Has your boss ever done anything cool for 'employee appreciation' purposes, and what was it?

I used to be so thankful when my boss brought donuts. Especially if he got me strawberry frosted with sprinkles. I’m easy to please. Thats all it takes.

I will buy my peeps lunch now and then.

When I worked in an insurance agency, they gave everyone cards and $25,oo on Adminsitrative Assitants Day. Otherwise, the occasional pizza lunch, bagel breakfast, etc., was fun.

The best day-to-day thing is always having coffee for me in the morning. It’s such a small thing, but it is fantastic.

When I moved into my own place after breaking up with my ex, my boss told me to look around her basement and take pretty much whatever I wanted to help get me started- I got dishes, artwork, lamps…

i was very lucky in this regard. when i used to work in engineering our boss always made sure we where appreciated.

every saturday without fail he would bring over a full size beer keg and we all used to sit down and get a little drunk. he used to from time to time call ’‘meetings’’ where we just had cake and chatted for 15 minutes before going back to work. kind of an unofficial brake. some times he used to send us all home 30 minutes early with pay, and from time to time he would take all the scrap metal to a scrap yard, sell it, and we would all get an extra 20 to 100 bucks in our weekly pay packet.

but my favorite of all, some times he used to say ’‘ok guys, as soon as X is done today we are all going home with pay’’ we used to get out 2, 3 and even 4 hours early at times, some times with extra pay too.

We took all the employees (we only have 5) and their families to Disneyland twice. The first time we put them up at a Disney property for two days. This last time we were off property, but did a big dinner at Medieval times too. It was expensive but our most recent hire has been with us 8 years.
It is really sad that since the economy has been hit so hard we are now having to lay 2 guys off. :-(

Manager of several people, I took them to lunch and surprised each employee with a cute certificate I had created that read “The Best ___.” The blank was filled with one humorous quality each person was known for. For example, one employee talks very, very loud, so he got a certificate for “Best Ear Drum Breaker.” Along with the certificate each employee got a tsmall oken gift that illustrated or poked fun at the quality. A tiny megaphone for the loud talker, for example. After lunch, I took them all to a movie. They still talk about those certificates, and in fact, have them hung on their walls.

When I was working at a local TV station back in ‘88, The station owner rented out the whole theater for us to go watch Broadcast News when it first came out.

Maybe he could’ve recorded the expense as “training purposes”, but I appreciated it just the same.

A nice, fat end-of-the-year bonus.

I work for myself and haven’t done anything nice for me in awhile.I’m pretty p/o’d about it and might steal paperclips and pens to get back at myself ;)

I neglected to mention a key part of my presentation. As I handed each employee his/her certificate, I delivered a humorous but genuine thank you speech (which I had written in advance) spotlighting the employee’s achievements over the previous few months.

One place I worked had the ‘employee of the month’ thing, and whoever was chosen each month was taken to a nice lunch, one-on-one, by our boss. Most of the employees actually dreaded that, but I quite enjoyed getting to know my boss better.

My step-son is a fitness trainer for a large corporation. He runs occasional adult PE/gym ‘classes’ at the local rec center on Saturdays. Employees and their families can come in and play old school PE games like dodgeball. They really love it!

In our building, every Friday, the Chief brings fresh baked bagels, whipped butter and whipped cream cheese. . . . during the summer months, we have some burgers and hotdogs for lunch grilled out in the parking lot

At one dealership I worked at, my boss would knew that I was barely making it, and he let me work up to sixty hours a week. It really helped. He also would have his wife make dinner for me, so I would be able to eat. I really miss him, because he really helped me, when I needed help, and was there for me when I needed a friend.

Yep. This past summer, I was on a crew doing some biological fieldwork. We had to work 10–12 hour days in 100+ degree heat, and we working right after a huge gnat population had hatched. We were being eaten alive, and had to drink 3x as much water to stay hydrated in the heat. So, after a particularly horrible day, our boss stopped and bought the entire crew a chocolate milkshake. It made our day.

Nothing too serious, but it’s the little things that count.

My boss takes us to the zoo on a fairly regular basis. He loves going to the zoo himself so if he feels we need some sort of morale boost then that is usually his suggestion.

One place I worked my direct boss took each of his employees out to a one on one lunch, one a day for about 3 weeks. I remember being pretty cynical about it at first, it was a large company, not especially exciting work (most of our time was on the phone), and other than evaluations and meetings I didn’t work directly with him very often.

When we got out though he actually spent the time getting to know a bit more about me, and specifically what my work related goals were. Was I happy doing what I was? Did I want to continue up the line from there or was I interested in other positions. He offered honest feedback, shared his experiences with the company and actually seemed interested. I’m sure he got some insight about my motivations, and I got to know a bit about him including his past experience, what he felt his challenges were with the team, his frustrations (a little honesty goes a long way here) and just generally how we could help each other. It wasn’t the sort of things you’d hear during meetings or even company get togethers.

He followed up, as projects came up in areas I had expressed interest in he’d check to see if I was willing to take them on, and it just generally made a connection where there hadn’t been one.

I’m not sure if it would work with every employee, but it stood out as more than just lunch even though that’s how it was presented.

Let everyone go home early at least once a month.

Yes we got to go to the pub for like an annual appreciation lunch, but then when she went and won several hundred dollars on the pokies, kept it all for herself.

I mean come on!