People have been sharing the worst bonuses a job has given them – 19 laughably pathetic corporate gifts

Sometimes, no gift is arguably better than a bad gift. This is particularly true in the world of work, where gestures of appreciation can backfire spectacularly.

And while rewards of narrow pizza slices are so notorious they’ve become a meme, it seems that office workers are treated to even worse bonuses. That’s according to the findings of Reddit user vomirrhea, who posed this question to r/AskReddit:

‘What’s the worst “Bonus” a job has ever given you?’

These are the top corporate presents that failed to impress…

1.

‘Ice cream sandwiches.

We didn’t get raises because “it was a tough year” and “your department didn’t increase revenue” (we were R&D).
Our competitors brought an ice cream truck and parked it next door and were giving out free ice cream and applications and you could talk to their HR. They were specifically targeting our R&D team. Most of my coworkers went because it was a fancy ice cream truck they had seen but never bought from because it was expensive.

My director freaked out and told his EA to go get ice cream and told people not to go.

She came back with Value brand ice cream sandwiches. And only like 6 boxes. (There were 120 engineers in our department) I only remember the managers going over and getting them.

About two thirds of my team left within the next six months.’
-BaaBaaTurtle

2.

‘I worked at a big auction house for people with lots of money, doing manual labor. For Christmas we got a coupon for a cup of coffee.. from the coffee shop in the building. We had free coffee. I still have the coupon, it’s a nice reminder of what I walked away from.’
-ohhhhfcukkkk

3.

‘The biggest piece of cake…

Worked at a company for 9yrs and through some of its toughest times. I often worked unpaid overtime and went above and beyond. These were some of the highlights the boss pointed out while giving a recognition speech about me. He ended it with “most families save the biggest piece of chicken for the bread-winner, so keeping with that tradition, I’m offering you the biggest and first slice of cake”.

After being recognized in such a manner, I waited for about a month for an actual monetary bonus. Upon receiving nothing, I put in my notice citing the speech and lack of actual reward for my efforts.’
-theonlybuster

4.

‘A chocolate box with 5 small chocolates. To thank us for the release of a product that doubled the company’s revenue.’
-ConsciousnessWizard

5.

‘Target, my annual review got me a.. 8 cent raise! Oh and if they increase the minimum wage you don’t keep the ‘bonus’ haha.’
-workscs

6.

‘We had 11 workers quit on the spot because they wanted to have a meeting with the COO about their wages and schedules but he shut them down. Office was scrambling to replace them, it was chaos. Later that week they ordered pizza for everyone “to show their appreciation for their workers”. Pizza doesn’t pay my bills.’
-Fill-Chapo

7.

‘A poker chip with “APPRECIATION” written on it

Literally a token of appreciation. ’
-yepthisismyaccount

8.

‘Although we’ve made record profits we can’t give you guys a raise or bonus but management will get both.’
-Brjsk

9.

‘I worked in sales for a major wood products manufacturer. I sold record breaking volume to the tune of 51million for my territory. 2nd place sold 12million. I received $100 bonus. The guy in second place received a Rolex. The CEO made a joke about it at the sales conference. “Sometimes it’s best to come in 2nd place”.

I walked out. Typed my 2 week notice. And started my own company as a direct competitor of my former employer. I’m still in business. They are not.’
-rollcasttotheriffle

10.

‘I worked for a small sales based company. They were pushing hard for the first ‘Million Dollar Month’ and kept saying they would make it worth our while! We assumed a big bonus, a trip, a fancy steakhouse… something!

When we finally hit it… we each got a bobblehead of one of the executives.

We decided to trade them- the CEO was worth less than the CFO and HR was worth the least. It became a big running joke until HR sent an email out saying we have to stop.’
-bondsman333