Xmas gifts for employees

sx_turbo

sx_turbo

sx_turbo

Associate
Joined
10 Sep 2022
Posts
1,486
Location
essex
I've been a manager for a number of years, mostly for small teams of around 3-4 people, every year I've always bought them a bottle of drink to say thank you for their hard work, I never put it through the company books as I want it to come from me.

Start of Last year I got promoted and am now in charge of a much larger team of 15 people, we rebuilt the team and the workshop last year and they performed amazingly and took my changes and implemented them, and they saw my vision and took it on board. Due to the size of the team I bought them all pizza for lunch on our last day of working to say merry Christmas and thankyou.

Earlier this year once again they smashed their targets, and really pulled out all the stops so once again I treated them all to a pizza lunch.

I want to do something again this year but feel just doing pizza lunch has been done.

Do you guys do anything for your colleagues and maybe have some ideas?
 
Theres lots on internet memes about working hard and the comany rewards with pizza, Whish is a bit crap. BUT, Your not the company your doing this out of your own pocket.


Could you speak to the team and ask them, Tell them this is from you to them and not the company
 
Maybe go out to a decent restaurant nearby for lunch (not pizza of course)?

Though, I'm not sure how feasible it is to book a table for 15 people at this point - most places might be fully booked already for Christmas lunches and things, but worth having a look. Might get lucky on one of the weekdays, compared to the weekend, for example.

If you want to do something like an activity instead in an evening after work, are there any places nearby? Topgolf came into my mind if you're interested in that sort of thing - easy to do, done it a few times with the team I work with. They have a branch in Chigwell if that's close to you.
 
Last edited:
Tbh I’ve never expected anything from my boss, the company gives out pay and shares incentives which the boss has a say in how much is awarded which is good enough for me. Thou I had bottles of wine and a PlayStation 3 one Christmas from the company.

As a boss or even as a normal bod, I have no issues in buying sharing food randomly to leave on the table for people to help themselves, nothing major… just stuff like cookies, flat jacks etc. maybe a fuddle, suggest everyone to bring stuff and you just get the majority.
 
mattyg said:
Theres lots on internet memes about working hard and the comany rewards with pizza, Whish is a bit crap. BUT, Your not the company your doing this out of your own pocket.


Could you speak to the team and ask them, Tell them this is from you to them and not the company
Click to expand...
Almost entirely this.... a nice meal or pizza party from the company is a bit rubbish (although if it's a tiny company, less so)
Anything that's come out of your own pocket (assuming you haven't had a sizeable bonus based on your teams's performance) will, or should, always be appreciated as a nice gesture.

Came in here expecting you to be the company owner, or C suite, in which case I'd have said an extra full or half day off would probably be more appreciated :D
 
mattyg said:
Theres lots on internet memes about working hard and the comany rewards with pizza, Whish is a bit crap. BUT, Your not the company your doing this out of your own pocket.


Could you speak to the team and ask them, Tell them this is from you to them and not the company
Click to expand...

Yeah I did this previously and they were very appreciative, just don't want it to become boring and samey
 
sx_turbo said:
I've been a manager for a number of years, mostly for small teams of around 3-4 people, every year I've always bought them a bottle of drink to say thank you for their hard work, I never put it through the company books as I want it to come from me.

Start of Last year I got promoted and am now in charge of a much larger team of 15 people, we rebuilt the team and the workshop last year and they performed amazingly and took my changes and implemented them, and they saw my vision and took it on board. Due to the size of the team I bought them all pizza for lunch on our last day of working to say merry Christmas and thankyou.

Earlier this year once again they smashed their targets, and really pulled out all the stops so once again I treated them all to a pizza lunch.

I want to do something again this year but feel just doing pizza lunch has been done.

Do you guys do anything for your colleagues and maybe have some ideas?
Click to expand...

How about a £5000 bonus per employee?

Pizza? What are they 10 years old or something?
 
Reward their loyalty. After 3 years service start upping their annual holiday for every year of service up to say a maximum of 5 extra days.

What's the sick pay policy? If it's only statutory, start upping that after 1-2 years service.

You get the idea.
 
sx_turbo said:
Do you guys do anything for your colleagues and maybe have some ideas?
Click to expand...

Yes I think it is nice to show how much you appreciate a good team, I am doing a lucky dip raffle this year with a bunch of cool little things I bought throughout the year, this way they can swap with each other if they get something they hate/don't want. Items in there are various, from drinks, mini-food hamper, Amazon voucher, pair of headphones/earphones, Pixel watch, car cleaning kit, Go Karting tickets/voucher, a bottle of aftershave, a kindle, a tea/coffee hamper thingy, some lambswool winter gear inc. scarf, hat and gloves and other odds and ends. Think its cost around £300, as its been done over a long period of time.
 
I'm in charge of 3 other people, I normally them a gift bag each with a bottle of wine, box of biscuits, haribo etc, stuff they can share with their families. Seems to go down well especially since we generally get very little from the company.
 
TrojanWhore said:
Almost entirely this.... a nice meal or pizza party from the company is a bit rubbish (although if it's a tiny company, less so)
Anything that's come out of your own pocket (assuming you haven't had a sizeable bonus based on your teams's performance) will, or should, always be appreciated as a nice gesture.

Came in here expecting you to be the company owner, or C suite, in which case I'd have said an extra full or half day off would probably be more appreciated :D
Click to expand...

Ha ha, no the company does a Christmas meal every year which is soulless and such hard work to speak to each other.
 
TrojanWhore said:
Almost entirely this.... a nice meal or pizza party from the company is a bit rubbish (although if it's a tiny company, less so)
Anything that's come out of your own pocket (assuming you haven't had a sizeable bonus based on your teams's performance) will, or should, always be appreciated as a nice gesture.

Came in here expecting you to be the company owner, or C suite, in which case I'd have said an extra full or half day off would probably be more appreciated :D
Click to expand...

Definitely no bonuses for me,.work don't do that sort of thing.

I'm not paid massively more than the people that work for me on the whole.

Don't have loads of money, £10-£15 per person is kinda where im thinking.
 
Journey said:
Yes I think it is nice to show how much you appreciate a good team, I am doing a lucky dip raffle this year with a bunch of cool little things I bought throughout the year, this way they can swap with each other if they get something they hate/don't want. Items in there are various, from drinks, mini-food hamper, Amazon voucher, pair of headphones/earphones, Pixel watch, car cleaning kit, Go Karting tickets/voucher, a bottle of aftershave, a kindle, a tea/coffee hamper thingy, some lambswool winter gear inc. scarf, hat and gloves and other odds and ends. Think its cost around £300, as its been done over a long period of time.
Click to expand...

I really like this idea, very impressive
 
sx_turbo said:
Ha ha, no the company does a Christmas meal every year which is soulless and such hard work to speak to each other.
Click to expand...

Yeah I managed to dodge mine this year due to having to do some out of hours work (they also got me a box of nice ciders becuase I couldn't make it, which was appreaciated as I know it was my bosses idea) ...
A small company I used to work for did pretty decent stuff (Like took us to a Rick Stein restaurant, or other fancy places, although I think that may have just been because the MD just wanted to eat there).

As I said, unless their performance has ended up in your pocket, anything from my manager (rather than the company) will always go down well, even if it's only a small token :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom