Wrong Christmas Presents For Employees???

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So let me see if I have this straight

You took money out of your own pocket to give people something and they are now upset with you?

Can you say ungrateful wretches? Sure you can!

What jerks!

I am very sorry about that - Mac, your heart is in the right place. Next year, spend the money on yourself.
 
Lee, I am sorry that you were so ill-treated. Talk about casting pearls before swine! Fifty dollars is a chunk of change for anyone I know. I applaud you for not spending money for the gift cards at Wal Mart. That place is a pox on the land; just my humble opinion. It seems impossible that your employees are so poor that they do not know that Penny's has good quality clothing, household textiles and stuff.

When I was in school and working for Rita Riche's we would be given store gift certificates. One year, I think it was before the oil-embargo related recession, the store did so well that we were called to a meeting before the store opened and presented with a second gift certificate. Even with my calculating cynicism, I knew I had more to spend than I did before I was given the certificate and it helped me buy presents. I just cannot imagine what type of people would not be grateful for a personal gift like you gave. Are they maybe so illiterate that they don't know what they received? I thought gift cards were pretty well understood.

This is not meant to be an inappropriate question, but have you asked other department heads if they give any gifts and, if so, what they gave and what reaction they received? I would imagine anyone who hears of this will be shocked at the ingratitude, so I am wondering if this is somehow cultural. I don't mean like giving canned hams to Jews. I do not know the cultural makeup of your 10 employees, but could they feel that Penny's treats them rudely or has security tail them in the store or maybe is in a hiring dispute? Again, not your problem, but something that might be rippling through their ethnic communities and flared when they saw your gift? Hell, maybe they or family members have been banned from entering the stores because of getting into trouble by shoplifting or playing bank with returns, no fault of the stores or yours.

One thing I would definitely do is take this up with Penny's corporate office. They should know the reaction of your staff to such a generous gift and why you will not be giving their gift cards next year.

Best holiday wishes. You certainly were not a Scrooge to your employees, even if they lack the ability to see that. Tom
 
OK, gloves off.

I notice a few things here:

One, the staff had to work on Christmas Eve day. Many but of course not all, give their employees that day off. Then a number of them were back at work on the day after Christmas - a Saturday. Was this overtime or their regular workday?

Sudsman said that most all of the employees are "lower Walmart status anyway"... Sorry, but that is a rather unkind way to describe one's staff. It also implies that they are not paid enough to afford more than the cheapest products at the cheapest chain store. Hmmm. I wonder if that has something to do with their resentment? Are they being paid what one would consider a "living wage"?

Yes, it's bad manners to sneer at a gift, no matter how small. But perhaps there's more history to this than meets the eye of the reader here?
 
OK Gloves really off

Mac showed generosity.
These ungrateful jerks treated him badly.
There is nothing else to be said.

Lot's of people have to work holidays, hell, my parents, who have spend over 100K on the ungrateful wretches in my brother's family just this year, were left alone the entire Christmas week and the only people who visited them were my darlin' and me - even tho' the jerks live five minutes drive from them.

But they called to ask my parents to mail them their presents so they wouldn't have to drive in the snow.

Some people are just plain not worth shooting with shit and hanging for stinking.

Mac should do what I do every year: I give my parents, the dawgs, my cat and my darlin' a present. Everybody else gets an email that I've donated money in their names to the local animal rescue.

Screw them, Mac. Frankly, I'd put a basket up by the door and suggest anyone who wanted to throw their card back in was welcome to do so...otherwise, just shut their farting asses up.
 
Sudsmaster F Y I

They take home in excess of 400 each week. not a lot by anymeans.. but nothing to sneer about. anyway.. the reason I made the comment about them i did is beacuse most of them see Wal mart as the major place of their shopping and Pennys would have I though been a treat for them .. They only had to work 1/2 day christmas eve and 1/2 day on Saturday they were paid a full 8 hours for the holiday as they are all holidays. Plus double over time if that comes about. They get 2 weeks paid vacation everyear and 3 weeks after 5 years. On Birthdays I always give them a cake and $25.oo Most all of them have 4 or 5 childern and husbands are construction workers and only work now 2 or 3 days a week. the reason I did not choose Visa gift cards is the very reason of useage charges and quick experation dates.
 
Lee, instead of buying gifts next year, why not just throw a simple holiday party for your employees? Order some pizzas and sodas, or have it at a local inexpensive restaurant. Chances are it'll cost less than $500 for 10 people, and it'll be more of a social event than anything. Giving a gift to each employee, although your heart was in the right place, is a little awkward, because they're not there to be your personal friends.

Or to spend almost no money, see if your employees would like to do a secret santa exchange. This works a lot better if they socialize with each other outside of work.
 
OK, Lee, I understand some more now. Still, $400/wk must go farther where you are than here - it's $50 less than the maximum current weekly CA unemployment benefit, for example. I know I couldn't live on it without hitting my savings pretty hard. The annual vacation sounds standard (currently I only get a week, will go up to 2 weeks after 1 year). Is there group health insurance of any value?

I think though at the bottom of this isn't so much the pay, or the holidays, or the benefits. It's more a matter of respect. I gather that they perceive - for whatever reasons, valid or not - that they were not given due respect vis-a-vis the gift card and maybe for other things. So they returned the perceived disrespect in the only way they could without getting fired - by disrespecting a gift. Of course the pay and the benefits factor into the perception of respect - but it doesn't take much in terms of intangibles to ruin that as well. I don't know you or your employees or the company or the interactions. That's for you to know. But if I were you I'd take the one person who showed gratitude and ask them why. Then I'd try to apply what they said to the rest of the employees. If that doesn't work, ask them if they have any gripes and what you can do to help them be better employees.
 
Jeff thanks

I made the mistake of the Secret santa thing one year and it was a total disaster.. they just cannot understand it. One of the ladies got a pks of boxer shorts and one of the drivers got a 2 pkgs of sheer nylons. One got a Greek cookbook.. (she cant hardly read english) and one got a Donald Duck Drinking cup.I think they think it means gag gifts, drawing names was even worse. 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,myself do not celibrate Christmas. However,if someone was to hand me ANY type of gift,I would be very thankful and gracious enough to show my thanks and apreciation. I would NEVER be negative or selfish about it at all.I give out gifts all the time. all year long. There is no reason for me to wait until December when I see something for somebody in April.I grab it,wrap it and mail it or take it directly to them.Those are the fun gifts to give AND receive. Nobody ever expects to see a gift any days but thier's or Christ's birthday. I truly don't even believe that Jesus was born anytime around December.I believe that the convenience of being around the same time is more beliveable as well as convenient. Like Easter being the same period as Passover.
 
> 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
 
Greatful?

The employee sells his time, the employer buys it.

This business transaction has nothing to do with gratitude.

Mac is a decent person, some of his employees are assholes.
 
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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