Employee makes boss $1.5 million in commissions, only to get a $25 AMC gift card as a Christmas bonus: 'When I put in my two weeks' notice, he called legal on me'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 12, 2025 8:00 AM EST

Imagine making so much money for your boss, only to be rewarded with the price of one movie ticket.

First of all, anyone who knows anything about the current cost of movie tickets these days would know that a $25 AMC gift card is not a good deal whatsoever. You might as well gift this person an AMC Stubs membership so they can get a lot more out of that amount of money. So not only was this a paltry amount of money masked as a "Christmas bonus," but also it was a thoughtless gift on top of it all.

It's worth acknowledging that far too many employees aren't given proper thanks for all their hard work at the end of the year. Gifting someone a small present they could have gotten themselves and throwing an office party are, at the end of the day, never giving people what they actually want. We all know what those needs are: long overdue raises.

For this employee, the justification for that raise or promotion was right there on the table. They made their boss over $1.5 million in commissions that year. After the so-called "Christmas bonus" was handed out early, the employee considered this to be the straw that finally broke the camel's back. They found another job opportunity in the same field and handed in their two weeks' notice. Unfortunately, that's just where the problems began…

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  • After announcing their intent to leave, the employee (who was in their early twenties at the time) made the egregious error of revealing where they were going. That prompted their boss to get the head of legal council for their company on the phone to draw up paperwork enforcing that the employee could not work at a competitor. Oh, the drama continues…

  • "I made my boss over $1.5 million in commission over two years, while I made $45k/year. For Christmas he got me a $25 gift card..."

    I worked my ass off for this man, essentially running his entire book of business for him. For Christmas he got me a $25 AMC gift card. The closest AMC theater is 1.5hrs away in another state. That pissed me off and
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • made me start looking for other jobs. I genuinely cared about my job and the account, so I waited to accept a job offer until I had trained someone else to do my job. When the time came, I met him in his office and told him that I had accepted another job and
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • that I was putting in my notice, but to not worry because I have someone already trained. When I told him that I had accepted a position with another company in our field but would not be doing the same thing so it wouldn't violate my non-compete, he called our chief legal office on speaker phone while I sat there.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • The CLO tells me that "I cannot even mop floors at a company in our field for at least a year". The CLO adds HR to the call and HR tells me that since I won't be pursuing my new job, they are going to let me work 2 more weeks to make sure the handoff goes smoothly and then I will be fired for looking for other jobs.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • They asked me for more details as to what I would be doing at my new job, and I told them I wasn't going to discuss it. After I left, the CLO of this company (a company who brings in $6 BILLION/year in revenue) called me randomly for the next few weeks trying to intimidate me.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • They even started contacting my new employer. Luckily, I don't work for a sh company now and the CEO got involved and told them that they would be ready to fight this in court. They stopped contacting me after that,
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • which meant they never even planed in taking me to court. They just wanted to scare me into quitting my new job.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • Fuck companies like this. We don't have to put up with this shit anymore
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • Edit: this was 3 years ago. I'm with the same company that I left my previous job for, and they have given me the budget to start a division of the company that directly competes with my previous employer I still have that AMC gift card too.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • I'll go ahead and address some of the questions I keep getting asked: Why did you stay if you were so underpaid for your performance? Because I was fresh out of college and dumb.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • Why did you tell them where you were going? Because I was fresh out of college and dumb.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • Why did you even give them a two week notice, why didnt you walk out? Because the people who I actually cared about at that job would be the ones who felt the effects of that more than my manager.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • A businesswoman with her back to the camera sits in a conference room opposite two colleagues: a man with his eyes wide open in shock and a woman quietly listening
    via Vitaly Gariev

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • TheinimitaableG I had a similar experience. I'd signed a non-compete as a1099 contractor then got hired in full time. A while later I should fit and hit a job with a client of theirs. They tried to pull out the non compete.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • I pointed out that in California a non,-compete agreement is not enforceable against a non- equity partner, and that my relationship with the soon to be former employer was that of an emoloyee. Like the OP my new employer's legal team got involved and told them to go p sand.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • LF... Talk about a toxic relationship when their go to move is "YOU ARE NOT BREAKING UP WITH US WE ARE BREAKING UP WITH YOU AND WE'LL GO AFTER EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT". I'm just sad the story doesn't actually involve them losing major accounts.
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • Sweetie PieJ Ok well now you have to name them so we can shame them. Pretty please?
    via TheOldAngryAn**
  • cardinalsfanokc Most non-compete docs are unenforceable. And if they fire you they cannot and do not apply any longer. Sounds like you have a good new company, congrats!
    via TheOldAngryAn**

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Tags

christmas employment issues bonus amc overworked-employees Horrible Bosses toxic-work-environment
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