Annual Christmas Party/ Bonus Thread: 2018 Edition

Newspaper job: No bonus, our office manager announced something pot-lucky less than 24 hours before. (I live a 32-minute commute one way, no dice.)

Retail job: We get monthly sales bonuses and we've hit 7 out of the last 8 months, so that's cool. Our Christmas party will be at a roadhouse that is native and it will be great food, beverages and fellowship.

 

From the SID side:
University-wide buffet dinner
Athletic Department Xmas party/with Secret Santa
Team Secret Santa will be 12/26 -- we had tournament this week

 

Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots sober: not even remotely interesting for an adult.

Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots with two drinks: a magical, rollicking competition.

 

I think this is why we got pizza the other night. Not 100% sure, but can’t think of any other explanation.

 

This is such fucking bullshit.

 

One Christmas working my new job (Elementary school secretary) has produced more fun and gifts than 23 years at the Tampa Bay Times combined. Of course, some of the gifts are "Secretary of the Year" coffee mugs and such, but they are usually accompanied by delicious home-baked treats. PTA moms can bake up a storm.
Anyone ever play "Left Center Right"? Best party game ever.

 

We had a holiday potluck. Turkey, gravy, baked goods. Had interviews set to start at the same time, thought I could get back. Everything ran late and then ran long, and by the time I returned there was no leftover lunch food, though still a lot of baked goods.

The idea of a Christmas bonus sound so archaic, like when people complain about pensions.

 

Two old holiday stories (might have posted them in the past, but worth recycling).

At my first job, the paper gave Christmas bonuses of half your weekly pay. Meaning I got $100 before taxes, and most of the senior editors would get $250 or
$300 (it was a small paper and this was the early '80s). We'd hear about holiday bonuses at other area companies and complain about the paper being chintzy. But given what has happened since, it now seems generous. That first job looks better all the time.

Then there was the Dallas Times Herald, where I worked in '86-87. During the first holiday season after W.D. Singleton bought the paper, everyone in the newsroom received an envelope in his/her mailbox. Something bulky was inside. We thought maybe we'd gotten something nice. Instead, it was ... a cassette tape with the paper's cheesy new advertising jingle. That was our Christmas "bonus." Many of my co-workers threw those cassettes right in the trash in protest. I waited until after work and tossed mine in my apartment complex's dumpster.

 

We received a day's pay for a Christmas bonus and the company provided a barbecue spread from one of the top local BBQ places. Whomever works on Christmas will be fed ham and turkey plus sides.

 

Working on Christmas - time and a half for an easy shift and usually the bosses would spring for at least a ham - was probably the best newspaper bonus. You're spending the day with your work family, it's always the younger staff that works Xmas anyway, so it was usually a fun time.

 

I would’ve recorded over the cassette with a Bon Jovi album or somesuch.

 

This makes me so mad I want to scream. You have to respect the news organizations that simply pretend Christmas and New Years do not exist. Look, we get it. Newspapers are out for one thing: to make sure the CEOs have a nice Christmas and a nice summer. It has nothing to do with anything but the suits, especially the ones at the top. The regular job producers matter not. So kudos to managers who pretend there is no Christmas. At least they are being real!!! We don't need a darn advertising jingle in our mailboxes!! Insulting. Something like that has happened to Fredrick in the recent past and I can't even share it it makes me so mad.
Finally ... are there any people this year on this board going to back the suits and say: "By gosh you are lucky to have a job. Grow up. The suits owe you nothing. You have a job. Be grateful."
Fredrick will repeat it for the 1000th time. Newspaper employees have writing/editing/deadlineing in their BLOOD. They will do anything to stay in this addictive profession, including working 60 to 70 and getting paid for 40.
That said ... happy holidays to you all. And praise be if your company simply ignored Christmas.