this is the first one that i've ever been excited about. it's also my first one w/ this company. It's a 'casino night,' and at the end of the night you trade in your chips for raffle tickets. there are a bunch of different raffles that you can enter (it's not just one giant raffle, it's a bunch of individual ones). Ranging from $100 gift certificates to a 20G color ipod w/ Bose sounddock to a $1K Dell gift certificate. all my chips are going to that ipod/bose thing.

got a xmas gift from my supervisor, gift basket from my company, and a xmas bonus. quite the difference from when I worked at a multi billion dollar company and I got a xmas bonus of $20. that was before taxes. it ended up being like $10. glad i got out of that joint.

it's amazing how (relatively) little things (to them) from your employer can mean so much. i'm always amazed when i hear about companies that do so little (like your old company with the $10). rock on robotboy, rock on.

wow that was kind of a smarmy response.

i didn't mean it like that, i meant it like "fuck his old cheap-ass employer"! but you know that things like this party aren't going to break the company, so when they don't do them you feel like "who the fuck am i working for, and why"?

oh. that makes more sense. while you're at it, do mine too.

i'm eagerly awaiting next saturday when the wife realizes that her employer is going to give her a gift certificate towards merchandise or something. it's not going to be pretty.

i know i shouldn't have complained about my old job giving me essentially $10, because it's $10 I never had. but come on, they gave the speech of "we hope that this bonus makes your holidays a little easier and more joyous," and then i open teh envelope to see a check for $20? BEFORE taxes? i honestly thought it was a joke or a huge mistake. this new gig I'm at is like the polar opposite. it's nice to be genuinely appreciated.

Those casino nights are fun! Last year, I scored a new DVD player from one of the parties.

I'm in the same boat. Last year I got a Crate and Barrel gift certificate. I couldn't even find shit in there that I wanted that was for less than the gift certificate.
This year at my new place, we got nice bonuses. It's nice having a boss who shares.

that's some pretty evil shit. I think at any given moment you're like 3 major decisions away from becoming a Bond villain. you should be pricing henchmen and piranha while you have the time off.

i received my bonus this week. i'm pretty pissed about it. but still i wasn't expecting anything.

I'll just be glad when 12/23 rolls around and i can say goodbye to these asshole kids for a couple weeks.

good point. christmas is just around the corner.

oooh what about "henchmen ale"

you can have a guy with a harpoon for an arm and a jumpsuit or something on the label.

i need to change fields so i can get a bonus.

i like it. i'm actually heading to the store to buy some malt anyway, so this is what we'll make.

i work for a company that will make clost to 50 billion dollars this year - we get zip for christmas nor a party

I'm beginning to seriously hate academics. Stupid, cheap ass profs.

i'm kinda partial to the latter, of course.

I work for a huge company, hugely successful. Guess what we get for Christmas? Diddly. Nothing. Nada. No bonus, no party, nothing. This place is absolutely rolling in money, and my small department of 30 people brought in MILLIONS of dollars recently. What have we gotten in return? Jeans days all four days of work next week (we get Friday off.) Woohoo.

I was lamenting the fact that I don't get to get GAAAAAAAH at any Christmas Parties this year...and as for bonuses:
I have been with my company for 4 years, but this is the 5th Christmas.
First year, fat bonus. Second year, smaller bonus. 3rd year $100 gift certificate to Outback. Last year, nothing. This year, the admin person was nice enough to expedite me an expense check.

FUCK EVERYTHING...but good on ya' Ryan.

"5 dollars...Maybe I'll go to the movies......by myself"
"half of it is from ME"
"thank YOU, mr. mort-e-mer"

Our company Christmas party isn't until January 7. I'm actually okay with that.

My boss took our group out to lunch the other day (Portland City Grill, pretty nice restaurant downtown) and gave us all $30 Best Buy gift cards. Believe me, this was an improvement over lunch at Olive Garden and a $5 Starbucks gift card. I don't know if we're getting bonuses this year or not, but my gut tells me no.

Too perfect... I got to watch that over the break. Great movie.