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Comment by Tehnix | Hacker News Reader

Why does that have anything to do with being a millennial? I'm a millennial, and I absolutely love company parties, because we all get a long so well, and it's a nice way to have a more casual conversation with people that you don't usually work with, during week days.

I think cylinder hit the nail on the head, with his remark, about it bringing office culture to the front - if you don't enjoy working with the people at your job, it sure isn't looking bright for the Christmas party either.

Also, a Christmas bonus is waaaaaay more expensive than a (nice) Christmas/office party has to be (unless you rent a fancy venue or something like that). It would feel a bit weird to get a $30 dollar "bonus", at least I would rather pool that together and make some enjoyable memories with people.

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FWIW, they probably spent more than 30/person on just food and drink, but regardless I agree anything under a couple hundred dollars wouldn't feel genuine.

Thanks, I'm trying to institutionalize this and was wondering what would be a good Christmas bonus. 250$ was my ballpark.

Probably depends on your industry and implementation. I'm new to the workforce so I don't have a lot of experience with it, but I've seen some comments on reddit over the years with people getting piddly little bonuses (tens of dollars) and having management tell them they should be happy they got anything. The workers would have preferred getting nothing and it was a morale killer.

I don't know what good levels are. Maybe think of it in terms of % of salary for the median employee? $30 wouldn't feel genuine to anybody, especially if it looks like people at the top aren't cutting back. $250 for a developer making $175,000/year makes a much smaller difference than for support staff earning $40,000/year.

Another thing to consider - if things are tight and you don't already have a holiday bonus, a certificate to get a ham, turkey, or meat and cheese tray at a nearby grocery store would seem more genuine than a piddly $30 cash bonus. Of course switching from ~250/year bonus to a ham will be a morale killer.

The major telco I work for (starts with a B in Canada), people in my group complained when they got a $300 raise and said they would rather not have got it.. so they cut the raises for the 3 years straight due to this "comment". Funny thing, that person would be ahead by ~1k a year at the base salary. Fortunately I am part of a different compensation package. I would always take any money, that 300 is ~180ish after tax, enough for 2 months of parking..

Sounds like "the company to escape from if at all possible". Not only disrespecting the workers but also silencing complaints by force.

I agree 100%

Maybe we can all be so lucky and get a jelly of the month club.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QNVe9Hbhwc

Don't forget that a bonus (or a gift above a certain monetary value) is a taxable benefit to workers while an office party is not.

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