Do you work for a company that gives you stuff? This year my company gave out two tee shirts within weeks of each other. The problem with tee shirts is that you usually can’t wear them in the office after you get them. Even in a casual dress environment, tee shirts are out of the question. Besides, it was winter and too cold for tee shirts.
Sometimes companies give out mouse pads. People with carpal tunnel syndrome often stack them to improve their pointing and clicking angles.
When the workload gets heavy, the company feeds us lunch (pizza) or brings in coffee. Unfortunately I don’t drink coffee, but pizza is an essential fifth food group, and sometimes we get donuts with the coffee. Pass a cruller, please.
Many jobs in America these days involve prolonged sitting. Two weeks ago we received free pedometers with instructions to take a one week “baseline” measurement of how far we walk, then try to increase our steps weekly. For those of us who sit for eight hours a day, it can be depressing to look at the readout and realize that we take more steps between the living room couch and the bathroom at home than at work going from the cubicle to the car.
Sure, companies mean well when they give us free stuff, but in a health conscious society we could use something besides pizza and pedometers. They cancel each other out anyway. Give us a $10 gift card during the holidays when parents struggle to make their kids happy, or thank us with a coupon for some extra time off or something. Heck, if I spend that extra time walking the mall and don’t visit a single store, my pedometer would look a whole lot better for the extra steps taken.
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Edna Jones
Oh my you make me laugh….I too have a stack of tee shirts, golf shirts, sweatshirts, fleece vests, rain jackets, and of course the proverbial pedometer, these are all company logoed and I would never wear in public. They are items I only wear to the sales meetings when they plan a silly activity that we must participate in and fly half way across the country for. All in the hopes of creating teamwork within the company. Unfortunately it seems to only bring out the green eye monster among the teams. Finance is thinking just how much did we pay for these shirts,food,alcohal,flights and this hotel, while marketing is thinking I could have used his money for advertising and of couse the sales people are thinking this is MY bonus !
I can honestly say there are 2 things they gave me over the past 20 years that I actually use….a wonderful bath sheet and a wine cozy ! Think I could trade them for gift cards???
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