ruin it for all. Grrr! We had sups that handed out our spot awards (gift cards) like they were water, while other sups were not so generous. Can really cause a big moral buster when one walks past an employee that most people know is an average employee but they have 15-20 awards pinned up around their desks.
|
|
|
Post by KelleeM on Oct 24, 2023 0:02:37 GMT
Yes! We started receiving profit sharing bonuses a few years ago. The past two years I have also received an additional bonus because my boss put me in for them. Additionally, earlier this year I received a performance award which was accompanied by an ‘after tax’ bonus. We have lunches several times a year. In August we had a catered bbq and an additional hour and a half for lunch. We have treats for different occasions such as ice cream, cookies, candy, etc. That is so awesome. I was thinking you worked for the IRS. If so, I'm totally amazed they have made changes to recognize their employees. I don’t work for the IRS. My daughter does.
|
|
snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,993
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
|
Post by snyder on Oct 24, 2023 2:08:18 GMT
That is so awesome. I was thinking you worked for the IRS. If so, I'm totally amazed they have made changes to recognize their employees. I don’t work for the IRS. My daughter does. Ahh! Sorry for the mix up!
|
|
seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,467
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
|
Post by seaexplore on Oct 24, 2023 2:46:31 GMT
I’m a teacher. I get zero from parents. When I first started out, I got stuff for every holiday. As time has gone on (26th year now) the parent/student gift thing has dwindled down to nada. I always make sure I send in a Christmas gift with my kids- my son is in elementary so the office staff, principal, teacher, classroom aides. My daughter is in middle school so I send one for each teacher. Sometimes I get my life together enough to do an end of year also. I get a birthday surprise from the district office- last year was a fidget cube, year before $5 Starbucks card. I get praise from my principal and secretary on the regular. We randomly get staff room treats from other teachers who bring them in just because. For teacher appreciation we got a little post-it box of different sized notes from the HS parent club (I think that’s who it was from) The union does Panera boxed lunches for all teachers twice a year. snyder I wonder if these things are given to keep people “happy” and not looking elsewhere. Almost like the whole everyone gets a trophy thing. I think we have all seen enough facebook posts from teachers listing all the things they DON'T want to receive to be leery of giving any gifts to teachers. I always did small gift cards when ds was in elementary, but even those, Ive seen criticism of on facebook. 🤷🏼♀️ I do a bath and body works pump soap- just one. They can use it in their classroom, put it in the office if they don't want it, regift it. I don't give teacher (career) specific gifts. As a teacher, I don't even want those things.
|
|
seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,467
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
|
Post by seaexplore on Oct 24, 2023 2:47:55 GMT
Teacher here. Parents appreciate us during holidays and teacher appreciation week. School administration and district office does nothing. I would be interested what other teachers experience. My kid’s school (well, the PTA organizes it) does Thankful Thursdays once a month all year long, where various people sign up to bring in treats, muffins, bagels, fruit etc. I always sign up right away for the whole year to bring cookies. Thank you!
|
|
|
Post by danalz on Oct 24, 2023 3:07:18 GMT
Case manager here and my manager gives out Star Bonuses for going above and beyond. It's an extra $200 on your paycheck and I've earned 5 this year.
Another coworker mentioned me in a peer recognition recently and I got a nice travel mug.
I love the company I work for. They really care about the employees.
|
|
|
Post by chaosisapony on Oct 24, 2023 3:09:43 GMT
When I worked for small businesses there were a lot of small tokens of appreciation like what you are mentioning in your OP. Business owners regularly took us out to lunch or brought lunch in. Cakes for birthdays. Small gifts for Christmas (along with a sizeable Christmas bonus). We'd have little contests for things business related and the winner would get some cash. I had cash given to me walking out the door one day for my birthday, just because my boss knew I was going out that night. Cookies, donuts, and other snacks were regularly brought in from local bakeries. It was a tradeoff because our wages were low and we had no benefits. One office I worked at cut checks twice a year for the purpose of buying shoes just because the owner's wife knew how expensive good shoes were and she wanted to make sure we were all comfortable.
Now I work for local government and things are much more sparse. Our department head brings in pizza a few times a year. We get lunch catered in for Administrative professional's day and Christmas. My direct supervisor occasionally brings in cookies but not often at all. There are no bonuses or cash rewards. We do get gift cards from the department head for Christmas, usually for around $20. Anything else (retirements, baby showers, etc) we fundraise from the staff. There is an employee appreciation bbq thrown every October which is fun, but it's basic frozen hamburgers and plain hot dogs with bags of chips. Like can't we step up to chicken and tri-tip at least???
Since we're taxpayer funded our salaries are public information. I won't lie, knowing how much our department head makes and how stingy he acts around buying pizza sometimes does change my opinion of him.
|
|
gsquaredmom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,080
Jun 26, 2014 17:43:22 GMT
|
Post by gsquaredmom on Oct 24, 2023 9:12:34 GMT
Teacher here. Nope.
|
|
|
Post by gracieplusthree on Oct 25, 2023 1:00:06 GMT
Nope nothing. Ever.
But I work retail and I guess nothing is what's normal sadly. They did however develop a thing online where us minion pheasant workers can commend and thank our co workers. Yeah.. they want us to that too, not management... us.
|
|
|
Post by anniefb on Oct 25, 2023 19:34:14 GMT
My boss will often compliment me on my work but in terms of monetary recognition that happens once a year following our annual review - I’m a lawyer and we have a bonus scheme if you exceed your financial budget for the year. We did previously have a scheme where staff and partners could nominate colleagues for recognition for achieving one or more of the firm’s values but that seems to have disappeared. I think recognition of some kind can be a great morale booster and it doesn’t need to involve a lot of money - a small voucher or acknowledgment can also work really well.
|
|
teddyw
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,868
Jun 29, 2014 1:56:04 GMT
|
Post by teddyw on Oct 25, 2023 19:42:49 GMT
I worked for my last company for 18 years. Only the administrative people got bonuses or monthly lunches. I was the field staff so we got nothing. You got a company logo item like a plastic water bottle for Christmas only if you came into the office on the day of the party. So the field staff still got nothing because we were out working. Even when my parents died a couple years ago no one even said sorry.
When I worked at the hospital we got a yearly bonus.
|
|