Imagine receiving an average annual bonus of $456.7 million… One can only dream. But that’s what Elon Musk reportedly rakes in every year, on top of his other earnings as the big boss of Tesla Inc. According to data, the average bonus for American workers in 2024 was around $2,503, but not everyone was that lucky.

People have been sharing the most ridiculous company bonuses, gifts and perks they’ve ever received, and some are so strange they’re insulting: a rock, an empty tin, a handful of sweets. These are just a few of the random rewards that employees were expected to be grateful for. Bored Panda has compiled a list of mind-boggling corporate offerings that people received in return for their hard work and loyalty.

#1 This Will Cover My Rising Rent

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#2 What My School Gave Its Teachers For Teacher Appreciation Week

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#3 For Christmas 2019, My Boss Gifted Us With 1 Work From Home Day In 2020

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The concept of bonuses is not new. Companies have been using them for ages to attract new talent, keep workers motivated and boost morale. Bonuses, incentives, perks and gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Some will really push you to work hard. Others, as this list demonstrates, could deflate you faster than a helium balloon, and might even have you frantically searching for a new job.

You may want to consider moving to Chennai, India if you’re after big, flashy corporate gifts. A company there called Team Detailing Solutions reportedly gifted 28 cars and 29 motorbikes to employees to boost their morale and give a great, big “Thank You” for their hard work in 2024. And we aren’t talking old, beaten-up vehicles. All were brand new, and some workers even received a Mercedes Benz.

#4 My Wife’s Teacher Appreciation Gift From The Administrators Who Have Let Everyone Know All Year They Do Not Appreciate Them At All

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#5 Happy Nurses’ Week

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#6 10 Year Symbol: Represents Durability And Flexibility. My Wife Got This From Work, She’s Been There 19 Years. They Gave This And A Bunch Of Other Random Stuff

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The company revealed it has around 180 highly skilled workers who hail from “humble backgrounds”. Team Detailing Solutions started gifting cars and bikes in 2022. They select the most motivated employees when deciding who deserves new wheels.

“We wanted to show our appreciation for their tireless efforts in driving the company’s success. We believe our employees are our greatest assets,” said Managing Director of the company, Sridhar Kannan.

In addition to giving out cars and bikes, the company also provides what it calls “marriage assistance” to employees. Basically, when a worker is planning their wedding, they receive 100,000 rupees, which works out to around $1,200.

#7 These Are Trying Times With High Inflation, Better Bust The Sticker Budget

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#8 Getting This As A Teacher Is Degrading. If You Want To Show Us Appreciation, Then Pay Us!

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#9 Little “Gift” My Wife Got One Year

Empty gift bag from work.

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While corporate gifts don’t have to be extravagant and over-the-top, research shows they are important. One survey found that 57 % of employees polled were more likely to be loyal and continue working for a company that provides gifts to employees.

But gifts can backfire. 37% of respondents felt under-appreciated by their boss based on some of the gifts they’ve received. 42% said they’d received a gift they didn’t want. An empty tin, a rock, or a packet of popcorn might very well make that list.

#10 Employee Appreciation Day

Our local Walmart decided to show their appreciation for the hard work working employees who tirelessly work themselves to ensure that the shelves are stocked for customers.

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#11 The Warehouse I Work At Was #1 In The Company For The 1st Quarter, Management Promised A Huge Reward, This Was It

The GM of the warehouse kept going on and on about how glad he was that we hit #1 because he’d be getting a bonus check “just in time for the warmer weather.” Also a few suits from corporate came in to “personally and individually thank each of us” and needless to say they neither talked to nor thanked nobody.

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#12 Our Work Christmas Bonus. Can’t Wait To Pay My Bills With This

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“Even a relatively small gesture around the holidays can help generate a boost in employee morale and loyalty,” notes healthcare media company Health Leaders. “Companies that go the extra mile and try to get their workers thoughtful and meaningful gifts can expect even greater dividends.” In short, your corporate gift can be the gift that keeps giving (back to you) if you do it right.

#13 The Bring Your Own Potato Bar Hosted By My School For Teacher Appreciation

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#14 Here’s A New One. If Our Store Makes The Most Sales Competitively We Earn A Pizza Party Not For Ourselves But For Our Bosses

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#15 My “Bonus” A $5 Dunkin Gift Card

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Temy Mancusi-Ungaro is the Chief Executive Officer of global data-driven gifting platform Reachdesk. He says personalized and timely gifts are an excellent way for employers to let staff know they are humans that are appreciated and cared for. It also signals that the company wants to invest in their employees’ work experience.

The expert adds that there’s an almost guaranteed return on investment. “Every dollar I spend on my people, I get $10 in return. The more I invested in my employees, the better my customer service becomes,” said Mancusi-Ungaro in a podcast.

#16 Company Gave Employees Cookies To Celebrate $10 Billion In Profits

Give the workers an extra day of PTO a year, or a raise, or working technology? Nah, how about COOKIES???

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#17 My Friend Got A “Gift” From Work. Chappy New Year

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#18 Pathetic

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According to online gifting platform Giftsenda, corporate gifting strategy should begin with a budget. “Ensuring your gift aligns with your brand’s core values will help translate the message you intend on sending, but it is crucial to ensure you do not spend beyond your means,” explains the site.

#19 2 Billion In Gross Profit

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#20 A Competing Company Is Offering Us 20 Percent More To Work For Them. Management’s Response

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#21 “Gift” From The School My Girlfriend Got For Teacher’s Appreciation Week

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Giftsenda cautions that companies should also take into account cultural sensitivities, conflicts of interest and legal regulations. Gifting has evolved over the years, and companies should think creatively and out-of-the box.

“Conventional gifts, like branded stationery and calendars are a thing of the past; making way for customized gifts, experiential offerings and the power of choice,” notes Giftsenda, adding that businesses are using personalization in gifting to make longer lasting impressions. 

#22 We Bust Out A** In The Heat All Day In Auto Detail And Touch Every Car That Leaves Our Dealership (Hyundai) So We Sell A Decent Amount A Day. This Was Our Reward For It

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#23 Congrats On 35 Years For The Company! Here Is 12 Donuts

It’s kinda sad honestly after 35 years they think 12 donuts is good enough.

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#24 Last Week Boss Overhears Us Complaining About No Raises, This Week Everyone Get Cookies

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Instead of a cheap, tacky, useless or insulting gift, corporates can consider buying experiences for their staff. Think sky-diving, cooking classes, concert tickets, or massages. And if you’re reluctant to spend, and think frugality is going to pay out in the long run, think again. There are plenty of examples where it’s backfired, and cost a company reputation damage.

#25 This So What We Got After “Breaking Records” For The Company

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#26 I Work At A Prison That Is Terribly Short Staffed, 12 Hour Overtime Shifts Are Mandated, And We’ve Just Been Informed That We Won’t Be Getting A Yearly Raise For Cost Of Living/Inflation. This Is Our “Mental Health Awareness Month” Gift

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#27 Spencer’s Gifts Sending Literal Bricks To Employees As A “Thank You”

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In 2022, energy supplier E.On publicly apologized after sending socks to its customers as part of a badly thought-out PR campaign to generate awareness around saving energy. As per the BBC, the socks “came with a message encouraging people to leave ‘lighter footprints’ by turning heating down and lowering carbon emissions.”

Customers were not amused, with many angered that the cost of living crisis in the U.K. was related to the rising cost of electricity.

“If you recently received a pair of socks from us, we would like to say we are incredibly sorry for how we have made some people feel,” tweeted the company. “In light of the seriousness of current challenges that many people are facing, this mailing should have been stopped and we are sorry.”

Case in point: put thought into gifts, or be willing to pay the price.

#28 This Was Our Only Gift For “Employee Appreciation Month”

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#29 A Gift From Work… To Motivate, Validate Our Efforts. They Ordered 100’s

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#30 My Company’s “Appreciation Gift” For Breaking Company Q2 And 1h Records

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#31 CFO Sent Me A Thank You Gift

Backstory: I’ve been doing the workload of 2 people for almost 2 years now, they just fired someone from my team and my manager has gone on stress leave and long service leave so I’ve been covering for both of them for the last 5-6 weeks too.

The company CFO, who I report to, lives in a different state. Last month I had to do our end of month procedures by myself for the first time (which usually involves 4 people) and had to be done on a strict timeline. I worked my guts out to do it, and afterwards I had 973 emails of my own to action that I had ignored to finish end of month. I was overwhelmed and told the CFO and CEO that I was taking a day off because my workload is too high and I needed to mental break to reset.

The CFO has been making a big deal for the last 3 weeks to the exec team and other managers in my office about how she’s organized a nice gift for me to say thank you for the hard work I’ve put in. The last week she mentioned it to me directly and has been asking me to hunt it down because she couldn’t understand how it still hadn’t gotten there and didn’t want it to get lost etc…

Today it turned up and it was literally 2 packets of Peppa Pig lollies. I have never laughed so hard, yet been so offended at the same time.
How would you take this? Should I say something?

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#32 Genuinely Ready To Quit! This Was My Bonus For Making The Company $85,000 In February

They gave me rainbow earphones because I’m part of the LGBT community. The earphones cost $2 on Amazon and didn’t work. This is a Fortune 50 company. I make gross $45,000 a year.

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#33 Received This Today 5/9/19 For “Employee Appreciation Week”

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#34 FedEx Showed Its Appreciation For Its Essential Employees With This. Thanks, FedEx

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#35 What My Hospital Gave An 8 Person Ir Department For Employee Appreciation Day. 1 Kitkat Bar

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#36 My Company Has Given Each Employee 1-2 Bottles Of Expired Hand Sanitizer For “Employee Appreciation Day” 3 Years In A Row. Guess They Had Some Left Over From The Lockdowns

My husband works in HAZMAT. He’s 100% sure it’s because bulk disposal of 70% iso is too expensive, so they’d rather disperse it to staff and make us get rid of it for them.
It smells horrible and I almost never use hand sanitizer when soap and water is available.

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#37 Lmfao Have A Snack

 I barely made my mortgage, I’m a caregiver for a parent with medical bills piling up. I’ve been asking, applying, and almost begging to do anything in this org that will give me a raise to take care of responsibilities – I got a Welch’s fruit snack.

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#38 Love How I Get This After Spending 5 Years At A Job

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#39 Hit Our Yearly Target A Month Early And Got This Instead Of A Pizza Party

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#40 After 10 Years At Her Job She Got A Pay Rate Increase, I Don’t Know What We’re Are Going To Do With All This Extra Cash

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#41 First Day Of Teacher Appreciation Week. This Was Our Gift Bag Given To Us By Administration

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#42 Check Out My Christmas Bonus After Making My Company $1 Million In The Last 2 Months Alone. $25 Card

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#43 This Is What A Got As A Gift From My Company For Successfully Going Live With A Client With 2m€ Contract, Seems Pretty Fair

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#44 My Girlfriend’s Boss Handed This To Her In Her Office Saying, “These Are Being Handed Out From The Company.” I’m Not Sure If This Is A Christmas Gift. What Do You All Think?

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#45 This Snow Reminded Me Of That Time When My Employer Asked Us To Work In -40 Weather. Our Reward? A Hat

The hat reads “40 Below Survivor 2019” which sucks for a couple of reasons. 1. People literally could not make it in, and I had a number of factors that allowed me to do so and 2. It wasn’t at our facility, but another employee of the company actually died in the snow. Your job doesn’t care about you. Stay warm and stay safe.

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#46 After A Year Nurse Shortages, Running Out Of PPE, Working Employees To The Bone Without Hazard Pay, This Is The Meal My Wife’s Hospital Had The Audacity To Serve For Nurse’s Appreciation Week

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#47 Got Mailed A Pen For A Years Worth Of Work

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#48 No Money Reward, No Time Off, Just Meaningless Things

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#49 To Show Employee Appreciation During The Holidays

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#50 Everyone In My Department Received One Of These From Our Boss. What Is The Point Of This? The Best Part Is She Hand Signed Every Single One. There’s Like 50 People In My Department

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#51 This Is What I Got For Working 1 Year At My Job. They Spelt My Last Name Wrong. Pathetic

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#52 After Working 3 Positions And Managing 20 Employees, Here’s My Work Christmas Gift

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#53 Employee Appreciation Day At The 3rd Biggest Automotive Supplier, Free Tea Or Coffee

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#54 This Gift From Administration For Teachers Appreciation Week. It Was A Bunch Of Tiny Trinkets Wrapped In Tissue Paper

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#55 The “Gift” Received For Teacher Appreciation Week

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#56 The Gift I Got From Work For “National Thank You Day.” I Feel Truly Insulted

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#57 Found This In Our Break Room This Morning. “Instead Of A Raise Or Bonus, We’ll Give You Fake Money With The Managers Face On It”

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#58 My Spouse’s Christmas Bonus From Panera

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#59 Merry Christmas! It Was A Record Profit Year So Here Are Some Baked Beans And Potatoes You Can Bake To Celebrate. Thank You For Your Efforts

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#60 It Was Teacher Appreciation Week And They Said Dinner Would Be Provided

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#61 I Feel So Valued

Here ya go – my “bonus” from one of my jobs this year at a grocery store: homemade Chex mix. Yup.
Because nothing says “I value you” like a baggie of cereal and pretzels.

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#62 Our Office Gave Us This To Say “Thanks For Your Hard Work” After There Has Been A Serious Sickness Spread Around The Office. I Would Rather Had A Pizza Party

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#63 We Made A Ton Of Money For The Company I Work At, And A $2 Hot Pocket Is Our Reward. “Yay”

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#64 Instead Of A Christmas Bonus This Year My Work Gave Out Gift Cards To The Company “Swag Store”, Where You Can Buy Luxury Items Such As

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#65 My Multi-Million Dollar Health Care Company Said They Were Getting Us A Present For Being Essential Workers. We Got A Baggie Of Masks

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#66 What Twenty Years Is Worth To My Company

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#67 I Present To You, My Reward For Covering 2 Vacant Positions In My Department While Management Has Been “Looking” For Replacements. One Has Been Vacant For Almost 12 Months, And The Other For 7

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#68 Girlfriend Has Worked For The Company Over A Year. Here Was How They Rewarded Her

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#69 What 5 Years At My Company Gets You

Due to doxing concerns, I can’t show the inside but it’s just a single line of text that said happy anniversary from (company location).

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#70 My Moms 10 Year Associate Anniversary Present From A Retail Store

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#71 My Job Just Gave Me A Pin Celebrating 5 Years Of Me Working There. When The Company I’m Working At Was Sold And I’m Being Laid Off In A Few Months Because The Company That Bought Us Out Doesn’t Want To Pay My Current Wages

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#72 I See Your Fancy Lindor Treats And Raise You The 6 Individually Wrapped Lifesavers I Received From Work

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#73 Saw This In The Breakroom Today

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#74 My Partner’s “Employee Appreciation Gift” After Wawa Has Refused To Give Any Pay Raises For Two Years

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#75 To Show Appreciation To Employees

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#76 Store Managers Get A $100,000+ Bonus, Employees Get

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#77 Our Company Is Giving Us Gifts Instead Of Holiday Pay. This Was Today. I Am In A Mood

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#78 I’ve Been At This Job For 2 Years And Have Been Working Nonstop Since The Pandemic Started. They Mentioned Gifting Us Something As An Appreciation For All Our Hard Work During These Chaotic Times. Here’s What They Gave Us

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#79 I Left My Old Job After 4 Years, They Sent Me This

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#80 Today Is Teacher Appreciation Day. Our Principal Told Us She Left “Surprise Treats” In The Lounge As Our Gift. My Favorite Is The Leftover Snack From Her Southwest Flight

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#81 We Were Promised Candy Bars Today For Teacher Appreciation Week

For context, the empty bowls were from the small bags of Sun Chips from yesterday.

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#82 This Employee Appreciation “Gift” My Husband Received. Four Candies, A Pen, And A Sticker, In This Useless Mesh Bag. Wtf?

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#83 My Wife’s 3 Year Working Anniversary “Gift”

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#84 My Christmas Bonus This Year

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#85 I Got A King Size Payday For Christmas Bonus. For The Past 4 Years I’ve Gotten $1000 In Amazon Gift Cards. This Year Was Candy And $100 To Walmart

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#86 My Reward For Being Top Sales, Top Customer Engagement, Going Above And Beyond, And Being A Team Coach. Yay

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#87 Bonus? Nope! Raise? Nope

But thank you master for my non-delux chicken sandwich, provided because labor inspectors are here.

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#88 My Wife’s Salary Is Made Out Of Commissions And Instead Of Getting Cash Payment For A Product She Sold Her Company Gave Her Hkd 6k ($766) In Vouchers To Spend In A “Japanese” Supermarket

This supermarket isn’t even located in our area and we will have to carry the groceries from far away with public transport or cab.
PS: in Hong Kong we don’t drive as most of locals.

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#89 My Husband’s Gift For 5 Years Of Employment Arrived Today

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#90 Hours Majorly Cut, Asking Tms To Go Home Early, Retracting Shifts, Requesting Tms To Go On Demand. This Goes Up In The Breakroom. Read The Room??

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#91 It’s Employee Appreciation Week At My Sos Work Place. This Is What They Were Given

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#92 My Employee Appreciation Gift

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#93 Company Made 5 Billion Last Year And All I Got Was A Candy Bar

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#94 Just Received My Christmas Bonus From The Company…

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#95 My Girlfriend’s Nurse Appreciation Gift From One Of The Largest Hospitals In The Metroplex…

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#96 I’m Back With Another “Employee Appreciation Day” Gift From My Work!

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#97 Co-Worker Won This Cup And Bag, As A Gift In A Raffle, During Our Hospital Staff Appreciation Week. They Also Only Alloted Us $12 To Spend On Our Appreciation Lunch They Baught Us. I Feel Really Appreciated Now!

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#98 My Bonus For Working 5 Years With The Same Company. Not A Pay Raise, Not Cola. This

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#99 Mcdonalds Will Reward You For Working 30 Long Years With $300

Picked up a part time second job to pay down credit cards/save for a vacation and saw this in the break room. This is a franchise, so I’m not sure if this is normal for McDonalds or not. But imagine putting in your 30 years, getting ready to retire, and being presented with $300 and getting told to buy yourself something “special”.

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#100 4 Of My Coworkers Quit Last Week, So Corporate Handed Out Gift Bags. Corporate Clearly Thinks We’re Kindergarteners

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#101 Local Hardware Store Shows How Employees Are Rewarded

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#102 Employee Appreciation Day, Somehow This Seems Worse Than Pizza

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#103 We Got Our Christmas Bonus Today. Not Even Handed Out. Just A Pile In The Break Room

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#104 Asked For A Raise 2 Months Ago And Was Passed Over For A Promotion That I Was ‘Guaranteed’ To Get After A Colleague Retired. Got This For My 2 Year Anniversary Today. I Also Have A Chocolate Allergy

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#105 3 Year Gift Bag

After 3 years of working for the local McDonald’s almost 50 hours a week this is what they got me.
A non working hamburger pen A broken telescopic pipe cleaner I think with a red metal case A card caddy for my phone I can’t use due to my phone case An unmarked gift card for Walmart A free cone voucher A free meal voucher A 3 years of service pin
It’s the thought that counts I guess. What do yall think

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#106 This Is Despicable

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#107 Employee Appreciation Day Gift Where I Work

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#108 Today For Employee Appreciation Day, (Which Was 6 Days Ago, Mind You) We Were Gifted… Earplugs That Are Slightly Better Than The Ones They Already Supply!

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#109 Hits Different When It’s A Costco, And Freezing Outside

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#110 Saw Someone Post The Cup They Received From Their Job As A Thank You For Working During The Pandemic And I Raise You A Bracelet Dollar General Gave Out

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#111 10 Year Work Anniversary Present From Work

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#112 Reward For 5 Years Service At A Fortune 500 Bank

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#113 My Job Decided To Throw Us A “Pizza Party” A Day Late. They Could Give Us A Raise, Or Even Staff Us More Than The Absolute Bare Minimum. Instead, We Are Given Pizza And A Cake While We Work, Not Even An Extra Break To Eat It

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#114 A Bunch Of Techs At My Husband’s Hvac Company Want To Quit. This Was Management’s “Gift” To Them To Smooth Things Over

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