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Now that is very cool on the part of your boss, Mongo, and I don't blame you for wanting to give him a gift. That sounds like something the Manager that I worked for my first 3.5+ years at the Hardware Store, (local chain, not Big Box) until he retired, would have done.
He's one of the people I respect most, from all I've met in my now 52+ years, and I think that is really saying something, considering he was "part of my life" for such a relatively short time, and so late in my life, at a point where I've become much more cynical than in my younger years. His stories of being in the business for so many years, many of them at a long -defunct local hardware chain, plus his work at building the business in the store I worked at, from the time the Company opened it up, until his retirement some 14 years later. He was a damn hard, hands on Worker and Manager, and deserves every moment of his retirement.
I think my first thought when I read the OP, was that the gift giving to the Supes/Mgrs was expected by the Supes/Mgrs, and especially in a Big Box scenario, from what I read here of how the employees of such retailers are treated by corp and management, it just seems like adding insult to injury expecting the "lowly", often minimum wage or not much better, employees to be compelled to buy or chip in for a gift for the boss. If anything, corp should be generous enough to supply store management with a decently generous check, to be used to buy gift cards, or whatever, for the employees.
A buddy of mine works in the local warehouse of a major retailer, that several years back finally comepletely dropped the name of the local retailer with a long, long history in my area that they had bought out, after a few years of combining both names. He's worked there for, I believe, around 11 or 12 years now.
He's talked to me over the years, about how much less they get from corp each Holiday Season. As I recall, they each used to get a half-ways decent bonus check. Nowadays, it's more like one check going to his Supervisor, who thinks it's generous to apply it to remodeling the break room unnecessarily. The Employees might get donuts, or a cake, or a $5.00 Starbucks Card. Meanwhile for running the place so efficiently, the Supe (who drives a Jag--my buddy makes it a point to always bring that up
) gets a decent bonus check of her own.
Mike
He's one of the people I respect most, from all I've met in my now 52+ years, and I think that is really saying something, considering he was "part of my life" for such a relatively short time, and so late in my life, at a point where I've become much more cynical than in my younger years. His stories of being in the business for so many years, many of them at a long -defunct local hardware chain, plus his work at building the business in the store I worked at, from the time the Company opened it up, until his retirement some 14 years later. He was a damn hard, hands on Worker and Manager, and deserves every moment of his retirement.
I think my first thought when I read the OP, was that the gift giving to the Supes/Mgrs was expected by the Supes/Mgrs, and especially in a Big Box scenario, from what I read here of how the employees of such retailers are treated by corp and management, it just seems like adding insult to injury expecting the "lowly", often minimum wage or not much better, employees to be compelled to buy or chip in for a gift for the boss. If anything, corp should be generous enough to supply store management with a decently generous check, to be used to buy gift cards, or whatever, for the employees.
A buddy of mine works in the local warehouse of a major retailer, that several years back finally comepletely dropped the name of the local retailer with a long, long history in my area that they had bought out, after a few years of combining both names. He's worked there for, I believe, around 11 or 12 years now.
He's talked to me over the years, about how much less they get from corp each Holiday Season. As I recall, they each used to get a half-ways decent bonus check. Nowadays, it's more like one check going to his Supervisor, who thinks it's generous to apply it to remodeling the break room unnecessarily. The Employees might get donuts, or a cake, or a $5.00 Starbucks Card. Meanwhile for running the place so efficiently, the Supe (who drives a Jag--my buddy makes it a point to always bring that up
) gets a decent bonus check of her own.Mike
Let me repeat that--he not only got a somewhat-expensive bottle of wine and gift card, but somehow managed to get back the cash that *we* spent for it. How the fuck does that work?
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