Dear bosses, a potluck meal is not saying "thank you for all you" to your staff

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a potluck is bad, it means you work with some really bad cooks.

I love potlucks (I’m a millennial fwiw) but if sucks to do this as a boss because a) a lot of people don’t like them for various reasons and 2) making extra work for people that requires no work on your part is not a way to say thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. Why do this? The boss can just spring for some holiday cookies and have a festive little afternoon tea hour if they don’t want to pay for a meal. Potlucks are a pain and can be gross.

My rule of thumb is that no matter how much employees like their jobs, the best two ways to appreciate them are:

(1) Money
(2) Extra time off

That's it. If you can do real holiday bonuses, that's best. If you can't, smaller gift cards are a nice gesture. I've also heard of places doing surprise days off between Christmas and New Years (why not, people don't get a ton of work done then anyway) or doing "early off" for the last couple weeks before Christmas -- people can leave at 4:30pm barring an urgent deadline or meeting. It's a nice way to allow people to spend more time with their families or to get additional holiday-related activities done, plus it's the darkest time of the year so an early release feels really good from a mental health perspective.

But yeah, money and time. Those are the things people want and need.

Totally agree! Cheapo pot lucks are terrible! I am a baby boomer by the way and some earlier poster claimed boomers loved them. No, we do not. Especially during Covid, these horrid affairs should be banned.

I agree! Forced togetherness and jollity are excruciating anyway, and then you're supposed to love investing time and money in a disgusting potluck? Whole lotta nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dear Employees,

Thanks for a wonderful year. As per your employment agreement you have received your agreed upon compensation and benefits for the year 2021.

We look forward to another wonderful year in 2022. If you feel you are not appreciated enough by the agreement we reached during your interview process, please make sure to turn in your building access credentials to HR.

Signed,

Your Manager.

Dear Manager,

I’m totally fine with my agreed upon compensation. I don’t feel any need to acknowledge the holiday season at work. Really, it’s fine. Please cancel the potluck because no one wants to do it except you. (And do you even?)

All the best,
Your employee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, OP, that sucks.

Companies are cheap as hell. I once worked somewhere that tried to pass off the opportunity to wear jeans to work on Fridays (in the summer in DC!) as a staff appreciation program. But in order to earn the right to wear jeans, you had to donate a minimum of $5 to a charity chosen by one of the management team members, and there was literally someone who would come around with a list to see who had donated and then look under your desk to see if you had jeans on.

I felt so deeply appreciated that I went and got a job somewhere else where I could wear jeans whenever I wanted and there was no compulsory charity requirement.

you seem overinvested in "jeans."

NP. It's the opposite. She's pointing out this firm's ridiculous view that JEANS are a perk. Commonplace at lots of firms now, so it's quite hilarious how seriously this place took the Jeans wearing. Especially in DC summer where a skirt is still preferable to JEANS+$5+"GRATEFUL" employee... heh.

[Anonymous]

Had a boss who made us do a holiday cookie swap because his wife liked to bake. One year we all brought a bag of chips ahoy. After that he stopped the stupidity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would definitely be sick that day.

I have done this. Just couldn't do it one more year and would be happier if the whole "celebration" was cancelled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Employees,

Thanks for a wonderful year. As per your employment agreement you have received your agreed upon compensation and benefits for the year 2021.

We look forward to another wonderful year in 2022. If you feel you are not appreciated enough by the agreement we reached during your interview process, please make sure to turn in your building access credentials to HR.

Signed,

Your Manager.

Dear Manager,

I’m totally fine with my agreed upon compensation. I don’t feel any need to acknowledge the holiday season at work. Really, it’s fine. Please cancel the potluck because no one wants to do it except you. (And do you even?)

All the best,
Your employee

P.S. Hosting a potluck does not "show how much we value you and appreciate your hard work." (Or maybe it does?)

[Anonymous]

I am a GXer. Remembrances of holiday parties past:

Evening weekend party at a hotel, like a Hyatt, with sit down dinner and open bar. Free gifts. Gift drawings of electronics.

We were spoiled. The next year food was catered from a local Italian restaurant during the day in the office.

Evening weekend dinner at a nice local restaurant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Millennials and Gen Z don't cook, bruh. Everything is take out or ordered in.

This is dumb….I know many people under 40 that are fantastic cooks. I mean, my 14-Year-Old daughter knows how to cook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, OP, that sucks.

Companies are cheap as hell. I once worked somewhere that tried to pass off the opportunity to wear jeans to work on Fridays (in the summer in DC!) as a staff appreciation program. But in order to earn the right to wear jeans, you had to donate a minimum of $5 to a charity chosen by one of the management team members, and there was literally someone who would come around with a list to see who had donated and then look under your desk to see if you had jeans on.

I felt so deeply appreciated that I went and got a job somewhere else where I could wear jeans whenever I wanted and there was no compulsory charity requirement.

The Jean Pass Day, was it a law firm?

+1 (my initial guess also)

I worked at a law firm that did this 15-ish years ago.

I work at a law firm that still does this or did pre-pandemic when we were all going into the office. We'll see if it restarts when we're all back in.

Yes, common large firm practice in DC. Also, when I was at a firm that did this, the partners who chose the charities would get really aggressive about them and some would send emails throughout the week encouraging people to give more than the required amount and accusing people of being cheap. Keep in mind that these emails were going not just to other partners, but to assistants and others who were making significantly less (and for whom affording the business clothes required to work there, because of course it wasn't even a business casual environment, was a lot trickier than for the attorneys). It was incredibly gross.

And don't think it didn't occur to many of us that the ultimate donation would either be in the firm's name or that of the partner who had suggested the charity for the week (I don't even know) which means it was a tax write off. It's a law firm -- we of course understood those dynamics.

Lawyers come by their reputations as total assholes honestly.

[Anonymous]

A mandatory Zoom happy hour at 5pm when I have to supply my own alcoholic beverage is also not saying 'thank you'.

[Anonymous]

Find out your boss' favorite dish and make that. But do a terrible job of it. Add in black walnuts or something. Those things make everything gross.

Potluck during COVID is beyond stupid. I'd also look for a different job. Something where people are intelligent and don't share food during a pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Millennials and Gen Z don't cook, bruh. Everything is take out or ordered in.

I’m the PP who said that the people who brag about their cooking aren’t very good cooks and they’re totally the millennials and Gen-Zers! They can’t cook, they just think they can because they watched a YouTube video or something.

TikTok

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Covid aside. If your office or department is "hosting" a holiday meal for staff, don't make it potluck. If a group of co-workers want to get together and have a potluck, fine, but don't try to sell a potluck meal as "a thank you for all you do" to your staff. Sanitary issues aside, it is cheap and annoying.

Guess you can just tell what sort of holiday lunch email the boss just sent out.

Ugh yes huge in federal govt…I’ve been to too many hallway potluck parties.

[Anonymous]

Potlucks are annoying. I would bring cookies because I never wanted to be the person wheeling a crockpot onto the metro in a wagon.