'You CAN buy loyalty': Good guy manager fronts his own money to congratulate his tight-knit team with a pizza party, making upper management look stingy, then dismantling the entire company's bonus system

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Feb 25, 2025 10:00 AM EST

Some managers are better than others, but this good guy team leader puts the cherry on top of the workplace sundae. 

While many of us have endured bad managers who are either way too hands-on or way too vacant, sometimes you get blessed by the lords of the job site with a day-to-day manager who really gets it. Someone who leads, inspires, and actually gives a hoot about their team is pretty priceless. However, it seems like upper management always forgets their middlemen, continually congratulating themselves for the work of everyone below them. 

Well, the manager in this next story was tired of his hardworking team doing all the work without any credit, so he asked the C-Level guys if he could throw the team a congratulatory pizza party. In an anti-corporate fashion, they denied his request and said if he wanted to applaud his team's efforts, he'd have to bankroll it himself… Fine then. Keep scrolling to read how this manager not only boosted the morale of his team, congratulating them for their efforts out of his own pocket, but he also inspired other managers to pressure the division heads into changing up some of the benefit rules.

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    via RGStudio

    (The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.)

    If you have a manager that's willing to stick up for you and have your coworkers' backs, they're a keeper. Management is not a simple position that just anybody is built for and a manager isn't someone you can just bring in as a nepotism hire. A good manager is someone who sees your success and raises you a pizza party every now and then…

  • "Company won't buy my staff lunch as a 'thank you' for hard work ... OK"

    I was manager of a programming department with 2 dozen people reporting to me. Once in a while we'd have more work than we had programmers and my staff would bust their butts to get the work done.
    via blueboy714
  • I asked the division head if the company would buy lunch for my staff as a thank you for their hard work and was told no the company wouldn't do this.
    via blueboy714
  • I decided that wasn't right and decided to spend my own money on a dozen pizzas or a couple dozen subs. As management I received a nice bonus every year - thanks in no small part to my team's hard work.
    via blueboy714
  • Fast forward a bit and I scheduled a 2 hour meeting a couple times a year. The first part was training and the second part was lunch for my programming team.
    via blueboy714
  • The building I was in had about 200 people in it and they smelled the pizza/subs/lunch. When the lunch meeting were done people starting asking my staff where they got the pizza and they were told that I paid for them out of my own pocket.
    via blueboy714
  • Cheezburger Image 10471408384
    via cottonbrostudio
  • I did this a bunch of times until the division head got an earful from other managers that my buying lunch for my staff was making them look bad. The other managers didn't think they should have to pay for lunch out of their own pockets (there were 8 departments and mine was second largest one).
    via blueboy714
  • After a couple years of this the division head made the "brilliant" decision to set aside money to be used by each department manager as they see fit for thank you gifts, lunches, etc.
    via blueboy714
  • PlayfulChemist Obviously you are one of the good ones, but I wonder how often those 'thank you gifts' were from a manager to himself.
    via PlayfulChemist
  • Equivalent_Law_6311 My last job was a truck driver, one I can say about the owner was if we had a mandatory meeting, he catered a fantastic lunch, we got paid for out time and a Christmas dinner. Small outfit with about 20 trucks.
    via Equivalent_Law_6311
  • Jonathan_the_Nerd I used to work in the office. I went 100% remote during CO ID and never looked back. The one thing I miss is team lunches. (Genuine lunches, not "working lunches".)
    via Jonathan_the_Nerd
  • There was one time early in my career that something important broke at around 4pm, and it took until 6:00 or 6:30 to fix. The manager in charge bought pizza for everyone who had stayed late. Good pizza, not regular cheap pizza.
    via Jonathan_the_Nerd
  • AngrySquidlsOK Frankly I'm disappointed in all the other managers being such money grubbers they didn't want to buy their own team lunches. I'm like you, I buy my team lunches and gifts as appreciation of the company won't. Sad so many managers feel other what.
    via AngrySquidlsOK
  • mysticturner I'm retired now but the manager that I worked for until nearly my retirement had a lot of tricks to raise morale. Since the Superbowl just occurred, this one is fresh in my mind, I'll tell this one.
    via mysticturner
  • Every year he ran a Superbowl score bet if you matched the last digits of both teams, whatever that's called, you got day(s) off. They were secretly hidden/not reported because he'd get in a sh load of trouble if upper management found out.
    via mysticturner
  • Another was that since we were all either WFH or at least only partial RTO, occasionally our team meeting tossed the usual agenda and just talked about what was going on in life. And to enhance the conversation, it was being the beverage of your choice. Most
    via mysticturner
  • people had beer, occasionally a cocktail showed up, one lady always had wine. No one was forced, you could drink water or soda, that was cool too, everyone understood. And when someone joined the team, they were always shocked. But secrecy again was paramount.
    via mysticturner
  • Result: that team pulled off miracles regularly. Big rush project? Who was finished first? Us.
    via mysticturner
  • anrwlias That's a great story. My only note is that there is a distinct lack of malice in your compliance, but good for you for sticking up for your people. Managers like you are a rarity.
    via anrwlias
  • National Pension_110 Companies are horrible. You sound like a good person to work for. Thank you for making some people feel appreciated.
    via National_Pension_110
  • photo1kjb As a middle manager of a remote team, every time we all come into HQ, I buy lunch or dinner for my team. IDGAF if corporate expenses it (they usually don't), it's my personal thank-you for my team showing up and balling out. F the company, I appreciate these employees on a personal level.
    via photo1kjb
  • Yoojine Our company consists of three major divisions. One hosts a massive BBQ several times a year. Another throws a huge party every summer- last year there was a dunk tank where several department heads took a turn. It's been six years here
    via Yoojine
  • and we've gotten nothing, although we do get to smell their food and watch the other divisions have the day off. The two things I've been most shocked by in corporate America are 1) how cheaply you can buy loyalty, and 2) how so many managers won't even put in that much
    via Yoojine

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