This war on Participation Trophies is completely overblown.

[Anonymous]

How many of you have received thank you certificates for participating in some kind of task force at work? Or a pilot program. How is this different?

No, really, how is it different?

[Anonymous]

The trophies don't cost that much, maybe $10 each max. I remember when my kids got trophies at age 3 for their first soccer "team". They were so proud, and I still have the pictures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The trophies don't cost that much, maybe $10 each max. I remember when my kids got trophies at age 3 for their first soccer "team". They were so proud, and I still have the pictures.

It is $10 per kid for crap that we pay to have recycled or sit in a landfill, and pay again when our kiddos think they need a certificate for turning in their status report at work every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The trophies don't cost that much, maybe $10 each max. I remember when my kids got trophies at age 3 for their first soccer "team". They were so proud, and I still have the pictures.

$10 times how many kids per team, times how many teams per year? I don't have any problem with acknowledgement of participation. I just wish it weren't trophies. In fact, I'd happily get rid of all trophies, except for the ones that get reused every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just think kids don't learn how to lose anymore. Losing gracefully is a very important skill. In life you're rarely going to be #1 and that's okay. I think participation trophies take away the intrinsic knowledge that you tried something, it was fun and that that is enough.

OP here. I agree that kids need to learn how to lose. I just don't agree that participation trophies is the problem. Kids aren't idiots. They see that everyone got a trophy so they know they weren't the winner. I have a bigger issue with the fact that my kids got all the way through ES without ever racing their classmates. When dd was trying to decide whether or not to take track in MS, i found out that she had no idea if she was among the fastest or slowest in her ES class. I took track in MS because I knew that I was one of the fastest, so that was a talent I wanted to pursue. When we don't let kids compete, we don't let them discover their natural talents.

I think you nailed the true problem.

It is not participation trophies. They truly are just a momento and even the kids know this.

The problem is not letting them compete, not letting them receive failing grades, and centering every little interaction on improving their "self esteeme".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many of you have received thank you certificates for participating in some kind of task force at work? Or a pilot program. How is this different?

No, really, how is it different?

Anything like that that I have received a special thank you for in the workforce was truly earned, and required going far over and above the stated parameters of my job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The trophies don't cost that much, maybe $10 each max. I remember when my kids got trophies at age 3 for their first soccer "team". They were so proud, and I still have the pictures.

$10 times how many kids per team, times how many teams per year? I don't have any problem with acknowledgement of participation. I just wish it weren't trophies. In fact, I'd happily get rid of all trophies, except for the ones that get reused every year.

I personally prefer medals. Much easier to store or display

[Anonymous]

i agree that the participation awards themselves aren't the real problem. I'm in my early 40s and we got them back in the day. But i knew that trophy didn't mean I was the best swimmer. I was a pretty shitty swimmer. But I put in the work and showed up at meets and practices, so it was recognition of that. I was under no illusion that it meant I was the best at anything or that it really was a prize.

In certain settings, showing up and trying hard IS good enough and should be encouraged. that should be the nature of rec leagues -- anyone can play, as long as they do the work. For more competitive and elite leagues, that's not the case.

I feel like there are subtleties being lost in this debate and it comes down to expectations and messaging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The trophies don't cost that much, maybe $10 each max. I remember when my kids got trophies at age 3 for their first soccer "team". They were so proud, and I still have the pictures.

It is $10 per kid for crap that we pay to have recycled or sit in a landfill, and pay again when our kiddos think they need a certificate for turning in their status report at work every week.

"Our kiddos" who? My kid is in middle school. She's not getting certificates at work. Meanwhile I've been getting certificates at work for decades, and I'm Generation X. We didn't get participation certificates when I was growing up. And neither did the Baby Boomers who had the idea of giving me the certificates at work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many of you have received thank you certificates for participating in some kind of task force at work? Or a pilot program. How is this different?

No, really, how is it different?

Anything like that that I have received a special thank you for in the workforce was truly earned, and required going far over and above the stated parameters of my job.

I am a project manager and i send an email to everybody's supervisor at the end of the project detailing how they did, sometime it is over and beyond, sometime not. It is a best practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think you nailed the true problem.

It is not participation trophies. They truly are just a momento and even the kids know this.

The problem is not letting them compete, not letting them receive failing grades, and centering every little interaction on improving their "self esteeme".

Where do you live, that there isn't any competition? Not in the DC area, I assume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many of you have received thank you certificates for participating in some kind of task force at work? Or a pilot program. How is this different?

No, really, how is it different?

Anything like that that I have received a special thank you for in the workforce was truly earned, and required going far over and above the stated parameters of my job.

I am a project manager and i send an email to everybody's supervisor at the end of the project detailing how they did, sometime it is over and beyond, sometime not. It is a best practice.

Exactly. But did you also line them all up, give them a cookies and juice party and a plastic trophy from China, and gush over how wonderful they are because they simply took part in your project?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many of you have received thank you certificates for participating in some kind of task force at work? Or a pilot program. How is this different?

No, really, how is it different?

Anything like that that I have received a special thank you for in the workforce was truly earned, and required going far over and above the stated parameters of my job.

I am a project manager and i send an email to everybody's supervisor at the end of the project detailing how they did, sometime it is over and beyond, sometime not. It is a best practice.

Exactly. But did you also line them all up, give them a cookies and juice party and a plastic trophy from China, and gush over how wonderful they are because they simply took part in your project?

The people who work on the PP's projects presumably also don't do their work with crayons, glue sticks, and safety scissors -- because they're not children. You are objecting to things people do for children because the children are children.

(Not to mention the many managers I have had who brought in doughnuts, or ordered pizza or bagels, or whatever, for employee morale.)

[Anonymous]

To me, the focus on participation serves a valuable purpose.

Some kids are just crappy at sports -- they have lousy hand-eye coordination, fall over their feet when they run, etc. When the focus is on winning, those kids quickly learn to bow out of team sports, for the good of their teammates. They learn not to do things they aren't good at, and they are discouraged from physical activity. Is that what we want kids to learn?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many of you have received thank you certificates for participating in some kind of task force at work? Or a pilot program. How is this different?

No, really, how is it different?

Anything like that that I have received a special thank you for in the workforce was truly earned, and required going far over and above the stated parameters of my job.

I am a project manager and i send an email to everybody's supervisor at the end of the project detailing how they did, sometime it is over and beyond, sometime not. It is a best practice.

Exactly. But did you also line them all up, give them a cookies and juice party and a plastic trophy from China, and gush over how wonderful they are because they simply took part in your project?

UM! Of course. We celebrate major milestones, we have bagels and Krispy Kreme donuts. We share success and failures, aka lesson's learned. We go to happy hour and drink our failures away sometimes and give each other encouragement. We celebrate birthdays, births of children, weddings. we bring sick coworkers soup and cover for them if we need to and still give them awards.

We give out monster and 5 hour energy award for pulling all nighters. (cheaper than trophies and they usually just get thrown away since those things are disgusting.)

Yes. We live an a society of people that we care about even if it is in the workplace.

Where do you work? Amazon.