I Want A Boss Like This

[weltschmerz]

For several years restaurateurs have been complaining about the high turnover of staff.



Faced with the battle to retain employees, one Montreal restaurateur has decided the best alternative is to reward those who stay, and this year his Christmas gift to staff is very big.



Nicolas Delrieu, co-owner of Speakeasy, Chef's Table, Freeze Brothers and To Comptoir Asiatique, has been giving the employee of the month -- as chosen by employees -- presents such as tickets to Osheaga or other events.


But next month Delrieu will be taking 25 of his employees to Cuba for a four-day stay at an all-inclusive resort.

montreal.ctvnews.ca/restaurateur-battles-staff-turnover-by-taking-workers-to-cuba-1.4216722

We have jobs, jobs, jobs, and not enough people to fill them.

[daisy]

My oldest had a boss like this one - Dermatology office and took all the employees to an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas for 3 days after Christmas. Bosses like that don't come around too often!

[movingforward]

Personally, I would rather have the money. I don't really want to go on vacation with people I work with but it is definitely a nice gesture.

[irishpad]

15 years ago I took a tour through the New Belgium Brewery (Fat Tire beer and others) in Fort Collins.  At the time it was still a fairly small operation.  The young man giving the tour talked about some of the benefits the employees received:  After 1 year they got a Fat Tire bicycle, after 5 years the owners would take them to Belgium to tour the breweries there whose brewing process they were replicating.    Then he said, "And every Friday each employee gets to take a case of beer home...………. and my wife works there too!"  

[Cookies Galore]

Dec 13, 2018 17:21:22 GMT -5 daisy said:

My oldest had a boss like this one - Dermatology office and took all the employees to an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas for 3 days after Christmas. Bosses like that don't come around too often!

My husband's uncle is a dentist with his own practice and takes the staff on a trip most years. They're going to Aruba in January. Jelly.

[chapeau]

Dec 13, 2018 18:07:08 GMT -5 irishpad said:

15 years ago I took a tour through the New Belgium Brewery (Fat Tire beer and others) in Fort Collins.  At the time it was still a fairly small operation.  The young man giving the tour talked about some of the benefits the employees received:  After 1 year they got a Fat Tire bicycle, after 5 years the owners would take them to Belgium to tour the breweries there whose brewing process they were replicating.    Then he said, "And every Friday each employee gets to take a case of beer home...………. and my wife works there too!"  

A local brewery gave a free case to employees every payday. A high school friend’s dad worked there. And didn’t drink!! He still took the case, and had for years. They lined the walls of my friend’s parents’ basement. Needless to say, we drank a lot of that beer before we were legal. We’d replace the beer with water [insert obligatory US beer/water joke here] so the cases weighed the same, and we started at the bottom of the wall and worked our way around the basement.
I would love to know if his dad still has the cases. The brewery closed several years ago...

[andi9899]

I've had a couple of bosses like this. I stayed at both offices for several years.

[Deleted]

In my experience as a Manager employees much prefer a spot cash bonus vs a gift.  I worked at a fortune 50 that shifted their rewards program from cash to having to redeem physical items and the employee backlash was so significant they went back to cash within 3 months.

In this example it may cost employees to receive this bonus as they may need to arrange child/elder care and it doesn't say it but does this mean they are out their wage the time they are away?

I agree its great that a boss is adding to total compensation to retain employees but something like this may be putting an undue burden on some of their employees to receive it and they probably really needed the cash a lot more than a trip.

[Deleted]

Dec 14, 2018 10:25:07 GMT -5 @aj said:

In my experience as a Manager employees much prefer a spot cash bonus vs a gift.  
<snip>
I agree it's great that a boss is adding to total compensation to retain employees but something like this may be putting an undue burden on some of their employees to receive it and they probably really needed the cash a lot more than a trip.

I've seen the same observation about Christmas/holiday parties- one size does not fit all and there will always be people who aren't happy with whatever the employer provides.  And in the US, I suspect that trip would come with a 1099 showing the taxable value of the trip.

[Deleted]

Dec 14, 2018 10:30:15 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Dec 14, 2018 10:25:07 GMT -5 @aj said:

In my experience as a Manager employees much prefer a spot cash bonus vs a gift.  
<snip>
I agree it's great that a boss is adding to total compensation to retain employees but something like this may be putting an undue burden on some of their employees to receive it and they probably really needed the cash a lot more than a trip.

I've seen the same observation about Christmas/holiday parties- one size does not fit all and there will always be people who aren't happy with whatever the employer provides.  And in the US, I suspect that trip would come with a 1099 showing the taxable value of the trip.

I have yet to see an employee with a negative reaction to telling them they are getting more cash, I think that’s the one size fits all approach an employer can provide that gets a positive response from everyone.

I gave two of my employees a spot cash bonus a couple weeks ago that would have cost as much as a 4 day all inclusive trip and I asked them this morning what if it had been a trip instead and they looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head.

[daisy]

Dec 13, 2018 18:18:05 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

Dec 13, 2018 17:21:22 GMT -5 daisy said:

My oldest had a boss like this one - Dermatology office and took all the employees to an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas for 3 days after Christmas. Bosses like that don't come around too often!

My husband's uncle is a dentist with his own practice and takes the staff on a trip most years. They're going to Aruba in January. Jelly.

I have my own biz too...and I'm taking my single employee (husband) to Wausau, WI for a couple of days as a reward for being my #1 best salesman. 

I can tell you are trying to rein in the jealousy    

[Tiny]

IDK. It kinda sounds like a convenient "what a great way to avoid paying some sort of  taxes or effect my profit without effecting my profit thing" by the employer.   

The whole trip thing just sounds like a 'shit show' waiting to happen.  I assume it's just the employee and not a significant other - going off for 4 days of drinknig and debauchery? 

If it is a significant other is included - what if the employee doesn't have one or doesn't have an appropriate one?   Who want's to be the only "non couple" or "we're only friends "couple" " or the "oh no! we're a same sex couple"   at what is probably 4 days of drinking and debauchery?  

I'd personally rather have the 3K or so my employer was going to spend on this and spend it on how I want to spend 4 days of my life...

I would think restaurant workers would rather have health benefits or have a fixed number of paid days off per year or have more say in their work schedule (like say a schedule that goes out 4 weeks - instead of a every week is different kinda thing)   

I know some retail workers who would LOVE to be able to have lead time on what shifts/days they will work or who would LOVE to have some sort of acrued "time off".

[jkapp]

Dec 14, 2018 10:48:30 GMT -5 @aj said:

Dec 14, 2018 10:30:15 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

I've seen the same observation about Christmas/holiday parties- one size does not fit all and there will always be people who aren't happy with whatever the employer provides.  And in the US, I suspect that trip would come with a 1099 showing the taxable value of the trip.

I have yet to see an employee with a negative reaction to telling them they are getting more cash, I think that’s the one size fits all approach an employer can provide that gets a positive response from everyone.

I gave two of my employees a spot cash bonus a couple weeks ago that would have cost as much as a 4 day all inclusive trip and I asked them this morning what if it had been a trip instead and they looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head.

I worked with a guy once that did not want extra cash...but that was because he was working part time during retirement and didn't want to risk having his social security get taxed

[chapeau]

Dec 15, 2018 10:14:38 GMT -5 jkapp said:

Dec 14, 2018 10:48:30 GMT -5 @aj said:

I have yet to see an employee with a negative reaction to telling them they are getting more cash, I think that’s the one size fits all approach an employer can provide that gets a positive response from everyone.

I gave two of my employees a spot cash bonus a couple weeks ago that would have cost as much as a 4 day all inclusive trip and I asked them this morning what if it had been a trip instead and they looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head.

I worked with a guy once that did not want extra cash...but that was because he was working part time during retirement and didn't want to risk having his social security get taxed

In my current job I work with a lot of people who choose to restrict their income so they don’t lose benefits from the state or fed. If you take the last week of the year or so off unpaid so you don’t lose $500 or $1000 because you’d made $100 or less over the cap, I think it’s smart. If you quit working in July and live a threadbare existence to keep the same $500 or $1000 because you’d be over the cap by several times that amount, I think it’s really dumb. Yes, I’ve seen people choose to miss out on thousands in earnings because they don’t want to lose their $650 property tax rebate. 🙄

[Rukh O'Rorke]

I don't wanna go with the staff, give me money and time off on my own.

[tskeeter]

Dec 14, 2018 10:48:30 GMT -5 @aj said:

Dec 14, 2018 10:30:15 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

I've seen the same observation about Christmas/holiday parties- one size does not fit all and there will always be people who aren't happy with whatever the employer provides.  And in the US, I suspect that trip would come with a 1099 showing the taxable value of the trip.

I have yet to see an employee with a negative reaction to telling them they are getting more cash, I think that’s the one size fits all approach an employer can provide that gets a positive response from everyone.

I gave two of my employees a spot cash bonus a couple weeks ago that would have cost as much as a 4 day all inclusive trip and I asked them this morning what if it had been a trip instead and they looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head.

Negative reactions to cash bonuses do happen.  My folks found their staff preferred a turkey at Christmas and a ham at Easter to cash.  Even though the cash was more than the value of the turkey and the ham.

First, they had to withhold taxes on the cash.  Even though the folks grossed up the cash, so the employee didn’t pay the taxes on the bonus, the fact that the tax showed up on their pay stub had most employees believing they had paid the taxes.

Second, handing out cash was viewed as a low effort activity.  Getting turkeys or hams was viewed as something that required some effort by the folks in order to express their appreciation.

[weltschmerz]

Dec 14, 2018 12:43:14 GMT -5 Tiny said:

IDK. It kinda sounds like a convenient "what a great way to avoid paying some sort of  taxes or effect my profit without effecting my profit thing" by the employer.   

The whole trip thing just sounds like a 'shit show' waiting to happen.  I assume it's just the employee and not a significant other - going off for 4 days of drinknig and debauchery? 

If it is a significant other is included - what if the employee doesn't have one or doesn't have an appropriate one?   Who want's to be the only "non couple" or "we're only friends "couple" " or the "oh no! we're a same sex couple"   at what is probably 4 days of drinking and debauchery?  

I'd personally rather have the 3K or so my employer was going to spend on this and spend it on how I want to spend 4 days of my life...

I would think restaurant workers would rather have health benefits or have a fixed number of paid days off per year or have more say in their work schedule (like say a schedule that goes out 4 weeks - instead of a every week is different kinda thing)   

I know some retail workers who would LOVE to be able to have lead time on what shifts/days they will work or who would LOVE to have some sort of acrued "time off".

This particular story is from Canada. Our workers don't need health benefits.
I would prefer the trip.
The money would be frittered away on useless things like paying bills.