Employee in a heavily downsized department get an end-of-year “bonus” in the form of a $5 Dunkin gift card from their boss’s pocket: ‘We aren't the Rockefellers after all’

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Etai Eshet • Editor
Dec 18, 2025 7:00 PM EST

End-of-year bonus season, just like the holiday season, arrives like a Hallmark movie, only this one is written by HR. Supposed to be magical. Mostly just paper plates and quiet resentment.  

This place used to go all out with a pizza party, which already says everything. One slice per person, bring your own drink, and try not to act too entitled while chewing through corporate gratitude. This year, management decided to "make it more personal" now that the team is down to four people doing the work of fifteen. Fewer humans, same delusion.  

So the boss shows up at the desk with that tight smile that means a speech is coming. Talks about value. Talks about appreciation. Talks about how much this contribution means to the company. Then hands over a card like it holds stock options. Inside is a five-dollar Dunkin gift card. Five. Dollars. The price of one drink, if no one breathes near the syrup pumps. But do not worry, it is extra meaningful because it "came out of her pocket."  

Meanwhile, there is an actual discretionary fund specifically for employee appreciation that just quietly resets if no one uses it. The company could have covered the coffee, the pizza, the bare minimum performance of gratitude. Instead, the choice is that workers can have crumbs and management can have a story about how much they care. 

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  • End of year "bonuses"

    Close-up of a person handing a red gift card across a desk to another person in a business setting, with a laptop in the background and a caption reading “I couldn't even pretend I was pleased,” suggesting disappointment over an impersonal or unwanted gift.
    via Andrey_Popov

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

  • End of an era is right. At some point, the only bonus left is finally quitting and letting them figure out how to run all fifteen jobs with three people and a gift card.

  • So here we are at the end of the year and time for Big Business to show us how important we are to them.
    via 2wetsponges
  • Normally we have our year end pizza party, where we each get one slice and don't forget to bring your own drinks, we aren't the Rockefellers after all.
    via 2wetsponges
  • This year my team has been cut down to four employees so they skipped the pizza party because they wanted to do something more personal.
    via 2wetsponges
  • So I came to work this morning and my boss is standing at my desk with a big smile and goes on about how much I bring to the company and that she wanted to show here appreciation by giving me a gift card to Dunkin because she knows how much I love coffee.
    via 2wetsponges
  • I then open the card to see that she gave me $5 to Dunkin and she told me how it came out of her pocket because she wanted to be sure all four of us got something.
    via 2wetsponges
  • Close-up of a man in a white dress shirt and blue tie pulling a card labeled “BONUS” from his chest pocket, symbolizing a work bonus, compensation, or financial reward in a professional or corporate context.
    via valiantsin suprunovich

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

  • Our company has a discretionary fund for things like this, which is how we used to get those pizza parties, and if management doesn't use the funding it just goes. back to the company.
    via 2wetsponges
  • I couldn't even pretend I was pleased and just mumbled "thank you" Unfortunately I'm stuck here until my cancer treatment is complete, but this will be the end of an era for sure.
    via 2wetsponges
  • We have four employees doing the work of 15 which is how many worked here in lanut
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  • Luke_Flyswatter Did you talk to HR before you got cancer? Seems really inconvenient to the company. Please don't let it happen again or you'll be written up. Hope you're doing well in all seriousness.
    via 2wetsponges
  • OP 2wetsponges Thank you. Actually the dealing with HR was the one thing that had comedy value to it. They sent me e-mail called setting up your STD I just laughed initially, which was the first laugh I had since my diagnosis, then thought who thought using an acronym for Short Term Disability was a good idea?
    via 2wetsponges
  • LPNTed Man.. not even "jelly of the month"..
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  • OP 2wetsponges !gif
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  • Lonely_Noyaaa Four people doing the work of fifteen and a $5 coffee is the kind of management flex that belongs in a meme, not real life
    via 2wetsponges
  • Icy-Block5575 My company is based in Vancouver and I'm in Toronto, as are a few other staff members. One is on the east coast, and another in the prairies. About half our staff is in the Vancouver area, some of them on the island. Every year they fly us all out, put us in a hotel, and take us to a fancy restaurant. There's really no cap on this party. Their turnover is very low. People rarely leave our company. It pisses me off that others aren't being made to feel valued like this. Doesn't have
    via 2wetsponges
  • KetoLurkerHereAgain There's a scene in the movie Trading Places where one of the rich assholes gives the waiter $5 (and then the other rich asshole says half is from him). $5 was understood to be a super shitty, insulting, gift even in 1983! 1983!
    via 2wetsponges
  • Reasonable-Nose7813 Work for a law firm. Attys get annual bonuses. IT (my dept) and admin staff do not get bonuses
    via 2wetsponges
  • Sharing Violation I shouldn't complain... but... my manager was really excited to give stock units that don't vest for 4 years. Essentially, if I want my bonus, I have to stick around for four years, lol... Then, she wanted to talk about development goals and how l needed to come up with them. I flat told her I took this job because I wasn't looking to develop, and if I did develop, it would be at a different job because this one has no career progression path (I'm the most senior title without
    via 2wetsponges
  • Badrear I worked for a company where we used to get holiday bonuses of $100-$500 depending on year and position. Then the CEO at the time realized that those millions of dollars could go to executive bonuses instead. Then he rewarded himself and the other executives even more money than that for being so smart. The 90% stock drop was of course due to lazy employees.
    via 2wetsponges
  • MiniManMafia My end of year "bonus" was an unpaid half day on Dec 23th, we are off the 24th and 25th.
    via 2wetsponges

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