Apple Gifts Employees Custom Incase Backpacks for the Holidays

[TimelessOne]

I agree with you about companies respecting their employees, but it goes the opposite way as well. If you have employees that feel as entitled as many of the people in this thread do, then I can see why a company does business the way they do. No matter what you do, it'll never be good enough for some people.
Want an idea of what I'm talking about? Why not look at comments based on Apple and Product Red. No matter how much Apple raises, it'll never be enough, based on some people's opinions. Now, imagine that 25-33% of your employee base feel the same way. Those are going to be the most vocal people, and so a company will get skewed ideas about their employee base.

See why I toss out that employees entitled comment is companies started this first a long time ago. Anything else is a result of this behavior on the companies. Raises have been getting reduced. The fact that you are getting high percentage like that is a direct result of the behavior.


As for product red look at percentage not on the raw amount. It is still pocket change by Apple. People see raw numbers but do not look at it in terms of percentages. The one I attacking on topics like that tend to see that way.

 

[mercuryjones]

See why I toss out that employees entitled comment is companies started this first a long time ago. Anything else is a result of this behavior on the companies. Raises have been getting reduced. The fact that you are getting high percentage like that is a direct result of the behavior.


As for product red look at percentage not on the raw amount. It is still pocket change by Apple. People see raw numbers but do not look at it in terms of percentages. The one I attacking on topics like that tend to see that way.

Should Apple give more? Possibly. However, they could just give nothing at all, if they really wanted to. The fact that they give anything at all, should be applauded, not vilified. The same with these end of the year presents. Would a bonus be better? Yes. But again, they could just not give anything at all.

 

[TimelessOne]

Should Apple give more? Possibly. However, they could just give nothing at all, if they really wanted to. The fact that they give anything at all, should be applauded, not vilified. The same with these end of the year presents. Would a bonus be better? Yes. But again, they could just not give anything at all.

Again same answer as before. I will not give them anything for a token thing like this. Why should I think a token is worth anything.
This is yet another example if this profit worship. I am not going to applaud them for giving a token gift. No I will point out how bad it is. They are far behind everyone else. They help encourage this horrible behavior of not respecting the people who makes them record profit.

 

[mercuryjones]

Again same answer as before. I will not give them anything for a token thing like this. Why should I think a token is worth anything.
This is yet another example if this profit worship. I am not going to applaud them for giving a token gift. No I will point out how bad it is. They are far behind everyone else. They help encourage this horrible behavior of not respecting the people who makes them record profit.

Got ya. It's not enough for you that they give something publicly. You want them to give more than anyone else, publicly.
This is why I don't try for acceptance from others when giving something, simply because people judge you on both what you give and what you don't give. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

 

[TimelessOne]

Got ya. It's not enough for you that they give something publicly. You want them to give more than anyone else, publicly.
This is why I don't try for acceptance from others when giving something, simply because people judge you on both what you give and what you don't give. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

and the counter point got ya. You like the stock holder worship. You like getting token gifts.

The fact of the matter is this falls under insult category. I never said give more than anyone else. Heck they are giving LESS then others. Not more. So you are wanting to applied them for giving LESS.
You are all for reducing wages and suppressing this. You are all for treating employees like numbers.

Why should we applaud apple for giving less. Why should we applaud them for giving insults.
They are damned because they are an example of the problem.

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread if Apple gave out less than 1/40th of their total profit to employees that would work out to be around 10k per employee. Think about that. Things like that used to be the norm not the execution to the rule. Employees were rewarded for making such a great year. They got a cut of the profit in terms of a year end bonus.

But I do see you like the wage suppression and insulting given. Remember apple is giving less not more.

 

[mercuryjones]

and the counter point got ya. You like the stock holder worship. You like getting token gifts.

The fact of the matter is this falls under insult category. I never said give more than anyone else. Heck they are giving LESS then others. Not more. So you are wanting to applied them for giving LESS.
You are all for reducing wages and suppressing this. You are all for treating employees like numbers.

Why should we applaud apple for giving less. Why should we applaud them for giving insults.
They are damned because they are an example of the problem.

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread if Apple gave out less than 1/40th of their total profit to employees that would work out to be around 10k per employee. Think about that. Things like that used to be the norm not the execution to the rule. Employees were rewarded for making such a great year. They got a cut of the profit in terms of a year end bonus.

But I do see you like the wage suppression and insulting given. Remember apple is giving less not more.

You have no idea what I'm for or against. So, stop trying to figure it out.
Also, as stated by others in this thread, Apple should just arbitrarily take $1 Billion and split it amongst all of their current employees, regardless of what that employee does or how well they do it. I guess that is what you would like, right, since you seem to like to try and tell others what they stand for.
Do a terrible job and badmouth the company at every turn to customers and others? Here's a $10,000 bonus! Congrats.
Should Apple give more? Yes, they should. Should they be vilified and insulted for not giving what others THINK they should be giving? No, because that's not going to change anything. Positive criticism is going to work better than negative criticism to enact change.

 

[krravi]

1) Learn how to spell Procter and Gamble

2) P&G products are in practically every house in North America and in a majority of the world. More people use P&G products than Apple or Google. Probably combined.

Thank you Grammar Police.

If Proctor & Gamble products are in every house, then so is Wal Mart the largest retailer of those products.

So in essence what you are saying is Apple and Wal Mart are the same?

 

[0098386]

So you expect them to give something?! That's why employees are paid a salary funnily enough.

I think it's more about the US mentality, after all in the US you're expected to give a tip ontop of the price of food. Maybe their culture tells them there are unwritten rules on bonuses? That's all I can think of. Usually where I live it's just the ultra high-ups giving themselves bonuses at this time of the year.

 

[TimelessOne]

You have no idea what I'm for or against. So, stop trying to figure it out.
Also, as stated by others in this thread, Apple should just arbitrarily take $1 Billion and split it amongst all of their current employees, regardless of what that employee does or how well they do it. I guess that is what you would like, right, since you seem to like to try and tell others what they stand for.
Do a terrible job and badmouth the company at every turn to customers and others? Here's a $10,000 bonus! Congrats.
Should Apple give more? Yes, they should. Should they be vilified and insulted for not giving what others THINK they should be giving? No, because that's not going to change anything. Positive criticism is going to work better than negative criticism to enact change.

I never said give each employee 10 k regardless of what they do.

But what I said was that works out 10k per employees.
Ways to break that down options.
Performance based.
Salary based. Aka you figure out what the percentage of total pay role that 1 billion is and give bonuses based on that.

As for should they do more YES.
Should they be vilified for the token insult YES. Should they be vilified for being well below others YES.
Should they be vilified for setting precedence of encouraging this behavior YES.

Positive there is no positive there. This falls under insulting. They should do more and we should demand more. You are saying you are ok with doing less and applaud them for doing less.

Apple actions are a prim example of the larger market and companies. As I said before employees tend to demand and complain more now days across the board on stuff like this because companies have been doing less for years. You have the result of over 30 years of them doing less and less.

So yes we should go after apple for this poor actions.
We should point out that htey should share their profit with their employees.

1 billion for the company is chump changed. Break up that 1 billion in a fair manner.
My company does it as a percentage of pay roll. If it worked out to be 20% of payroll we got a 20% bonus based on our salary for the year.

----------

I think it's more about the US mentality, after all in the US you're expected to give a tip ontop of the price of food. Maybe their culture tells them there are unwritten rules on bonuses? That's all I can think of. Usually where I live it's just the ultra high-ups giving themselves bonuses at this time of the year.

It more we used to get bonuses like this. The bonuses became the norm and yes to the point that they were expected as part of your yearly pay.
They took away bonuses but failed to increase the pay to composite for it.
Heck they reduced yearly pay raises. Pay raises now are basically COL if that. Many people get no pay raise year to year so in reality they are taking a pay cut. Really pay raise should be higher than inflation every year. No just inflation. Simple fact is you have a year more experience which tends to me you are more productive, you know more about the in and outs of the company which means you can do stuff faster. Your pay should adjust for your increase profit you bring in the company.

But hey that was 30 years ago. Now it is all lets worship the mighty stock holder they are the greatest and gods.

 

[C DM]

And people just keep on ignoring the obvious that has been pointed out multiple times throughout the thread (mainly just so that they can make some soapbox rhetorical and generalized speeches): this is simply a small fun token company holiday gift, nothing more.

To read anything else into it is to try to make something way more out of it than it is and to basically deal with completely unrelated things. (And I'm sure some will still continue ignoring the simple reality trying to argue something else that's rhetorical and unrelated.)

 

[AppleScruff1]

If Apple knew people were just going to throw this stuff up on eBay they wouldn't do it. I consider it in bad taste. If you don't need the backpack then how about giving it to someone who does? After all it's the holidays, the season for giving, right?

Knowing Apple, the backpacks probably have some kind of hidden identification system and the employee who sold it will get fired.

 

[laurim]

Thank you Grammar Police.

If Proctor & Gamble products are in every house, then so is Wal Mart the largest retailer of those products.

So in essence what you are saying is Apple and Wal Mart are the same?

What you said makes zero sense. Logic fail. Do I need to make a Venn diagram for you? ProctEr and Gamble products are sold in every supermarket, convenience store, Amazon, in countries WalMart doesn't exist,etc. etc. By sheer number of outlets that sell P&G products, Walmart could sell 1% of them and be the largest seller.

P.S. Lesson 2: spelling is not grammar. It's an indication of how well you pay attention, learn and maintain information. You fail. At math, logic AND spelling

----------

and the counter point got ya. You like the stock holder worship. You like getting token gifts.

The fact of the matter is this falls under insult category. I never said give more than anyone else. Heck they are giving LESS then others. Not more. So you are wanting to applied them for giving LESS.
You are all for reducing wages and suppressing this. You are all for treating employees like numbers.

Why should we applaud apple for giving less. Why should we applaud them for giving insults.
They are damned because they are an example of the problem.

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread if Apple gave out less than 1/40th of their total profit to employees that would work out to be around 10k per employee. Think about that. Things like that used to be the norm not the execution to the rule. Employees were rewarded for making such a great year. They got a cut of the profit in terms of a year end bonus.

But I do see you like the wage suppression and insulting given. Remember apple is giving less not more.

I'm 50. I've never known anyone to get anything close to a gift/bonus like that, let alone EVERY employee of a single huge company. Ok, maybe a tiny 10 person company might get something like that. You are being ridiculous. Good news is, having Apple on one's resume practically ensures an easy job search if one feels their holiday gift isn't big enough for them.

 

[twigman08]

People really think that is all? Do people not realize their is a lot more that goes on inside of Apple that we do not know? I'd almost guarantee a lot of the employees that work on campus received a good bonus. I'd even be willing to bet that the retail employees received a small Christmas bonus. Whether it being half of weeks pay or what.

 

[lowendlinux]

I think it's more about the US mentality, after all in the US you're expected to give a tip ontop of the price of food. Maybe their culture tells them there are unwritten rules on bonuses? That's all I can think of. Usually where I live it's just the ultra high-ups giving themselves bonuses at this time of the year.

In the US servers make less than minimum wage. The minimum wage for servers is $2.13 and hour, minimum wage for non-tipped employees is $7.25. I tipped like an American when I first moved to Europe until my wife set me straight.

=========

Work gifts mean more if they are accompanied by a one on one with the supervisor. If the backpack was given by the manager to the employee along with highlighting what that particular employee did that year that was great it would mean more at least to me. If it was the store had a great year everyone pick up your backpack at the end of your shift then it wouldn't mean anything.

 

[LordVic]

Should Apple give more? Possibly. However, they could just give nothing at all, if they really wanted to. The fact that they give anything at all, should be applauded, not vilified. The same with these end of the year presents. Would a bonus be better? Yes. But again, they could just not give anything at all.

Next year they get a pencil case - "They got a pencil case, it's better than nothing, Apple should be applauded! its better than nothign!"

the following year they get a pen - "They got a pen! it's better than nothing, Apple should be applauded! its better than nothing!"

what we essentially have these days in Corporate Culture is the boiling frog.

 

[LordVic]

My company doesn't do holiday parties. Or holiday gifts. We get an email from someone saying happy holidays and that's about it.

----------



If Apple knew people were just going to throw this stuff up on eBay they wouldn't do it. I consider it in bad taste. If you don't need the backpack then how about giving it to someone who does? After all it's the holidays, the season for giving, right?

Rogi, while I agree with you that it's low class and taste to just throw it up on ebay, I kind of understand why they might be doing it.

End of the year. you're an Apple employee. YOu've worked your butt off just to keep within the corporate mandated rules in place. You've been dicked around by your bosses. You're forced to line up for security checks unpaid. You don't get raises. and you're basically at the mercy of retail shenanigans.

your company pulls in record billions in profits. They have billions in cash reserves...

and you get a bag that cost them probably $20 to make and give to you. You dont need a bag. You don't want a bag. You want a bonus. you need cash. it's christmas afterall. You have a big shopping list. Lots of friends or family. A bonus is helpful. A bag is not.

That is why you see them going on ebay. it sucks, but thousands of employees are probably looking at this bag going "what the **** am I supposed to do with this?"

it was a lame token gesture and Tim Cook should be apologizing.

 

[mercuryjones]

Next year they get a pencil case - "They got a pencil case, it's better than nothing, Apple should be applauded! its better than nothign!"

the following year they get a pen - "They got a pen! it's better than nothing, Apple should be applauded! its better than nothing!"

what we essentially have these days in Corporate Culture is the boiling frog.

Never good enough.
One of the previous companies I worked for, decided to give out Christmas bonuses one year, because we had a great year. So, they gave it based on time with the company and goals accomplished during the year. And new people still complained that they didn't get as much as they wanted and that they wanted to see the breakdown, bonus by bonus.
Needless to say, that was the last Christmas bonus ever given out by the company. After that year, turkeys and hams were the standard.
So, say what you want about "corporate America" and "stockholder love". This was a private company and employees that were just hired or were still learning, still complained. And then you wonder why large companies don't give out bonuses anymore?

 

[C DM]

In the US servers make less than minimum wage. The minimum wage for servers is $2.13 and hour, minimum wage for non-tipped employees is $7.25. I tipped like an American when I first moved to Europe until my wife set me straight.

=========

Work gifts mean more if they are accompanied by a one on one with the supervisor. If the backpack was given by the manager to the employee along with highlighting what that particular employee did that year that was great it would mean more at least to me. If it was the store had a great year everyone pick up your backpack at the end of your shift then it wouldn't mean anything.

Yes employees get those meetings and bonuses and all this other stuff, it's comoletely unrelated and separate from this type of small fun token company holiday gift.

----------

Rogi, while I agree with you that it's low class and taste to just throw it up on ebay, I kind of understand why they might be doing it.

End of the year. you're an Apple employee. YOu've worked your butt off just to keep within the corporate mandated rules in place. You've been dicked around by your bosses. You're forced to line up for security checks unpaid. You don't get raises. and you're basically at the mercy of retail shenanigans.

your company pulls in record billions in profits. They have billions in cash reserves...

and you get a bag that cost them probably $20 to make and give to you. You dont need a bag. You don't want a bag. You want a bonus. you need cash. it's christmas afterall. You have a big shopping list. Lots of friends or family. A bonus is helpful. A bag is not.

That is why you see them going on ebay. it sucks, but thousands of employees are probably looking at this bag going "what the **** am I supposed to do with this?"

it was a lame token gesture and Tim Cook should be apologizing.

And again this has nothing to do with getting bonuses or raises or anything like that, which happens separately and unrelated to this. People are trying to read way more into this than its simple small reality that it's just a small fun company holiday gift and nothing more.

 

[mercuryjones]

Yes employees get those meetings and bonuses and all this other stuff, it's comoletely unrelated and separate from this type of small fun token company holiday gift.

----------


And again this has nothing to do with getting bonuses or raises or anything like that, which happens separately and unrelated to this. People are trying to read way more into this than its simple small reality that it's just a small fun company holiday gift and nothing more.

I know. Some of the people in this thread won't be satisfied until Apple gives each employee $10k, regardless of their position in the company. Even if Apple did that, they'd complain that Apple gave nothing to their "employees" at FoxConn and other factories.

 

[LordVic]

Never good enough.
One of the previous companies I worked for, decided to give out Christmas bonuses one year, because we had a great year. So, they gave it based on time with the company and goals accomplished during the year. And new people still complained that they didn't get as much as they wanted and that they wanted to see the breakdown, bonus by bonus.
Needless to say, that was the last Christmas bonus ever given out by the company. After that year, turkeys and hams were the standard.
So, say what you want about "corporate America" and "stockholder love". This was a private company and employees that were just hired or were still learning, still complained. And then you wonder why large companies don't give out bonuses anymore?

those are just greedy SoB's

somepeople will never be happy no matter what they get.

I heard the grumbling here by some people too. I just wanted to smack them. Every 6 months, my company sets aside 5% of all revenues for redistribution to all employees. We just got our Christmas one. I actually heard people complaining about what they got (we all got well over $1000) because it had been larger 5 years ago...

I wanted to smack the idiot and tell him maybe if you did your job better we would have higher revenues and get bigger bonuses. Considering he's a sales person afterall lol

----------

Yes employees get those meetings and bonuses and all this other stuff, it's comoletely unrelated and separate from this type of small fun token company holiday gift.

----------


And again this has nothing to do with getting bonuses or raises or anything like that, which happens separately and unrelated to this. People are trying to read way more into this than its simple small reality that it's just a small fun company holiday gift and nothing more.

The problem is, a small 'token' this is, is the only bonus that they're getting... (unless they're getting something that isn't being reported of course).

that means this is no longer just a "fun gift" but their actual holiday bonus. as a fun gift, this would be great. As my only bonus? yeah, I'd be a little offput

 

[C DM]

those are just greedy SoB's

somepeople will never be happy no matter what they get.

I heard the grumbling here by some people too. I just wanted to smack them. Every 6 months, my company sets aside 5% of all revenues for redistribution to all employees. We just got our Christmas one. I actually heard people complaining about what they got (we all got well over $1000) because it had been larger 5 years ago...

I wanted to smack the idiot and tell him maybe if you did your job better we would have higher revenues and get bigger bonuses. Considering he's a sales person afterall lol

----------



The problem is, a small 'token' this is, is the only bonus that they're getting... (unless they're getting something that isn't being reported of course).

that means this is no longer just a "fun gift" but their actual holiday bonus. as a fun gift, this would be great. As my only bonus? yeah, I'd be a little offput

That's the thing. It's not the only thing they are getting. This has nothing to do with monetary bonuses or performance bonuses or other incentives related to their job. Those are completely separate and unrelated to something like this (and those aren't typically reported on, short of some huge bonuses that executives of some company might get).

That's the thing, this has nothing to do with any of that and people are trying to read completely irrelevant unrelated things into this.

 

[Zxxv]

Knowing Apple, the backpacks probably have some kind of hidden identification system and the employee who sold it will get fired.

You can't give a gift and then demand what someone does with it.

----

Next year I hear it will be iPhone 5c 8gb

 

[LordVic]

That's the thing. It's not the only thing they are getting. This has nothing to do with monetary bonuses or performance bonuses or other incentives related to their job. Those are completely separate and unrelated to something like this (and those aren't typically reported on, short of some huge bonuses that executives of some company might get).

That's the thing, this has nothing to do with any of that and people are trying to read completely irrelevant unrelated things into this.

well then, I am too reading too much into it.

If my company gave me a free bag ontop of a bonus, the only complaint I should have is where's the free stuff to fill that bag (I'm kidding!).

I think that it's an important distinction that has to be made, that wasn't clearly made in this article (unless it's been updated since i read it). The article makes it sound like this is the christmas bonus for the retail employees.

as a christmas bonus it sucks. As a token gesture gift, ontop of a bonus, it's fantastic.

context is everything

 

[Zxxv]

it was a lame token gesture and Tim Cook should be apologizing.

He could have given them a U2 download.

 

[Rogifan]

And people just keep on ignoring the obvious that has been pointed out multiple times throughout the thread (mainly just so that they can make some soapbox rhetorical and generalized speeches): this is simply a small fun token company holiday gift, nothing more.

To read anything else into it is to try to make something way more out of it than it is and to basically deal with completely unrelated things. (And I'm sure some will still continue ignoring the simple reality trying to argue something else that's rhetorical and unrelated.)

I wonder how many of those complaining in this thread have actually worked for Apple or know people who do. My guess is there are fewer people inside Apple complaining about this gift (and not because they're afraid they're going to be reprimanded or fired ).