These managers might have been better off getting their employees a really nice card instead of these holiday gift atrocities.
Here are seven of the worst holiday gifts employees have received from their supervisors, courtesy of Suzanne Lucas on CBS’ MoneyWatch:
- Before Thanksgiving one year, management brought in 50 frozen turkeys, one for each employee.
It seemed like an incredibly nice gesture — until employees realized there wasn’t enough room in the company’s refrigerator for all 50 turkeys.
Worst of all: The workers were told they weren’t allowed to go home and drop off the thawing gifts. - At a company gift exchange, an employee received some rolls of toilet paper from her manager. Added bonus gift: a photo of the supervisor.
- A cohort of four managers gave their employees a small bag of beans and seasoning plus a recipe for bean soup one year as a holiday treat.
The workers were a little upset at the size of the gift, but in years past have looked back on it fondly – they’ve received nothing since then. - At one staff member’s annual Christmas lunch, her boss gave her a mug.
It’s not a terrible gift, by any means, but it was made much worse by what the employee found when she returned to the office – a bill for both the mug and the luncheon on her office chair. - Employees at another company were invited to attend an annual holiday party along with a guest.
First, workers were asked to pay for the guest to attend. Then the firm said staffers had to pay both for the guest and themselves.
Worst of all: Word eventually got around that the money employees were paying to attend was being used so execs could still go for free. - The list of bad gifts one worker received over the years was particularly depressing: an orange/purple cloth, three empty boxes, a pack of Kleenex and a votive candle and buy-one-get-one-free hand lotion.
And when the worker retired after 33 years at the company? Nothing. - One department manager forced all of his employee to give $100 each to help pay for a remote car starter for the CEO’s Cadillac. In the process, the department manager also dropped hints that he wanted a gift.
One employee bought the manager a $40 bottle of liquor. When Christmas bonus time rolled around, each employee received a $70 bonus — half of what they’d spent on gifts for the CEO and department head.
