In the most traditional sense of the word, a job is essentially an exchange of your time and talent for whatever monetary resources a company is offering.

However, as time passed, companies started to innovate. One of the most common ways companies add value to their compensation for a job well done (or at least a job done equal or above a given standard). And that is perks and bonuses which often come in the form of non-monetary goods.

But then you have companies doing something you wouldn’t even call bare minimum—more of a crime against humanity—for min-maxing their finances and banking on suckers to jump on the train to get dirty deeds done cheap all the while the company puts a check-mark on added-value incentives in their corporate checklists and call it a day as they count their money.

#1 Employee Appreciation Gift

This was what our company gave everyone for employee appreciation week. A rock. I’ve been here 4 years and haven’t received a raise since 2021 (not for lack of tryin!). a rock.

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#2 The Monopoly Money My Job Gave Me Instead Of A Raise In 2018

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#3 Employee Appreciation Scratch Off

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Now, there’s an important distinction between bonuses and perks.

Bonuses are compensation that is added to whatever the set hourly wage or salary is. The most common form of a bonus is cash, but it can also be non-monetary means—as long as it provides value to employees and the company.

Perks, while also creating value on top of the set wage or salary, are often smaller in nature and more often non monetary. It’s essentially anything that the company provides to be enjoyed or be used in a limited context. Sorry, you can’t take that Xbox home.

#4 Employee Appreciation, Nothing Like .40 Cent Noodles ❤️

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#5 Congratulations!

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#6 I Found Out Today That It’s Employee Appreciation Week At My Work. Apparently We’re Not Even Worth A Pizza Party Anymore

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Bonuses come in many shapes and sizes. These can be financial boosts to your salary based on set milestone achievements or as an annual gift from the company for sticking with it through thick and thin.

Some specific examples of these are sign-on and referral bonuses for recruiting people, annual or milestone bonuses for achieving certain personal or company goals, extra vacation days, and opportunities to invest a part of your generated value as an employee into company stocks and shares.

#7 My Job Brought Us “Treats” For Employee Appreciation

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#8 I Left My Job Shortly After Receiving This Prize For My Good Work ???

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#9 Employee Appreciation Sent To Every Employee In The Mail From A Company Who Made Almost 20 Billion Euros Last Year But “Couldn’t Afford Christmas Bonuses”

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Perks, on the other hand, have the same ultimate goal as a means of incentivizing employees, yet often come in smaller packages that don’t necessarily have a monetary benefit attached to it. They can, but tend not to.

These can range from free snacks to birthday gifts to monthly lunches, learning and development budgets, company partner discounts, and—something many of us consider a standard in any industry—coffee.

#10 Feeling The #appreciation My Employer Is Showing To Our Dwindling Overworked Nursing Staff ??

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#11 My Brother Works For At&t, This Is What He Was Given For Working Through The Pandemic…. A Silver Coin

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#12 It’s Employee Appreciation Day At My Work And This What The Multi Billion Dollar Company Gave Us

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Benefits and rewards platform Perkbox outlines some of the best and most universal perks for companies to offer and points out the several key aspects to focus on when creating a perks package.

Namely, [1] perks work best if they are appropriate to the employees base (while snacks are universal, cinema tickets or free alcohol might only target specific audiences), and [2] coordinate with your employees to know what benefits they’d value the most.

It helps to offer a benefits package where anyone can find something they can benefit from, but talking to them beforehand will do wonders.

#13 My “Reward” For Going Above And Beyond

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#14 Do You Not Feel Appreciated?!

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#15 Well.. It Happened

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Now, what not to do when it comes to perks is essentially everything you see here in this listicle.

But, to be more precise, no pet rocks, “Monopoly” money, extra breaks, bags of air, appreciation trophies, scratch-off tickets where you win nothing, rubber toys, the thinnest slice of pizza in the world (probably cut by the cheapest pizza cutter in the world), a piece of candy, thank you cards or letters, unrealistically deflated bonus systems, used LEGOs, first aid kit with children’s activity book, and, water. The list goes on, but we’ll end on a positive note.

#16 How We Are Rewarded At Our Fortune 500 Company

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#17 This Banana My Boss Gave Me To Celebrate 1 Year Of Work

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#18 This Is The “Thank You” Our ER Got For The Killer Month We’ve Had. One Of The Worst Since Covid

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Companies can try to wrap a perk in joyful wrapping paper and sell it as a gift, but it won’t change how employees will react to it. And there’s actually a list of things to avoid.

First and foremost, benefits can’t be generic. Nearly every company nowadays has kitchens with snacks, Xboxes and PlayStations, lounges, foosball tables and, again, coffee.

#19 What My Company Gave Us Instead Of Raises

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#20 This “Gift” For Employee Appreciation

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#21 Instead Of Raises We Get “Work Bux” To Use On A “Store” For Ramen And Granola Bars

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It goes double for benefits that are irrelevant. Benefits are supposed to solve a problem an employee has and can hence use them to their full extent. Like getting a discount for a beauty salon when you’re bald.

And it goes triple for everything else the company might be up to with benefits: trying to cover up a bad corporate culture, discouraging folks from actually using the benefits, and deliberately hiding benefits, but creating positive employee branding saying there are perks.

#22 Boss Brought In Drumsticks For Employee Appreciation

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#23 Teacher Appreciation Gift

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#24 Just A Little Employee Appreciation

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Now, nothing is free and everything has strings attached in the corporate world. Benefits are no exception. But instead of creating this facade of a good-guy company at minimum cost, a benefit should be viewed as a financial contribution to boost motivation, increase workplace appeal, and encourage innovation, among other things. And that, alas, will cost money, time, and energy. But it costs more to cheap out now and “replace” it later.

#25 Took One Of Those Employee Surveys At Work Today, And They Gave Me This As A Gift Bag. 3 Pieces Of Candy From 1972 And A Pen That Doesn’t Even Work. Sure Feel Appreciated!

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#26 Happy Employee Appreciation Day! ? I Feel So Valued ?

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#27 My Jobs Lazy Way To Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day. A Candy Bar With A Printed Sticker On It

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Today’s employees won’t be satisfied with a lackluster assortment of “gifts”. Benefits have to be well-rounded, covering areas of employee health, well-being, financial security as well as work-life balance. Staying competitive in the industry means actually investing into the right kinds of benefits that fit an employee base. And so if you have happy employees, you have a happy company.

#28 My Work Had An Employee Appreciation Lunch For Us

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#29 It’s Employee Appreciation Week And This Is What My Girlfriend’s Employer Gave Her. She’s A PA At A Community Health Center In The City ??‍♂️

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#30 From My Company’s“ Employee Appreciation Day”, Don’t Worry Though, We Also Had A Dance Party ? But No Raises This Year

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It doesn’t have to stop here because Bored Panda is chock-full of stories regarding employers being cheapskates.

But if that’s not your forte, maybe the upvote button is? Or maybe sharing your thoughts and stories in the comment section below?

#31 My Reward For 5 Years Of Not Being Late And Never Calling Out. F**k You, I Quit

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#32 My Bag Of Candy For “Employee Appreciation Day”. The Cringiest Stuff I’ve Ever Seen

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#33 These Are The Incentives We Get… At My Caricature Job

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#34 A Dozen Donuts For A Staff Of About 200. I Feel So Appreciated

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#35 No Raises This Year, But They Gave Us This For “Employee Appreciation Day”

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#36 Hospital Break Room

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#37 Employee Appreciation From My Employer Who Generated 27b Profit In 2022

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#38 I Work At A College Dorm. This Week Is Freshman Move In Where I’m Working A 12 Hour Shift. I Was Told Not To Pack A Lunch Because A Free One Is Provided. This Is My Free “Meal”

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#39 Pizza Party, But Employees Will “Pitch In On The Cost”

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#40 Meals (1 Per Person) We Get At My Job For Shifts Up To 12hrs

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#41 Just Got This Email From Our Employee Appreciation Committee

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#42 Instead Of Getting A Raise This Slice Of Pizza Was Used As A Motivation At My Last Job

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#43 I’m A (Overworked And Underpaid) Nurse. My Department Is Only Worth A Box Of Tasty Cakes I Guess

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#44 This Is Our “Employee Appreciation” Gift. A First Aid Kit, Complete With A Children’s Activity Book, And Crayons. I Work At A Factory

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#45 Today Is “Employee Appreciation Day” And I Was Handed A Box With My Name On It. Inside Was Junk Food. I Do Not Feel Appreciated

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#46 My (Belated) Teacher Appreciation Week “Gift” From My Underfunded School- A Handful Of Items That I Should Get As Part Of My Job But Usually Pay For Out Of Pocket

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#47 My Employee Appreciation Gift Was A Hair Clip

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#48 What The Employees At The Bank Received As A Reward For All Of Their Hard Work On Employee Appreciation Day:

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#49 Last Week Was Staff Appreciation Week At The School I Am A Night Janitor For. To Say Thank You, They Wrote Us A Copy/Paste Letter And Gave Us A $1 Lotto Ticket

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#50 There Are Employees On Strike And This Is What The Hospital Sent Through The Mail For Employee Appreciation Day

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#51 What I Got For ‘Employee Appreciation’ After Working An Entire Year During A Pandemic

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#52 Employee Appreciation Socks

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#53 Happy Employee Appreciation Day Everyone

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#54 …because The Last Week Of October In Denver Is The Perfect Time For An Employee Appreciation “Picnic”

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#55 Nothing Says “Employee Appreciation” Like “We’re Forcing You To Work Overtime”

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#56 First Day Of Teacher Appreciation Week. This Was Our Gift Bag Given To Us By Administration

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#57 Free Beanies Instead Of Raises For Employee Appreciation. (Healthcare Organisation In Canada)

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#58 Instead Of Raising Wages, This Is The Reward, I Can’t Name The Business Or Location Due To Consequences If This Pic Links Back To Me In Real Life Lol

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#59 Reward I Get At My 13$/Hr Job For Finding Over 15 Million In Missing Funds

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#60 “Employee Appreciation Day”

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#61 Charging Employees To Go To The Company Party ?

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#62 The Place I Work At Gives A “Bonus” As An Incentive For Higher Production Rates. Let Me Introduce You To My Department’s Bonus

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#63 The Team Absolutely Crushed All January Targets And Were Told They Were Getting An Employee Appreciation Lunch

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#64 Who Needs A Pizza Party When You Get A Pizza Cutter??

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#65 My Work Got Me A Set Of Assorted Legos In A Tin For My Work Anniversary…. They’re Used With Child Bite Marks And Stains

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#66 My Parent’s Christmas “Bonus”. They Could Have At Least Tried To Make It Pretty Or Something

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#67 Meijer Cashier Incentive

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#68 Job Perk: Free Food!

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#69 Free Uniform As A Perk Of Working At McDonald’s

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#70 My Wife Sent Me Her “Reward Program” From Working At A Huge Hospital. What An Absolute Joke

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#71 Employee Appreciation Lunch – One Of The Top Medical Centers In The Tristate

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#72 This Prepaid Amex Card That Doesn’t Work At Any Retailer At All So Far – Was Given To Me For 5 Years At My Job

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#73 Mgmt Gave Us A Pizza Party Instead Of A Raise This Year, Because That’s What “Work Families” Do Apparently

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#74 Employee Appreciation Gift. It Sounds Worse And Quieter Than My Phone Speaker Ironically

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#75 Employee “Appreciation”

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#76 This Is What My Girlfriend Got For Her “Bonus” On Employee Appreciation Day After 15 Years With The Company. Reminded Me Of The Old Charlie Brown Halloween Special Where He Says “I Got A Rock”

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#77 Appreciate Me With Money, Not Pizza. I Have Bills To Pay

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#78 They Call This A Candy Drawer At Work. I Hate My Job

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#79 Large Company Provides Food In The Break Room For Employee Appreciation. The Food:

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#80 Instead Of Raises, To Help With Financial Struggle This Is What Us Nhs Workers Got Handed Out Today

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#81 It’s Employee Appreciation Week At My Sos Work. This Is What They Were Given

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#82 Every Weekend My Employer Provides Something In The Break Room For Free To Show Employee Appreciation. This Weekend: Unripe Bananas

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#83 Got A Goody Bag Filled With Candy And Granola Bars From Work For Employee Appreciation Week. They Included A Handful Of Laxatives As Well

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#84 Employee Appreciation Day. It’s All We Got

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#85 “Employee Appreciation, Provide Your Own Lunch”

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#86 We Had An Employee Appreciation Day At Work Today…

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#87 My Favorite Part Of This Starbucks Now Hiring Sign (Other Than No Wage Mentioned) Is The Perk Of Spotify Premium!!

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#88 Employee Appreciation Week Started With An Entirely Employee Funded Potluck

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Source: boredpanda.com