Is four days off with pay and a two hundred dollar bonus fair for employees during the holidays?

The only ones who can answer that question are your employees?

No way to know if they're going to be happy with that or not.

If I were still working, based on past employers, that would be great.

Others may find it so-so.

Depends, how hard do they work?

What did they give you?

I always gave my former boss a mixed case of weird beers.

I still do and enjoy marching into his new department past all his minions and dropping a case of beer on his desk and walking out without saying a word.

Well, considering alot of employers don't give anything to their employees I think that is a pretty good gift!!!

Well, I am going to take 6 days off from my current project, and will be paid over $3000, so maybe NOT! Then again, when you say bonus, do you mean in ADDITION to what they normally get?

Steve

I think it is very fair. I think it is extremely rude for anyone to 'look a gift horse in the mouth'.

It is a nice gesture to give anything at all -

I can't stand people that tell you what they expect from you or even tell you what to buy them - rude rude rude.

A gift is 'the thought that counts' and considering you didn't have to give them anything they should appreciate it. Period.

One bank (one of the largest in the world) I worked for @ Y2K made us work New Years Eve and New Years Day in case the system failed. We didn't even get double time as is the law for holidays - we got a 'certificate' for a day off and a dried out catered dinner. Still better than a pink slip. (we got that a few years later)

Merry Christmas!

Pat asking for a Christmas gift may be rude - but many times that's what an end of the year bonus comes as. If they don't call it a Christmas bonus it is called end of the year bonus. There is nothing wrong with expecting one.

When a company's owner is making a good living it's because of the employees. It should be expected that they should get at least a small chunk of the profit. Some companies have bonuses written right into their contracts.

I would think that any company that cares about their profits and employees at all would have the decency to give bonuses. After all - where does the money come from that makes them able to give them? Companies that treat their employees like slaves don't get or keep good employees.

I've seen some real crap treatment of employees by corporations who think nothing any further than what they can get out of an employee. I am betting that the employee who gets 4 days of a rest with pay and a couple of hundred in their pocket has an employer that gives a damn and I bet they are much more loyal to you than they would for someone else. Merry Christmas to a kewl boss, credit card factoring.

I agree with the year end bonus that should show appreciation and share profit-

... and 4 days and a few hundred bucks is a very nice, generous gesture and should be appreciated.

HOWEVER, as I said it is not a requirement and completely up to the organization.

I have known employers who feel that they show their appreciation for employees by paying their salary. Seriously.

I don't know how it is in small retail establishments, but I do know what it is like in some huge corporations - and it is NOT a GIVEN that there will be a year end bonus or Christmas gift.

Sometimes they will spring for an employee Christmas dinner or something - a party - but more often than not there is NO Christams bonus.

- you get your cost of living and merit increase whenever your annual employment anniversary is.

So AGAIN, be HAPPY WITH WHAT THEY GIVE YOU AND BE GLAD IT IS NOT A PINK SLIP.

A good one though is an oil refinery I worked for temporarily (the famous orange ball) - I got a big wood and brass plaque with my name and 'Award for Initiative' engraved - AND $1000 - for cleaning a closet.

(My job was the computer/office - closet cleaner not in the job description - I was bored so - whatever - (found stuff dated in the 1940's so I would say it was high time to clean that closet!)

--> $1000! (back when $1000 was big)!

A lot of places no longer give raises and COL benefits, Pat. I can't believe how nasty and greedy some work places have become. You are right - they don't HAVE to give bonuses, but when the company is racking down the profits while paying stifling wages, or worse, it really tells people who they are working for.

I worked in a company that hired a whole group of us at a cut rate pay because they just absorbed another company. We were promised that if we signed on under the lower pay, it would be increased once the cost of the merger had been absorbed - during that time we worked 20 or more hours of over-time each week. When they found out there were no legal restrictions on hours pw they could make someone work, they put one department on 15 hour days. One guy dropped dead, one had a coronary and after the DR told him to stay away from stress, the company called him while still in the hospital bed and fired him for not being at work. They put illegals out on the floor of the plant and they were screwing up everything because they couldn't communicate. I was on 6/10 hour days weekly for 10 months and they kept trying to boost me to twelve - at which time I would tell them they were getting 10 and if that was a problem I didn't need to come back tomorrow. Of course, my boss didn't understand 3 of her responsibilities and I had to do them for her at a lesser wage, so they kept me coming back. I was browsing company figures one day and found they were making massive profits and started to haggle for the wage increase I was told to expect -- but was given to the CEO as bonuses instead. So I was getting prepared to leave - which was hard to do with no time to look for something else with the long hours I was putting in.
At Christmas they brought us in several big boxes of donuts and some other food. I picked up one of the donuts and it was as hard as a rock...so I asked "what's this BS". I found out our "Christmas buffet" was the left overs from the Executive party.
Needless to say - that's when I walked into the CEO's office and threw the damned donut on her desk and quit. She was floored. Go figure.

That is horrible, Sal - It's straight out of Oliver Twist or something.

I guess OSHA must be another mirage if they allowed that kind of situation to go on.

At least with the bigger corps there usually ends up being a class action suit by former and present employees - - problem with that is you get pennies - however it is the 'thought that counts' here too.

Special place in hell - another one -

OSHA handles things like unsafe machinery or work places, but in ID there aren't (or weren't at that time anyway) any laws stating how many hours you can work someone before you have to give them 8 hours off.

I don't know what has or hasn't gone on with laws since I left that place. The last I heard one of the guys had a very severe car accident driving home from work one day and he was talking to lawyers about his working conditions/hours. This isn't the only company out here that is abusive, though. I walked into my first day at one job and got told there was no lunch hour and I walked straight back out the door. What they're doing out here is taking laws that were bent that were making it hard for a few industries - like farming or small companies that have only 1 employee on at a time. They bent the laws on lunch hours so these businesses can operate. Of course, these laws weren't intended to keep companies from allowing people to eat, they just prevented them from getting sued for having the people "eat on the job" when it wasn't practical to let them leave the premises during lunch time. Then the corporations get ahold of those bent rules and use it to torture their employees. Unfortunately......Americans are afraid to stand up any more. They forget that en mass they can really hurt a company who makes slaves of them - and if they don't do it, in the long run things will keep getting worse. Fear of losing homes and not paying crazy high credit card bills, etc keep people from acting on their own behalf. It just sucks.

Like I said - the OP sounds like he actually cares a bit about how his employees actually feel about their employment -- and I wish that all Managers and business owners could truthfully say the same thing.

I know in some states they have laws about working anyone over 12 hours. I wouldn't even do that on a regular basis but have chipped in some weird OT for the right employers now and again -- and always when needed in my own companies, of course.

I know Cal-Osha requires employers to give breaks every 4 hours - 10-15 minutes and particularly at least a 30 minute lunch break every 8 hours.

Then with over-time I am not sure if they are required but I have seen two large corps pay for dinner. Not sure if this was voluntary.

Some were twisting over-time rules by calling people 'management' - they have a salary not hourly wage - So basically you have to work whenever/however long is necessary.

OSHA stepped in (Calif) and said for example - a manager doing management ok - but if a "manager" is stepping in to do what is usually done by hourly people - then they have to be paid overtime too. I think in this situation in was Walmart that got sued and it was the impetus for the law to change.

People do have some rights - but they have to know what they are and blow the whistle if they need to enforce it.

It is true though in today's 'climate' people are just thankful for having any job that will keep them off the streets and often this leads to being abused.