The size of the year-end bonus varies but is often based on an employee's position, salary, and performance metrics.
Depending on the nature of the work and the type of company, it can also come in different forms, including lump-sum payments in cash, stock options, retirement plans, and health benefits.
However, not everyone is happy with their package.
In fact, we found two recent Reddit threads (by platform users Nimfrank and Fuzzyloulou) where people have been complaining about theirs.
This post may include affiliate links.
I worked for a company that gave us $5 per year of service, and a free turkey or ham from the local grocery store. The ham was canned, and the turkey was the size of a chicken.
My third year there, they discontinued the turkey/ham. After tax, I got a check for $11.
I started a new job later that year. At Christmas time, my boss pulled me aside and told me that bonuses would be coming, and warned me not to be discouraged because my bonus would be prorated as I had started midyear.
On bonus day, he pulled me into an office apologized for the size of the bonus, and handed me a check for $8,000.
I laughed my a*s off.
He asked me why I was laughing. Fortunately, I still had my uncashed "bonus" from the previous year in my wallet. I handed him the check for $11 bucks, and told him what it was.
"I guess you're OK with the prorated bonus, then?" was his reply.
We got told we were getting nothing. And the management excuse was "Well, not everyone celebrates Christmas, so it wouldn't be fair"
My colleague hit the nail on the head "I've never heard diversity weaponised until I heard that"
How about calling it a Holiday Bonus or Year End Bonus? Everyone should be fine with that. Hell, I'd even take a Ramadan Bonus, even though I'm not muslim. Bonus is bonus..
"The popularity of giving out holiday bonuses can depend on a few different factors,” Keith Spencer, Career Expert at FlexJobs, a platform that helps people find remote, hybrid, and flexible job opportunities, told Bored Panda.
"For instance, certain industries might be more likely to offer bonuses than others and a company’s size, budget, and level of performance could also impact whether or not they distribute bonuses to employees."
"That being said, while holiday bonuses are not universal and the size of bonuses can vary pretty widely, they are still a fairly common practice for a lot of businesses," Spencer said.
Not a bad bonus itself, but management's reaction to how we used our bonuses was despicable. Years ago I worked as a paramedic in the ER. The first few years, we'd get a pretty good bonus, $200-$500 depending on position. Then the hospital was sold. New owners cut bonuses and gave each employee a gift certificate for a free turkey from a local grocery chain. At the time, the value was about $15. Most of the staff, myself included, felt a bit dismayed, but we were polite about it. Since not many of us cooked turkey for Christmas dinner, we donated our gift certificates to a couple of homeless shelters in town. Management caught wind of it and sent an email to all employees stating that since we "didn't appreciate the thoughtful gift provided by the hospital" there would be no Christmas bonuses going forward. We tried to pay it forward to someone less fortunate, and got slapped in the face for it.
The local media should have been informed of this. The damage-control press conference would have been.......interesting.
What Christmas bonus?
10k employees. Company made 5.5 BILLION in profit.
CEO makes $40m and has TWO $12m houses.
Not even a Christmas party this year. "Budget problems, blah, blah, blah".
According to recent research, this year, many workers will be saying goodbye to their holiday bonuses as companies look for ways to tighten their belts heading into 2024.
Of the more than 200 U.S. companies surveyed, 34% say they would not be giving out the extra money to employees. That's the highest number since 36% decided against bonuses in 2019, and considerably higher compared to last year, when 27% of companies surveyed opted out of the practice.
I got a letter from corporate letting me know that they had made a donation in my name to a charity. Specifically, to themselves (I work for a non-profit)
Work in sales (top performing team). Entire team got the same book on how to be a better at sales. We are supposed to read this book on our downtime (whenever that is) and then management wants to go over the book chapter by chapter in our weekly team meetings.
This “gift” was not well received on the team. There’s been talk about sending management a book on effective leadership or “management for dummies.”
Just attend the meeting, and when management asks who read the book, not one hand goes up. Then walk out of the meeting, without the books. Management can guess what's going to happen to their sales numbers.
Because of this, "some companies will flex their creativity in showing appreciation for employees around the holiday season by giving them non-monetary bonuses," Keith Spencer of FlexJobs said.
"It’s not uncommon to see companies offer employees additional PTO, make charitable donations to an organization of their choice, or provide different wellness initiatives or personal development opportunities," he explained.
However, as we can see from this list, such attempts can seriously backfire if they're not thought out. "When considering alternative bonuses, it’s important for a company to think about their employees’ interests and values so they can choose a gift that will resonate with them," Spencer added.
I used to work at the Cheesecake factory and one year they gave everyone a cheesecake. From Costco.
They don't have it in their budgets to give their own cheesecake away? I guess it would be cruel to give only one slice.
Got a $100 "bonus" taxed so came out to $67
Then hr sends out an email next day asking everyone who received a bonus if EQCH PERSON would "pitch in" 25-50$ each towards a bass pro shop gift card for the boss because of "all he does for us"
They asked every one of the 55 employees this.
The same boss whom the year prior gave the server at the Xmas dinner $1200 In tips because she sat on his lap like he was Santa and then proceeded to tell 12 people there they were f*****g fired. And wondered why they didn't show up to work the 27th.
F**k you ryan. Your a real piece of s**t
I worked at a company and the owner walked around during the Christmas party and gave people their paychecks in a fancy envelope.
That way clients would be thinking that the employees were getting bonuses.
We all received a book that the CEO wrote
An email telling us that because we are IT we wont be getting a holiday bonus anymore.
"As IT is a cost center, and doesnt generate revenue, IT departments will no longer be eligible for a holiday bonus"
Never mind that this company did BILLIONS of dollars a year in business... without any physical locations. Their entire operational surface was ONLINE...
yeah.
2 weeks later my IT Manager comes in all excited about the new Tesla he just bought.
oh, right, hes not an IT Manager. Hes a Manager of IT. So hes a manager, not IT...
the collective moral of all the IT teams dropped to near zero. 5 years later when I left that company, IT still wasnt eligable for holiday bonuses, AND had been uninvited from the Holiday party. Not that they cared, they just kept hiring offshore IT replacements with zero skill. yeah F**K that company. They are a mortgage company.
After busting our [butts] to achieve the goal for the year, the boss got a FAT check. Mid 5 figures We got a $5 Starbucks card .....one....cup....of....coffee.
Next year, just when "peak goal" time rolls around, go work for one of the competitors.
Not me, but my wife - she's a home carer. During Covid lockdowns the head office asked them all to come in to pick up their Christmas bonus treat - it was a single f*****g tea bag with a bow around it and a mini pack of biscuits - you get more at a cheap hotel complimentary.
That was it, all they got for risking their lives and their families lives on a daily basis while everyone else was marooned at home.
We get a mandatory work party which will cost each of us 25 dollars
Mandatory or not, I wouldn't show up. My $25 would stay right in my pocket, where it belongs.
Not me but in the late 90s my mom was a nurses aide for a very large hospital (approx 5k employees at the time) that would give everyone monetary “end of year” bonuses as well as vouchers in your pay check envelope for a free turkey and a free ham at the local grocery store chain.
One year though, without an announcement ahead of time, the hospital had no bonuses and no turkey or ham vouchers.
There was a voucher however, to pick up your free copy of a hard cover, gold leafed, all pages printed in color book of the entire history of the hospital itself. Thousands of these had been printed and, by spring of the next year, waiting rooms and lobbies all throughout the hospital and clinics were overflowing with the books. Pages were ripped out and kids had colored in them.
Several physicians, surgeons and RNs quit over the lack of bonuses because that was part of their employment contract with the hospital. It was a mess.
I hope those who quit because of the contract violation also sued and won.
Last year our school gave teachers a plastic bag with: a mini candy, a mini hand sanitizer and a single tea bag.
We got a digital cake. As in a clip inserted into an email as a thank you. There's a grocery store across the street.
I got a $30 Door Dash voucher! Bought almost all of my lunch for 1 day. We only pulled in like $500 million in revenue last year, times are really tough.
Here's mine:
I was working for a company and was a few months in. In this company, there were full time and contracted workers (they would have people on contract for 3 months before converting them to full time. I was projected to move to full time in the new year). Before the holiday, they gathered ALL of us together on a meeting, gave the updates, and told us they had a special announcement. The CEO then said that everybody on the call was getting a $1,200 bonus.
Once we got off, they messaged us and said that non full-time employees weren't included. They forgot to take us off of the meeting.
So, my worst bonus was a bonus that I had and then didn't have.
Boss sent out a $10 Starbucks gift card the day he laid off 10% of our staff. “It’s not a layoff, it’s a coffee break” is now a banned phrase on teams/slack.
A butterball turkey branded check for a $10 turkey at the grocery store. Not a gift certificate a check with routing numbers and everything.
I still don't know how it worked or why. I worked at a hotel and everyone was handed a legit check from butterball for $10 with their paycheck.
I took it to the grocery store and they got so confused they just gave me a frozen turkey.
One of the bellmen said he cashed it for $10 and it worked.
I'm still confused by the butterball turkey check.
It's how butterball does their gift certificates. You use it to pay at the register. I've purchase them for our company for years but these are in addition to semi-decent bonuses and a lavish holiday party with lots of gifts. Good on the doorman cashing his. That's hilarious.
My boss got me a book. When I opened it, a card fell out addressed to him telling him to enjoy the book. The guy who sat next to me had a different boss and he got $1,000 cash.
Give the book back to the boss saying "Here, I think you misplaced your gift from X".
My wife got a flyer with a QR code so she can pick her own gift from a list of five company-branded items (sweatshirt, speaker, water bottle, etc.).
Only the checkout link is broken, so she can't actually order anything.
A pen with the company’s name on it. The name was spelled wrong.
A water bottle and padded notebook each with a photo of the owner’s dog on it.
Mandatory company dinner with coworkers. I spend 9 hours a day with them, why ruin my evening?
There is no such thing as mandatory unless you are salary. Then, yeah, you gotta go.
"A donation has been made in your name to the New York City ballet"
My old work started by giving Christmas cards stuffed with cash. Within ten years, the bonus was reduced to nothing. We ended up with a boring holiday party, two drink tickets, and a mashed potato bar.
Many vital employees who helped build the place quit.
The mgmt continues to chip away. It went from a great place to work to s**t.
Large logistics warehouse handler job. All of us got a bag of swiss miss inside a company christmas hat from our group manager. Told us to make ourselves a hot chocolate in the breakroom during lunch.
A donut.
Yes, a pink glazed donut with sprinkles on the top. Individually boxed and left on our desks late at night by the internal marketing team.
I got in early to discover mine and enjoy the comments from my co-workers. The most common one was "oh get f****d" as they yeeted it into the trash.
Put a note on boss's desk - "We appreciate how your gift represents this office. We're the donut. And you're the hole."
A box full of candy and beef jerky. It also contained a book written by the CEO of the company about how to be better at your job.
A couple years ago, my old employer gifted every single department one tube of chapstick with the company’s logo on it. I mean, I used it but then lost it like a week later so…
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I work for a small business. Boss gave us all a bonus on our black Friday paycheck, which is super thoughtful. She also threw us a party where we did a fun painting craft, bought us breakfast at a bougie crepe place, AND gave us each a personalized gift. Oh, AND a bonus for each google review we received that year, preloaded onto a local coffee shop gift card. We work hard and for that the boss spoils us.
I once managed a bunch of folks who were just out of college. My boss wanted to give them gift baskets of bougie food. I asked him to give them a happy hour, without us (management) present. They left work early, had free food and drinks, and proceeded to spend the whole evening pub crawling, as a team. On purpose. For fun. Saved the boss $250 from holiday gift budget, and he was thanked by nearly everyone for a great night. Bonuses were small that year, $100 per person, but people were happy and we had almost no staff turnover.
I work for a small business. Boss gave us all a bonus on our black Friday paycheck, which is super thoughtful. She also threw us a party where we did a fun painting craft, bought us breakfast at a bougie crepe place, AND gave us each a personalized gift. Oh, AND a bonus for each google review we received that year, preloaded onto a local coffee shop gift card. We work hard and for that the boss spoils us.
I once managed a bunch of folks who were just out of college. My boss wanted to give them gift baskets of bougie food. I asked him to give them a happy hour, without us (management) present. They left work early, had free food and drinks, and proceeded to spend the whole evening pub crawling, as a team. On purpose. For fun. Saved the boss $250 from holiday gift budget, and he was thanked by nearly everyone for a great night. Bonuses were small that year, $100 per person, but people were happy and we had almost no staff turnover.
