30 Times People Received Holiday Bonuses So Insulting, They Just Had To Vent In This Thread
What’s the most exciting part of the holiday season for you? Indulging in grandma’s delicious pumpkin pie, showering your loved ones with gifts they’ll cherish for a lifetime, curling up on the couch to watch your favorite Christmas movies and sip hot chocolate, or perhaps receiving a holiday bonus from your employer?
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 12% of American employees receive either a year-end or holiday bonus from their bosses, so if you do get one, count your blessings! Unless, of course, your bonus is an expired coupon for a sandwich or a blanket with the corporate logo on it…
Reddit users have been sharing some of the most insulting holiday bonuses they have ever received, and their employers definitely sound like they should have been on the naughty list. From frozen turkeys that had to sit in the office all day thawing to movie tickets for closed theatres, we’ve gathered some of the worst bonuses (if we can even call them that) down below. Be sure to upvote the responses that make you glad you didn’t receive a bonus at all, and then let us know in the comments if your employers have ever given you a bonus that had you saying, "Bah humbug!" Then, if you’re interested in checking out a Bored Panda article from last year discussing the same topic, you can find that right here!
This post may include affiliate links.
Ugly blanket with company logo.
A bit later the company sent an email asking for donations to help with hurricane Katrina aid.
The next day an amended email was sent saying they did not need anymore blankets….
A book written by the company's "Digital Prophet" (yes his actual title) I immediately threw it out. My boss fished it out of my trash and put it on my desk, saying I accidentally tossed my gift. I maintained eye contact as I pushed it right back into the bin.
I worked at Food City and they gave us gift cards to locals places. It wasnt bad until the manager said “yeah these companies donated them to us at the start of the pandemic to help feed our employees” you know 9 MONTHS EARLIER.
They were insultingly stupid to actually tell you all that too!
A blanket with the company logo on it. Gave it to the homeless man that hung out in front of the shop.
Me and my coworkers were once forced to play a “Christmas game” where we could win gift cards (all bought by the owner of the company).
However she rigged the game to where only she and her sister would win the gift cards. Everyone else got an email from the owner thanking us for our hard work.
I no longer work there.
As you should, I hope none of your co-workers even work there anymore as well. Smh...
A framed picture of the CEO. The frame was made so you could not take the photo out and re-use it.
I put mine in the toilet, pissed on it. Left it there. Less than an hour later, the other 5 toilets has matching picture frames. This went on for several weeks.
Two movie theater tickets (like a redeemable gift card thing)… while movie theaters were closed due to COVID. It was a special thanks for being an essential worker.
I got a card with a note thanking me for donating my bonus back to the company. I didn't even get an option, no discussions, and it happened every year. The company was worth hundreds of millions of dollars and we were not struggling at all.
A voucher for a free turkey, except it wasn't valid at any of the grocery chains in our region...the same region where the company was headquartered.
( preface to say we got actual bonuses too. This is not a complaint) At the hospital I worked for ages ago, each employee got a voucher for a turkey. At that time quite a few of my family members worked there so we always had a massive surplus of turkeys. It was definitely overkill. We'd donate all but one so nothing went to waste. I get a giggle out of that every time Thanksgiving rolls around.
Told I was getting a 10k bonus
Received a $25 grocery store gift card
Had a boss hand me a certificate that said, get one night FREE, when you rent out my Airbnb for 5 days
2004, America Online. Call center, working tech support. Thanksgiving rolls around and there's buzz about a $500 bonus coming our way. Checks arrive and they're all huge, everyone sees a $500 bonus on their check and goes home to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner.
Monday rolls around and 900 employees have an e-mail from HR stating that the bonus was a "mistake" and "the amount will be deducted from your next check". This was a biweekly gig, meaning that money came out of the Christmas check. My next paycheck was 71 dollars. Happy holidays!
Last year my wife got a roll of toilet paper. With a note taped to it that said we're on a roll.
Once for Thanksgiving, in my housekeeping job, they hid little paper slips with turkey pictures on them in our rooms we had to find (or get written up because we weren't cleaning good enough otherwise if we couldn't find them apparently) and if we all found all our slips we'd get a bonus.
The bonus was a pen.
I didn't stay long after that
Worked for a grocery store last year. Company had record profits due to the pandemic buying. Their gift for the essential employees a $10 gift card. While the owner is out buying minor league baseball teams and building a concert venue.
oh look !! a 10$ gift card!! dont look over there at moneybags!! a whole 10$!! redeemable only at specific places!!
A 5.95 credit for a sandwich
As a public school teacher for 25 years, I have never received a "holiday" bonus, Christmas or otherwise.
record breaking profits and stock at an all time high no bonus
My job did this too! We got a letter that basically said try harder next year.
Received company-wide email that everyone was getting a $25 Tim Horton’s gift card. End of day I didn’t get mine do I asked the ceo and she said that email didn’t apply to IT so I wasn’t getting a bonus
I asked why was I sent the email then because that is mean. She just shrugged and walked away. Only one in company not to get the ‘bonus’
Walmart cut my pay 5% and said I was lucky I did not have to pay the overage back, but I had an opportunity to earn back if I stayed and tried to move up in the company
The company hired a Whitesnake cover band to play in our lunch room at work
Forgot to add important context: the drummer was the owner’s grandson
It was before my time, but the year my former company gave bottled water has been mentioned every year since.
After thanksgiving, Boss literally came in and praised all of us for a great fiscal year and said each of us would get a $500 bonus, a raise, and the company xmas party was going to be a some fancy bowling place.
Next check was regular pay. The check on the Friday before Xmas didn’t come on that Friday. It was delayed until the next Tuesday, the 23rd and the Xmas bonus was $5. I asked HR about it and they said “well, you know owner, he sometimes b.s.’s a lot”. Ever since that paycheck, the checks got progressively late. When I was fired 8 months later (retaliation for reporting to labor board) I got 3 paychecks at once in cash cause I told them a actual check was not acceptable.
source: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/retaliation labor-law-...2af707.png 
A framed photo of me and my coworkers. Half of them would be fired/quit by February
I worked at a medium sized airline for several years. One year, the CEO ran us into the ground so badly, the company filed for bankruptcy (he still got a $10m bonus)
We used to get a 10% salary bonus around Christmas time, but since the bankruptcy, we were warned that it would be "substantially less"
My bonus that year? A mint taped to a Christmas card that said "thanks a MINT for your hard work."
A $20 Walmart gift card (I was working st walmart). A company worth more than $400,000,000,000 and I got 20 f*****g dollars. I told my manager to keep it and walked out. That was the last time I ever worked retail. Never again.
If Walmart gave every one of its in-store employees a $10,000 raise, it would reduce company profits by less than 6٪.
We got a heart pin this year because “we are the heart of the company.” Oh, and told we have to work 5 hours OT each week for the first 3 weeks of January.
My wife just received a $5 gift card for Starbucks and a note that said "thanks a latte"
We got a 50% off coupon for pizza. Online purchase only. The coupon didn’t work…
A head of lettuce. Working produce in small town grocery stores is wild.
Got a 100 dollar bonus, and then a letter saying I would be laid off in two months
That's better than no notice and immediate. (Just for context where I'm coming from, my ex (back when we were together) was laid off a week before Christmas with no notice, no bonus, no severance.
A deck of cards with my boss's face on EVERY SINGLE CARD.
I worked as a dog groomer for 6 years. Our Christmas gift, on top of something with a company logo like a small blanket or water bottle, was a coupon for a free nail grind. Which, because I was the groomer, I would be doing… for free.
I’m “head of HR” for a small company. I basically run payroll. Until this year. Boss decides that people need to pay more for their insurance in 2022 and that as “head of HR” I get to write the email letting everyone know.
So my bonus was to inform the entire company about their massive (in some cases > 10%) pay cut next year.
I would have worded it as "I regret to inform you that the boss is cutting all of our wages and has ordered me to deliver the bad news. I'm sorry"
The past two years I’ve gotten a year of Disney plus. I work for a Fortune 500 company with record profits and a CEO that makes Oprah look poor.
This year. Silicone shot glass, not even with the company logo, just some letters. Two Hershey kisses.
That's it. It's also a fortune 500 company and everyone had been working OT since Thanskgiving
.. i mean i was going to quit but those 2 hershey kisses convinced me not too
High tech company with 800 employees. We each got a frozen turkey. Upper management each got six figure bonuses.
During 2020 we were working remotely and they gave us a bonus because of covid. Then they made us pay it back over 6 months. The week before Christmas they said we are no longer giving out Christmas bonuses, our 401k contribution is now your bonus. 3 months later I left.
My SO is an OR Nurse. For their bonus this year, they got a $15 Amazon gift card
For years, we used to get Christmas baskets. Cheese, sausage, nuts, fruit, etc. Then we went to $100 gift certificates. Now, as the company makes record profits, we get nothing
This year my company gave out gas station gift cards for a gas station chain that doesn't have a store within 2 hours of me
My christmas bonus this year was $10 that was given randomly to 10 people out of 1000. I have yet to receive it.
Oh and a magnet they conned someone into designing that did not get paid for it. Originally they wanted me to design the logo during the "contest" but I purposefully took that week off.
I got a frozen turkey, they gave it to me at the start of an 8 hour shift with nowhere to store it. I also didn't have an oven or a freezer at home that it would fit in.
A $5 Tim Horton's gift card. To make it even [worse], the money to buy the gift cards was was acquired from recycling refunds by one of the kind, older employees collecting, sorting and returning cans and bottles on his own time throughout the year. The owners slipped them into generic Christmas cards and handed them out, thanking everyone for their hard work.
Worked at a pizza place. They made a couple pizzas that we could eat while working on Christmas eve. Customers decided otherwise, we never had the time to stop and eat until closing time.
Years ago a company I worked for tried to do employee morale improvements to try (and fail) to make people happy for not getting raises or bonuses for years. Anyway, some of the things were taking the company to a baseball game and dinner, Friday pizza lunches, museum visits. All basically things nobody wanted to do, but did them anyway because the alternative was *work*.
I s**t you not, one of these ideas was bringing somebody in to do 20 minute shoulder massages in the conference room…. Yeah, needless to say a lot of resignations came in the coming months.
A 25 dollar gift card to a place where 25 dollars covers one and a half drinks.
Thus simultaneously giving you the opportunity to drink and a reason to do it.
From my part time school bus driving job. Where "family" is used way to often. They gave us all (this 2021 holiday) a 90s style bomber windbreakers with the company logo.
Most of these come under the heading of 'tell me you work for an American business without telling me you work for an American business'.
I work for & mostly have the government so we get nothing unless it’s out of someone’s pocket. All of our parties we paid for- boat ride with dinner around Statue of Liberty was fun! If a job gives a bonus every good year then nothing good. I always think of the Jelly of the Month club for Christmas Vacation.
I wonder what these fortune 500 companies would do if ,as a New Year gift, none of their overworked, underpaid employees decided to all call in sick . Sick of the B***S***!
Edit : if ALL of their employees called in sick. Just caught the typo
Load More Replies...
Almost all of those bonuses I would have loved instead of the one I did get. For 20 years service, two years late, I received a tie pin that immediately destroyed my favourite tie. I ended up $50 worse off. No one wears tie pins.
This post was depressing as h*ll. Been at the receiving end of this bullsh*t one too many times. 🤬👎
Worked for a security company that gave us all "gift certificates" that let us each work any 8hr shift on the schedule we wanted to. On top of our normally scheduled hours of course. Couldn't swap shifts or take one off, but work an extra 8hrs on top of the usually 40-50hrs a week most of us had already been working. On the bottom, in the tiniest of fine print, it also stated that the hours would only be paid at regular hourly rates and would not "under any circumstances" be counted towards or as overtime. So basically they wanted you to work an extra 8hrs, but not pay legal wages for it. Merry Christmas to you too 🤨....jack@ss🤬
I look at this, and the "developed" world I come from, and it is so sad. Those of us who are expats, and blessed with decent salaries (although we don't get bonuses - that's part of the type of job I have) - we always, always do a "thirteenth month" for our staff. That means you give a full month's salary, along with gifts, to the people who work for you. The fact that the people with so much (CEOs of large companies, for example) can't find a way to give from their own abundance is awful.
I worked at a law firm and for the first two years I got a $600 Christmas bonus. The third year, we hired a new receptionist who had been there for two weeks and they decided to give her half of my Christmas bonus, their words. The next two years we both received $300 each. Mind you these attorneys had hourly rates between 200-225 an hour. After five years my attorney retired and I got retired with him, I wasn’t even given severance. I was however, I was given a $200 gift card to Whole Foods. Lawyers are the stingiest.
Three years in a row, the company sent everyone a pre-printed card saying a donation had been made in our name to the Christian Coalition of America. Its was a MAGA charity 25 years before Trump ran for president started by Pat Robertson. All three years, my name was misspelled on the card. Its been awhile and I'm still ambivalent between the insult that they couldn't even get my name right for my "bonus" even after being corrected and the relief that my name isn't on the donor rolls. For the record, owner lived in another state, local team was awesome, and the job paid for me to travel so that's why I stuck around.
Meanwhile you hear stories of people who had great bonuses. I know someone who back in the 90s worked for Este Lauder IT department. Every year on Dec 1, they were given a Este Lauder catalogue and told they can pick anything up to $250, for their bonus ($500 today). The men who worked their loved it because it meant they got these large makeup gifts for their wives, and the women employees, most like it. That w as how they thanked their IT dept back in the 90s
Worked for machine shop years ago. For years we would sort and save any drops and chips and sell them for scrap. Money went to a holiday dinner for everyone. Then one year, the "office people" (president, VP, sales ect.ect. ) decided to just pocket the money. After that, all scrap went into a common dumpster that they had to pay (by weight) to have hauled off. Guess they didn't think that far ahead.
Not as bad as these posted, but old company i worked at was 15 dollar check with taxes taken out. 12.95 Merry Christmas
During the job interview and induction day it was mentioned several times everyone will definitely get a bonus after 5 years with the company. They weren't lying, after 5 years I got the bonus - £5, yes a five whole English pounds note in an envelope. I swear I thought it was a prank and I'd see my bonus in the paycheck. Nope, £5, that was it. If you're still wondering, that's £1 per YEAR bonus, and yes, after 10 years work you got £10 and so on. I left on year 6!
At least with most of the companies I worked for they increased your annual leave! Hope you didn't go nuts and spend that whole fiver in one go!!
Load More Replies...
One time when I worked for Amazon, as a "reward" for beating our monthly targets, we got an extra five minutes on our break and a free can of Coke.
I was a home health nurse and we got a gift bag that has a thank you card for all our work and a bobble head pen. I thought they forgot to put a gift in since we got the gift bag but when I talked to a coworker that’s what she got as well. Another time we got a $5 Starbucks giftcard for an appreciation. We sure were appreciated. 🙄
When I worked for IKEA, one year our Christmas bonus was a $2 scratch lotto card.
There are good and bad companies. I worked for a company that gave out quarterly profit sharing that was 125% of what you made for the quarter, stock options on a great stock, 401k- 100% matched up to $10k and the best healthcare available at no cost with a $5 copay. When I see stories like this, I wonder how those companies stay in business. Take care of your people and they will take care of you.
One year we got compression socks with ugly doodles designed by the owner.
I did the math and the first year I worked as an independent contractor I personally made the business owner about $115k profit (net, not gross). Received a $50 red lobster gift card.
We had a $300 bonus, a box of nice chocolates and a luncheon all taken away. We now get absolutely nothing.
We got a T-shirt for working during the pandemic..... Sometimes we get a small cake/brownie and if you're lucky it doesn't have mold on it. I preferred the boss before this one.... When we worked saturdays to catch up we got sandwiches ( good ones ) or pastries.... And a bonus.
One year for Christmas the company I worked for gave everyone chocolate...in the shape of a casket! I'm not kidding. Apparently one of the adult children of the big boss was in marketing and over ordered for a mortuary promotion. It wasn't even good chocolate :'(
I didn't get a Xmas bonus this year. Only salaried employees get it. That's all management. Not us workers that build and sort and do repairs and whatnot in the warehouse freezing or melting depending on the season.
When I think about bonuses, I always remember when I worked in chemical factory. One of our main resources there was methanol and we were distilling it for reuse. That distillery was three floors tall and the most important part was the boiler. Once one part of that factory was getting much needed upgrade, so everything was closed, but we still had to go something. Repaint walls, all pipes, deep clean everything,... and one of the tasks was cleaning that boiler. Imagine, central Europe, February, open windows, cold water power pressure cleaner, mostly cleaning things over head (so the ice cold water falls on you), 6 hours. Then the boss came in and said that he will "make sure to get us nice bonus". It was great bonus, about the price of box of cigarettes. If he would come with a pack of smokes or bottle of booze and said thank you, it would mean more.
Most of these come under the heading of 'tell me you work for an American business without telling me you work for an American business'.
I work for & mostly have the government so we get nothing unless it’s out of someone’s pocket. All of our parties we paid for- boat ride with dinner around Statue of Liberty was fun! If a job gives a bonus every good year then nothing good. I always think of the Jelly of the Month club for Christmas Vacation.
I wonder what these fortune 500 companies would do if ,as a New Year gift, none of their overworked, underpaid employees decided to all call in sick . Sick of the B***S***!
Edit : if ALL of their employees called in sick. Just caught the typo
Load More Replies... Almost all of those bonuses I would have loved instead of the one I did get. For 20 years service, two years late, I received a tie pin that immediately destroyed my favourite tie. I ended up $50 worse off. No one wears tie pins.
This post was depressing as h*ll. Been at the receiving end of this bullsh*t one too many times. 🤬👎
Worked for a security company that gave us all "gift certificates" that let us each work any 8hr shift on the schedule we wanted to. On top of our normally scheduled hours of course. Couldn't swap shifts or take one off, but work an extra 8hrs on top of the usually 40-50hrs a week most of us had already been working. On the bottom, in the tiniest of fine print, it also stated that the hours would only be paid at regular hourly rates and would not "under any circumstances" be counted towards or as overtime. So basically they wanted you to work an extra 8hrs, but not pay legal wages for it. Merry Christmas to you too 🤨....jack@ss🤬
I look at this, and the "developed" world I come from, and it is so sad. Those of us who are expats, and blessed with decent salaries (although we don't get bonuses - that's part of the type of job I have) - we always, always do a "thirteenth month" for our staff. That means you give a full month's salary, along with gifts, to the people who work for you. The fact that the people with so much (CEOs of large companies, for example) can't find a way to give from their own abundance is awful.
I worked at a law firm and for the first two years I got a $600 Christmas bonus. The third year, we hired a new receptionist who had been there for two weeks and they decided to give her half of my Christmas bonus, their words. The next two years we both received $300 each. Mind you these attorneys had hourly rates between 200-225 an hour. After five years my attorney retired and I got retired with him, I wasn’t even given severance. I was however, I was given a $200 gift card to Whole Foods. Lawyers are the stingiest.
Three years in a row, the company sent everyone a pre-printed card saying a donation had been made in our name to the Christian Coalition of America. Its was a MAGA charity 25 years before Trump ran for president started by Pat Robertson. All three years, my name was misspelled on the card. Its been awhile and I'm still ambivalent between the insult that they couldn't even get my name right for my "bonus" even after being corrected and the relief that my name isn't on the donor rolls. For the record, owner lived in another state, local team was awesome, and the job paid for me to travel so that's why I stuck around.
Meanwhile you hear stories of people who had great bonuses. I know someone who back in the 90s worked for Este Lauder IT department. Every year on Dec 1, they were given a Este Lauder catalogue and told they can pick anything up to $250, for their bonus ($500 today). The men who worked their loved it because it meant they got these large makeup gifts for their wives, and the women employees, most like it. That w as how they thanked their IT dept back in the 90s
Worked for machine shop years ago. For years we would sort and save any drops and chips and sell them for scrap. Money went to a holiday dinner for everyone. Then one year, the "office people" (president, VP, sales ect.ect. ) decided to just pocket the money. After that, all scrap went into a common dumpster that they had to pay (by weight) to have hauled off. Guess they didn't think that far ahead.
Not as bad as these posted, but old company i worked at was 15 dollar check with taxes taken out. 12.95 Merry Christmas
During the job interview and induction day it was mentioned several times everyone will definitely get a bonus after 5 years with the company. They weren't lying, after 5 years I got the bonus - £5, yes a five whole English pounds note in an envelope. I swear I thought it was a prank and I'd see my bonus in the paycheck. Nope, £5, that was it. If you're still wondering, that's £1 per YEAR bonus, and yes, after 10 years work you got £10 and so on. I left on year 6!
At least with most of the companies I worked for they increased your annual leave! Hope you didn't go nuts and spend that whole fiver in one go!!
Load More Replies... One time when I worked for Amazon, as a "reward" for beating our monthly targets, we got an extra five minutes on our break and a free can of Coke.
I was a home health nurse and we got a gift bag that has a thank you card for all our work and a bobble head pen. I thought they forgot to put a gift in since we got the gift bag but when I talked to a coworker that’s what she got as well. Another time we got a $5 Starbucks giftcard for an appreciation. We sure were appreciated. 🙄
When I worked for IKEA, one year our Christmas bonus was a $2 scratch lotto card.
There are good and bad companies. I worked for a company that gave out quarterly profit sharing that was 125% of what you made for the quarter, stock options on a great stock, 401k- 100% matched up to $10k and the best healthcare available at no cost with a $5 copay. When I see stories like this, I wonder how those companies stay in business. Take care of your people and they will take care of you.
One year we got compression socks with ugly doodles designed by the owner.
I did the math and the first year I worked as an independent contractor I personally made the business owner about $115k profit (net, not gross). Received a $50 red lobster gift card.
We had a $300 bonus, a box of nice chocolates and a luncheon all taken away. We now get absolutely nothing.
We got a T-shirt for working during the pandemic..... Sometimes we get a small cake/brownie and if you're lucky it doesn't have mold on it. I preferred the boss before this one.... When we worked saturdays to catch up we got sandwiches ( good ones ) or pastries.... And a bonus.
One year for Christmas the company I worked for gave everyone chocolate...in the shape of a casket! I'm not kidding. Apparently one of the adult children of the big boss was in marketing and over ordered for a mortuary promotion. It wasn't even good chocolate :'(
I didn't get a Xmas bonus this year. Only salaried employees get it. That's all management. Not us workers that build and sort and do repairs and whatnot in the warehouse freezing or melting depending on the season.
When I think about bonuses, I always remember when I worked in chemical factory. One of our main resources there was methanol and we were distilling it for reuse. That distillery was three floors tall and the most important part was the boiler. Once one part of that factory was getting much needed upgrade, so everything was closed, but we still had to go something. Repaint walls, all pipes, deep clean everything,... and one of the tasks was cleaning that boiler. Imagine, central Europe, February, open windows, cold water power pressure cleaner, mostly cleaning things over head (so the ice cold water falls on you), 6 hours. Then the boss came in and said that he will "make sure to get us nice bonus". It was great bonus, about the price of box of cigarettes. If he would come with a pack of smokes or bottle of booze and said thank you, it would mean more.
