By popular* demand, I bring you: [Company] Employee Appreciation Week 2025
This happened a few weeks ago now. In the hopes that one of the people I sent a letter about it has now received and read it, I am going to post now; otherwise, spoilers my dear pen pal!
Monday:
To kick off the week, Leadership said they would be handing out cupcakes near the break room area most of the day. The idea was that we usually served Leadership, so this time Leadership would be serving us. So fun! So innovative! The employees definitely want this! Many people have been asking for healthier snacks/options for events like this for a while, so cupcakes as the gift was already a miss.
When I tell you that nobody went over to get the cupcakes, I truly mean it.
They were sending managers out to each department to ask people to go over and take a cupcake from Leadership because nobody was going over there, and the Leadership team was upset nobody was stopping by. They ordered SO MANY cupcakes that they were asking people to take two or three each by midday to get rid of them. They were sending full unopened boxes to each department to try and offload the dang things. The cupcakes were the cheapest ones that money could buy, so they weren’t even good from what I heard. (I love a bargain and have a special spot in my heart for the cheapest store-brand desserts, but for an appreciation day item for the employees, maybe splurge just a little?)
Readers, there were at least 10 of the loud clear UNOPENED plastic boxes of cupcakes left over at the end of the day, sitting sadly on the little display table near the break room. There were also 2 unopened boxes in each of the major seating areas (7 areas, so 14 more boxes) to try and get rid of them. People with small children at home were just taking a box home with them as a sugary treat. I almost considered doing the same and giving them to my brother (he loves that stuff).
When asked by one of the managers sent over to try and get people to go and “be served” by Leadership what we would have preferred to cupcakes, my section said muffins (Costco muffins came up as the example, since there’s one nearby) or bagels or fresh fruit.
Tuesday:
They decided to do trivia over email, and send out gift cards to the people who answered fastest. There were three questions (each an individual email sent out to all members of the company) sent throughout the day and whoever emailed back the correct answer the fastest won. I think they picked 10 people for each question? Not terrible, but there was some grumbling about who won the gift cards (they sent out an email with all the winners’ names on it to the whole company the next day). They also never provided the answers to the trivia. When asked, the person spearheading the event replied, “I don’t know the answers, I was just given questions to send out.”
Wednesday:
Leadership graciously offered (and encouraged) team members on-site to take a break and walk around the block as a group. It was up to individual manager discretion whether the hourly team members needed to clock out for it. (To me, it seems like since it’s a company event, it’s work time and therefore they should be paid for it? But maybe that’s just the AAM reader in me. It was optional to attend, but still.) That was it, that was the appreciation for Wednesday: a 15 minute (possibly unpaid) break.
Thursday:
They had a food truck come to HQ for lunch. They ordered burgers for everyone. I should specify here: they ordered cheeseburgers and soda for everyone, no fries or other options. So when the vegetarians (I’d estimate about 25% of the staff here) went and asked for veggie patties, the food truck people gave them attitude for it (but did come prepared with veggie patties and did make them for the employees). And when the lactose intolerant people went (hello, it’s me!) and asked for just a hamburger without cheese, the food truck people also gave attitude about it. More traditional burger people were upset at the lack of fries and asked the food truck if they could have fries, and were made to pay out of pocket for them.
Which, okay, I understand if the contract stated only one type of meal and they were being asked on-site to do extra, that could be annoying and cost more. But why did our company not take the food needs of all employees into consideration when booking the food truck? Why did the event organizers not at the very minimum get hamburgers without cheese as well? That seems like such a staple for a burger truck? And with so many people being vegetarians (it’s very common for the area I live/work in), why did they not have an option in their contract? Absolutely boggles the mind.
Friday:
They gave us all new company shirts to wear for a company photo that morning. A good number of people showed up in the wrong shirts and stood near the front of the photo (the company has a lot of people) which upset the Marketing/Comms/etc. teams who will be using the photo on all the company social sites and promotional material. (They were not empowered to tell people wearing the incorrect shirts to leave the photo area, and were instructed to “get as many people in as possible.”)
We were also told that we would get “special [Company] swag” delivered to all of our desks. (They’ve done this in years prior; one time it was a mouse pad with a creepy face, one time it was a nice tumbler, one time it was a cheap coaster with “[Company] Appreciation Week 20XX” on it.) Usually, distribution is done before most people show up in the morning. This year, only two teams got the swag because /they underordered so badly they ran out/. Instead of telling anyone, the event organizers just quietly didn’t deliver to other departments. The departments without found out because people from the departments that got the swag (thick, huge, branded plastic badge holder) asked if they liked the gift this year. “What gift?” was the general answer to that question, and there were many awkward grimaces.
All in all: it could have been a lot worse, as I’ve read on AAM, and everyone agrees this would have been better served as a single day rather than trying to stretch it out for a week. But most people were more unhappy at the end of the week than the start, and were not thrilled for the week to be over because we were allowed to wear jeans and our company t-shirts all week.
(We have SO MANY shirts. They just keep giving them out, but we aren’t allowed to wear them except on Fridays. Right now, after quilting a bunch of them as practice and throwing more away, I am down to 18 shirts. That’s too many to have taking up drawer space! They also have rules about when and where you can wear the shirts if not on Fridays, so it’s really just…. not worth having that many. I feel bad throwing them away and donating them is also a waste. And yes, I turned some into rags for around the house as well; trust me when I say I can’t get rid of them fast enough.)
Oh, and then we also found out the company changed the pay bands and now many people (outside of Leadership) have fallen below the minimum of their pay bands. And they’re changing the Evaluation rubric such that 3/5 is no longer “Meets Expectations of the job” but “goes above what is asked of them in their job” so everyone is getting 2/5 for each review category going forward /even if they’re doing an otherwise solid job/.
We’re feeling appreciated.
*three commenters
