Wrong Christmas Presents For Employees???

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> About 3 years ago I did a christmas party for them over at the main hospital cafeteria and that did not work so good either. out of 15 employees (at that time) we endend up with over 200 "family memebers" I was told by admins.not to ever consider it again. There wea plenty for all and all did have a nice time but was a true disaster. <

I was thinking of something during the work day, with only employees invited.

As for the gift exchange, that's too funny. Actually I don't know it its funny or sad, but buying gender-specific gifts for a secret santa is brutally stupid.
 
Gift exchanges...

Haven't had one on the job for quite some time now (about 10 years) but have an annual one with the car club I frequent. Everyone brings a wrapped gift costing between $10 and $20, which are placed up front. There are no names drawn, you take a number from a roll of tickets, and then when your number is called you get to choose a gift. A popular variation is that if you're not the first person, you get to bump someone who has already unwrapped their gift and do a "trade". It can get pretty competitive with people trying for some particularly desirable gift, which can change hands several times. In such a case it can pay to be last. This past year we omitted the trading part and it went ok - a bit faster, actually. But it can be kind of cool when the gift you brought becomes traded several times.
 
I wouldn't do a party, many people find a reason to gripe about them, too.
The company I work for had a catered dinner at Thanksgiving, and Christmas for the employees. Most everyone I talked to later only said how lousy the food was, why did they do this, why did they do that, etc. Not that it was nice the company did this nice gesture for us.
I'm thinking anything you do is misinterpreted, or unappreciated, so you should do what feels right for you.

kennyGF
 
Hey Rich (sudsmaster)-

That's what we call a Yankee Swap, and we usually have one here for the holiday party! It's a lot of fun, especially when there's one real cool thing everybody wants. When we used to do it at work parties, scratch (instant lottery) tickets were always the ones that people took from others!

As far as their pay, $400 there and $400 where you are just ain't the same, no more than it would be here. I'm sure they receive at least twice from Lee what they'd receive if they worked at Wal-Mart! And, 2 weeks vacay with a 3rd tacked on after 5 years? Not bad considering at least some (my guess is most) barely speak English! Hopefully they're all at least legally here and able to work.

JeffG- "but buying gender-specific gifts for a secret santa is brutally stupid."

Remember, these people don't necessarily understand a lot of English, as has been alluded to. They wouldn't get the idea if it was a general Secret Santa. However, if it was Secret Santa where they each drew a person's name, and understood that that's who they were buying a gift for, then I'd agree.

Hey, Lee, you did a good thing. Sure, other suggestions here may have been somewhat better or worse, but it remains that you tried to do something nice for them. And, you succeeded. It's on them that they didn't appreciate it. If I were you would I do it again? Tough to say since, 1) I'm not you, and, B) things change in 11 months, when the next holidays come around again!

Merry Happy,
Chuck
 
IIRC, Sudsman is the laundry manager for a large medical facility in Fort Worth, TX., so these gifts would have come out of his own pocket.
 
Kenny,

Well, I got a taste of how unappreciative employees can be when I worked in a semi-management position for a large high tech firm ten years ago.

My boss wanted me to procure chotckies from the corporate catalog and distribute them as gifts at our monthly meetings. I was given a limit on what I could get. At first people were appreciative, but after about 3 months some of them began complaining quite vocally about the selection and the value of the things. They were shut up when upper management got wind of the whole thing and shut it down. No gifts at all after that.

A similar thing happened when we had project management training and one of my duties was to arrange for the catering. Yes, they all got free lunch out of it. Well, due to various food allergies and religious restrictions we settled on the offerings from a major restaurant chain. I thought it was pretty good, wholesome food. But the complaints about that started coming in as well. Fortunately that arrangement only lasted three months so I didn't have to listen to those gripes for very long.

Most of those people have been laid off since then (myself included) but having perused Linkedin and other sources, some of the biggest complainers back then still have their (very) well paying jobs. Go figure.
 
At what point did...

getting a gift and appreciating the kindness shown replaced by the recipient approving or disapproving the item?

I just don't get it!!!!!

Lee, your kindness and class is what it's all about :-) Bravo to you. Don't ever change BUT I would stop looking at how you can make your employees more pleased with your holiday gift. They are employed. In todays economy they should be thrilled to have a JOB!!

Rich
 
Had a good laugh about the lump of coal in the Penney's bag! But....should you decide to do that, let me know. I'll get you all the Penney's bags you'll need!

Uh, don't mean to compare salaries, but I work full time at Penney's and don't make $400/week so I still think they were a bunch of ungrateful SOB's!

Roger
 
Well, as someone who used to work for JCPenney I just have to jump in!

First of all, Sudsman, what you did was very generous. I work at a PA turnpike service plaza and HMSHost, the employer gave us a frozen turkey and a 10 dollar Wal Mart gift card. I thought that was pretty generous and so did everyone else I know of. So your place sounds more generous than ours.

About JCPenney, veroroger I agree that you are not making much money. I worked in maintainence there and since I was always a somewhat nervous person the loss prevention manager was always following me, having his people follow me, asking me probing questions about my school experience (I had a bad one and was sensitive about it), even though I never wanted to steal anything there. My supervisor was intimidated by him too. So it is possible that your employees have been followed around by the LP people at JCPenney. LP seems to be less visible at WM, Target, etc.

The other issue is that really, there was nothing at JCPenney I ever wanted to buy. Since I seldom wear a suit, I want a nice one for when I do wear a suit and JCPenney is not the place to buy one (they cut back on alterations back then, not a wise thing to do). All the other clothes are rather expensive and so are the housewares.

Still, most of your employees acted inappropriately over this.
 
LP seems to be less visible at WM, Target, etc.

Oh, I'd have to disagree with that. Maybe shoppers just don't know LP people/tactics when they see them! You think those are greeters at the front door of Walmart?

What they are really there for is to make eye contact with each and every potential thief that walks in! Studies have shown that thieves want to remain anonymous and don't want to be noticed. Doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that out. However, the same studies showed that looking them in the eye when they walk in is a psychological move to say, "someone has seen your face, so don't try anything."

Chuck
 
I think your gift was awesome!
Any gift is awesome!
I think the whole experience gives you an idea of the true make-up of the employees who snubbed it.
In this day and age an "employee" should be grateful for any kindness. Including the JOB!
You did good. Don't sweat it.
Brent
 
When in doubt, delegate...

Yeah the employees who dissed the gift were rude and ungrateful.

Yeah the employees should have been grateful, or at very least have quietly thanked Lee for the gift and kept any negative thoughts to themselves.

However... it seems to me that keeping a workforce happy - or at least not angry - and working efficiently is more important than gifts etc. Discontent and turnover in the workplace is expensive. Of course some people just have a bad attitude no matter what and there's not much one can do to change that. But it's also important not to make the situation worse than it is.

One thought: delegate any future gift giving. Maybe to the worker who was grateful. Maybe to the one who said, "Is this all we're getting?". Tell them the budget. Ask them to have the staff vote on what kind of gift they want next year. The majority wins. The delegated employee will hand out the gifts while acknowledging who paid for them. Any complaints about the type of gift will bounce back on the employees, since they voted on it. Any complaints about how the thing was handled will focus on the delegated employee. You'll be able to focus on managing the plant without spending needless time worrying about who wanted what for Christmas.

In business circles this is called getting the monkey off one's back...
 
One of my co-workers complained today about not getting our "Bonus" this year. I had completely forgotton about "Christmas Bonuses"! So, I would have been thrilled with a gift card of any value at any store. I would have appreciated just a letter of thanks for the work this year, but did not receive that, either. However, my patrons thank me on a regular basis for my service, and that goes a long, long way! Too bad my bosses are not as thoughtful as you.
 
I'd say get them each a card in English, write "Thank you for your hard work" and incldue a $1 lottery ticket.

Give good gifts privately to those that appreciete them.
 
In business circles this is called getting the monkey off on

I think it's called "passing the buck".

Why should a kind deed be so difficult to execute? There are people lined up at the unemployment office just waiting for a job! Give it(job) to someone who appreciates it instead of enabling the "entitled" mentality.

Just my take on things :-)
Rich
 
Penney's is not my first choice

But so what! That is a really thoughtful (and expensive) gesture on your part. I thought money and jobs are tight? 50 bucks is 50 bucks. Next year, bring in a box of cookies for them to share and spend the dough on yourself.

man oh man.
 

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