Damn I love corporate america.... 10 years of service and guess what I get?

[TwixVoy]

So just got the mail outside.

My 10 years of service gift just got here from HQ. YAY! It's a pen. (which still has the $2.99 price sticker on it....)

But that's fine. It was the same gift for 3 years and 5 years too. I like them and keep them just because they symbolize the time and hard work I have put in to this company.

But what really surprised me when I opened the package was something else I found in it.... ADVERTISEMENTS from other companies for their products. Damn, can corporate america stop thinking about making a buck just for one second? It must have been breaking the bank of a multi-billion dollar company to send out a $2.99 pen to employees hitting a ten year anniversary so they thought they would make it back by taking the opportunity to make a buck to let other companies market to us at the same time.

Talk about sending a message to long time employees about how much we are worth..... Well at least in addition to my pen I now know that "KLEENEX FEELS SO SOFT!" and a good place to get dog food cheap.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Wow.

I got a full set of luggage for my 5 year anniversary at the company I used to work for. Of course, they laid me off a year ago. But the luggage is nice.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I spent 13 years working for the state. At the end they gave me a little wooden plaque

with a brass plate that had my name misspelled.

[Texasgal]

5. Oh lord!

That's horrible!

My husband works as a field manager for a rather large exterminator group, they get cuff links.... with a BUG on it! :rofl:

[DearAbby]

3. A lousy T=Shirt?.......

at least the pen is useful, to fill in your next application and resume.


Oh gee, that was a downer...wait...CONGRADULATIONS!

[Joanne98]

4. That sucks!

[beac]

6. Another day older and deeper in debt?

Nice that they are acknowledging that we'll all be needing something soft to dry our tears as we eat dog food, however.

[peacefreak]

7. Better than getting the axe.

Or is it?

[TwixVoy]

9. Yep race to the bottom

Next time an employee complains to me that they have so few hours they lost health insurance I'll just say "Better than getting the axe". That will be my response every time someone gets screwed from now on.

[peacefreak]

13. Having GOTTEN the axe

that's not the kind of inspiration I hoped to be! I'm sure they'll love it.:rofl:

[Realityhack]

8. Interesting...

I work for a small company (around 10 employees) and it never occurred to me to do anything on a 5 year or 10 year anniversary with the company.
How common is it to get something for employees who hit those marks?

[TwixVoy]

10. Company wide

Hundreds of thousands of employees. Everyone gets the pen. Though it depends on your market. In some markets/positions you can get a gift card. Though these days it's pretty rare anywhere in the company.

Prior to this company I had not been with any employer long enough to see if they gave such gifts, but I'd imagine most large corporations do it.

[Realityhack]

16. I guess I just don't get it.

My employees would crucify me if I gave them a plastic pen and acted like I had done something nice.
Maybe it is because it is a small business. When someone starts we give them a t-shirt and hat that are not part of any uniform (we have none) just because. But we haven't ever done anything for seniority aside from normal compensation and benefit increases.

I was wondering if it was something people might expect (doing something, not getting a plastic pen).

We have a kick ass employer. But I wouldn't want us to look rude if something like that is common practice.

[lunatica]

11. Same thing they're doing with out tax dollars

They'll find a way of making us pay interest to them for loaning us the money we just gave them.

[old mark]

12. For my 5th year of Civil Service in PA I got a small plastic lunch

container with a silk screened tree on it. I actually used it for a while, and I think I still have it.
Oh, yeah - it was a year late because they wanted to make sure I stayed around and they didn't have to give me such a valuable gift for nothing....

For 30 years you get a small thin blanket....
But I didn't stay that long.

mark

[tammywammy]

14. I work for a family owned partnership

My 5 year mark is coming up in May, I expect to get nothing. :shrug:

[mediaman007]

15. If it makes you feel better, I'll bet that the company didn't pay 2.99 for the pens.

[Realityhack]

17. ROTFLMFAO n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. I am so sorry you HAVE TO work for those bastards.

I am sorry there are no options to tell them what you think.
Going to work every day in a fucked system can be stomach roiling.

Been there, done that, did not even get a pen.

You got my support, for whatever good that may be.

[Urban Prairie]

19. Heh...

When I got within a few months of my 10 year anniversary with one of my employers (a railroad) they phoned me and many of my co-workers with about the same amount of seniority, with the news that we were axed, which not only made it so they didn't have to give us any kind of silly memento for 10 years of service, it also ended our chances of qualifying for a minimum pension that became vested at 10 years.

[Realityhack]

20. Ouch. That sucks. n/t

[Urban Prairie]

21. Yeah, I am long over it now, but...

that stuck in my craw for quite a few years afterward, and having a working lifetime career primarily with one company, like my father did, has become pretty much extinct since the Reagan years.

[SoCalDem]

25. My son was introduced to corporate america with his first "real job"

Home base hired him, and he busted his ass.. Everyone told him what a great job he was doing, and within a few weeks he was practically running the department they put him in..and then...

4 days before the 90-day probation period, they laid him off... and the 4 other "young'uns" they had hired with im..and a whole new batch came in to replace them..

At 90-days, he would have become eligible for benefits..

[Urban Prairie]

26. What is the name of that company policy?

Hollow plastic carrot on a stick?

Another company trick that came of age in the 80s was to sell off all or part of their non-salaried employee base to a contract agency, the affected employees then came into work and discovered that although they still held the same jobs, they no longer were employees, but were now contract labor, subject to the lower wages, benefits, and rules of their new employer.

[catnhatnh]

22. Thank You....

I honestly laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. Taking nothing away from your feelings and sorry for it happening, it still drove my irony meter completely off the scale. What's next, discount coupons on Pink Slips? I could relate tales but yours should be written into an epic 1000 stanza poem...999 stanzas of your feats and suffering in supporting the company and this as a punch line/1000th stanza. And it should be read to all children as a morality story about "loving" your workplace...

[leftofthedial]

23. I did my 25 years and got

nada.

[Lucian]

24. Makes you feel like you're worth $2.99, doesn't it?

Companies couldn't care less about their employees, and it's sickening.