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Employee Christmas Bonus / Gifts
Hey,
Not really a relatable topic for all but --
What kind of gifts would you think would be good and appropriate Christmas gifts for my teammates (my employees)? It's a new startup that I just started with 6-figures in pre-seed funding, and we just started generating revenue a few weeks ago and talking to larger prospective clients. We're a really good close-knit team. They've done really good work despite me not being the perfect boss, and I want to show them my appreciation.
Looking to buy gifts for 6 with a budget of $1,000 each, but I'm willing to go over if it helps them be more productive or be happier while working, e.g. I'm fine buying 3x monitors for each plus a prebuilt PC. Everything on their Amazon wishlist? Or just $1,000 extra on their paycheck? What would you want from your boss?
I'll be discussing with them directly, of course, but I wanted to get a general idea of what you guys think first 
Thanks!
Comments
I'm sure most would enjoy a bonus, since they can use that for rent, mortgage, car payment, etc.
You can never go wrong with bonus/cash
They can use it wherever they want.
cash is helpful especially in such times.
Cash is the way.
If that's not allowed, gift cards.
Still, cash is the only thing that matters.
Interesting.
My initial thought was that $1k in cash isn't a lot when they already earn enough to afford comfortable lifestyles, so I was afraid that they would not really appreciate the extra money (5 out of 6 are software devs in a very competitive hiring market, so they aren't close to struggling financially, the 6th is sales, so they make more than enough too), though I guess from these comments cash is better because they can choose the goods they want, as they know their needs the best.
How do you know they make more than enough?
There is never enough money!
1k extra cash in December means a luxury gift to a family member of theirs.
Or even a gift to their own. Doesn't matter how much they make, budgets are always tight unless you are someone like Musk or the Blue Origin guy.
Interesting thinking lol, I've been thinking about that very topic a lot recently. When you start a business, you think about where you want to end up, 1 year, 3 years, 10 years from now... I didn't get any institutional money because I realized my goal wasn't to get rich and IPO if all goes well, I just want to create a cool place where people are very happy working and proud of their work, even if it stays small and never IPOs. For me personally, I don't need more than $400k/yr or have a net worth > $20m, and I am very happy as is with a fraction of that. So in my mind, money begun to be lowered in value compared to other gestures of kindness. Interesting.
whats interesting is that this is my opinion, meaning im not software dev im not competitively hired not NOT CLOSE TO STRUGGLING financially
A personalised gifts or gestures certainly help as well, if you want to have a special touch you can give something festive based. Other than the bonus, can consider including a handwritten card + small gifts?
How about 50/50: $500 cash and $500 gift? That's the way I'm planning for my employees (11). List of gifts that in my mind now:
I will have a game for them to play to win the gifts (randomly). There will be more fun than just give them 100% cash.
This is super cool, nice! I'll consider that
Cash would be best, or equivalent in Amazon Gift cards that they could use towards whatever they'd want to treat themselves to, this holiday season.
I don't prefer store specific cards.... cash or gifts... thnx
That sounds like something @Nekki would say.
Also, bear in mind that in some (most?) countries, cash and gift cards count as taxable income. To avoid that, might I present this very personal gift option?
Well, prebuilt PCs and monitors is what they should get normally for work, so not really a good Xmas present. Our new hire kit is a white 32inch curved monitor, 3060 i7 laptop, a VR headset and gamer gear - so hard to beat at 1k. I like all our monitors to match at the office anyway - it's an OCD thing. At home they use whatever for monitors. But I suspect cash would be a nicer present as that's just their regular old work gear.
For xmas, we usually take everyone out for a big meal. Give them paid time off (employees and contractors). A small xmas bonus. And sometimes a 1 or 2 week break where we do an internal game jam or something. Any of those would be a good idea...
For benefits, we've been trying out unique benefits (i.e local market groceries delivered weekly, extra health, spending accounts, unlimited holiday time, software rebates, etc). It's a learning process but it depends on the culture you want to build
. Giving them a unique benefit for the next year could be interesting.
LubeLife does not work well.
I put it in my DC motor and it causes electric short because it's a water based product.
VirMach branded One Gallon Wet Platinum Lube is better.
It's a silicone based product that does not cause electric short.
I put a few drips in an HDD from 2005, and it's running smoothly so far.
You could ask them.
But who would refuse money from their boss?
Also there is a guy I learned something from, he would give inexpensive gifts like mini bottles of rum. Key chains, pens, staplers, souvenirs he got from traveling. Slight more expensive you could buy some crypto and ask for an address to send it too.
But nothing beats cash.
I would probably also prefer cash rather than store specific gift cards. While Amazon may be a store where you can most stuff, at our workplace, there are also people who heavily refuse to support Amazon (due to ethical reasons etc) . Among others, one of my bosses. Actually, we were asked recently, if there was anything we would like our boss to buy for us to make us feel more comfortable at work/improve the atmosphere. While he was willing to pay for it, there was that one condition that it can't be ordered from Amazon (even if elsewhere it was more expensive). It's not just our boss, though. I know quite some people (co-workers, friends..) who won't buy from Amazon. So cash is probably better
Gift cards are the worst I think and it costs you the same amount of cash. So theres no upside for you or for them.
As a company I think cash is really the best so people can just do whatever they want. The money you'd spent on gifts they may not even want is better just given directly to them.
Nobody has suggested the obvious, hookers and blow always go a long ways.
Apart from that, the only other suggestion I could add is perhaps a three day get away in a near by resort town. R and R is always appreciated and has a payoff.
Cash & time off has made all of my workers very happy to date. I give Christmas Eve & day, as well as New Years Eve & Day, off. I pick up all support tickets during those days.
I used to try to find something special before, but it became a pain in the butt with shipping and all that.
Francisco
Not sure how it is where you are but if you put it in their paychecks, wouldn’t it be taxed?
If not, do that then.
Let them spend it on something they really want and/or need, rather than something you want them to have.
Obviously others have said the same, but to echo the general consensus... Cash is king.
Hail to the king.
Never been this lucky
Christmas Day and New Year's Day are both Saturdays.
Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are federal holidays.
Yeah this is what I was going to mention. Cash is always good, but some people would pay 50% tax on it (depending on location + pay range).
Some jurisdictions may have differing tax rules for cash vs gift cards? I'm not sure.
I'm not the federal government...yet. The extra days off are just a nice perk on top of the bonus we give.
Francisco
Cash and gift cards are taxable, crypto isn't but few would appreciate a bonus in crypto.
What about NFTs
/s