'This was how they thanked me': IT employee saves company from fines amounting to millions, they reward him with a $20 voucher

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    11 0 0 001 0 00 10 0 01 1 10 1 1 0 10 0 0 111 01 0 0 101 1 11 1 10 10 1,90 Boss: Thanks for saving us millions, here's 20 bucks!" 100-1117 1 00 01 1 011 001 010 1 1 00 0 1 1101 0 1 1 0
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    You have saved us millions! How can we ever repay you? Here's a $20 gift voucher.
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    Several years ago, I got called into a panicked meeting because something had been sent out to all stockholders with the wrong email domain. Entire chaos because it could mean millions of dollars of fines from the regulators.
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    While there was mass panic, I jumped online and checked if the domain they had used was available - it was, so I bought it then and there, and then added that domain added to our email system. Told them to calm down, and that I had resolved their issue.
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    Fast forward a few weeks, I have been repaid for my initial outlay, and I get invited to a presentation. At that presentation, they gave me a lot of kudos for finding a solution so quickly, and acting on it, thereby saving the company millions. They then gave me a $20 prepaid credit card. Yeah. I would have been happier with just the certificate they gave me. $20 didn't even pay for lunch that day....
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    Edit: This was not an email that was sent out. It was printed material which contained invalid contact details in a highly regulated financial industry.
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    Jamie00003 17 hr. ago We are owned by a massive company that buys others and increases their portfolio or whatever. We're told to try and sell our services to friends, family etc. the reward? A £50 Amazon gift voucher.
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    I'll often see on our internal social media page "bob has won us a 5 million contract with so and so! Look out for your £50 Amazon gift voucher in the mail" Brilliant thanks guys. I can only hope to be that lucky guy one day 71 Reply Share
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    & KelemvorSparkyfox · 13 hr. ago Bring back Lotus Notes A former employer did this. They introduced the Rewards and Recognitions scheme in about 2010, along with extending the bonus scheme* to all staff. The bronze award, which anyone could nominate anyone else for, was £50. When I was made redundant in 2019, it was still £50. The sort of thing that would get you nominated? I once came up with a way to automatically load shift patterns into the Time & Attendance system, saving Payroll hours of w
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    *At my level, the maximum potential bonus was 5% of salary. 60% of that was dependant on the company exceeding the profit forecast by a certain margin. 15% was dependant on either the liquid cash or net debt position at year end (whichever they deemed us less likely to hit, I assume). The remaining 25% was dependant on our PDR score. No matter if I hit my goals or not, I never scored more than 4.0 out of 5 - typically, it was 3.5. Scores of less than 1.5 returned
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    nothing for this component, thereafter for every half point you got 12.5% of this component. Frequently for the ten years that I was in the bonus scheme, the first two components weren't paid. So my bonus those years was 62.5% of 25% of 5% of my salary. Which was then taxed. I was never impressed by the annual bonus. 427 Reply Share
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    Techn0ght 18 hr. ago Had a job about 25 years ago working for an ISP. During an outage I found a circuit the company had been paying 35k a month for was actually a cross connect instead of the original long haul circuit. The cross connect should have cost $250. I wasn't part of provisioning, it wasn't my job to find these problems. I got a refund for 3 years of the overcharge and not even a thank you from the company. 106 Reply Share
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    USAF6F171 18 hr. ago Did HR notify you that you'd be on the hook for income tax on the $20? I stirred up a mess when they gave out $10 gift cards once and I sent mine back through campus mail with no note. Turns out, they didn't know who NOT to charge tax on. I think they spent a few hours figuring out it was me -- still don't know how. Reply Share 37
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    ithink2020- 17 hr. ago I've been there. It's a real gut punch. Reply Share 15 _Arriviste_11 hr. ago At a past job in the telephone mines I've been rewarded with "[company] bux" to buy [company] swag like mugs, branded golf umbrellas, and shirts I could wear only on casual Fridays. Reply Share 46 6
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    Ferro_Giconi 18 hr. ago I hope they also understand that they are lucky this fix worked and that you can't just magic this fix again if they send to a domain that already exists and isn't for sale. ↑ 198 Reply Share
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    aard_fi 16 hr. ago They're also lucky someone like me wasn't in the recipients of the email. Someone who might've just registered the domain for sts and giggles and put some mildly disturbing content on it to see what happens. 111 Reply Share
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    JoshuaPearce - 17 hr. ago Next time buy the domain and sell it to them. 95 Reply Share nico282 17 hr. ago "Gentlemen, the domain is for sale from Lazy_worker_123 LLC for 10.000$. Who should I send the account number for the wire transfer?" 82 Reply Share
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    Throwaway_Old_Guy - 18 hr. ago That entire presentation was a slap in the face. Your money should have been in hand next day instead of a few weeks. I'm sure the C-Suite collected a bigger bonus than $20. The person that sent out the e-mail with the wrong domain should have seen serious consequences. 26 Reply Share
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    runamok 17 hr. ago The person that sent out the e-mail with the wrong domain should have seen serious consequences. Agree on most of that, but disagree on this point. Improve the process whether it's more eyes on it before it goes, using a pre-approved template, automation, etc. 介 30 Reply Share
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    Chocolate Bourbon 15 hr. ago Exactly. Drive out fear. Create conditions that prevent mistakes. That being said, some employees are amazing. They will find a way to cause chaos. They should be let go after a consistent pattern appears. ↑ 13 ↓ Reply Share
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    HSC_IT 10 hr. ago At least you can receive stuff like. Zero gift and Zero reward setup where im at. Not even technically allowed to take swag (like a pen or stubby holder) at a conference. I have friends who work for places that send them on overseas holidays as a reward or a "team building retreat". Im in the wrong line of work... 43 ↓ Reply Share

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