Comment Re:Must be an American problem (Score 1) 406
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Im Belgium everybody I know gets a 13'th month pay (wich is taxed at 60% or so, but better 40% of something then 50% of nothing). Also we get payed
"""
Yeah, the "tredicesima" ("13th month") is also an ancient, near-universal tradition in Italy, where I come from. Silly, in a way: you get (say) a total yearly gross pay of 78,000 euros -- but instead of getting it as 12 monthly instalments of 6,500 you get monthly instalments of just 6,000... with a double instalment towards year-end. What's the _point_?!
"""
Many companies give some gift as well. I got 6 bottles of good wine (together with all my cow orkers) and other companies give things away as well. I
"""
(sigh) I got panettone (the traditional Italian, actually Milanese, Christmas cake, which I don't like and don't eat) and cheap spumante (bad enough that I wouldn't actually drink it) just about every Christmas I was working as an employee in Italy. My current (US) employer gives a cash bonus (crisp bills in an envelope, and they cover the taxes on it) instead, and you know what -- I like it *SO* much more. It's not so much that it's way more than the panettone and spumante would cost me -- it's that I get _whatever *I* like_ with that money, say my own favorite brand of bubbly (Freixenet, a Cava from Catalonia which I adore and happens to be surprisingly cheap even in the US) and cake (in my case, some sugar-free concoction made with Stevia, since I should avoid sugar intake)...
"""
have even once worked for a company where you could choose between a gift or giving the money towards a good cause, like the red cross. You could choose between 5 organisations.
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My current employer does gift-matching for thousands of recognized charities: whatever I give (up to a pretty large sum), to any one or mote of the recognized charities on their list, they give too. I absolutely love this concept.
"""
It is a gift, not a payment. Do you tell you SO or family that you hate the gifts and think they could have bought you a bigger. more expensive one?
"""
When a corporation (answerable to shareholders) does it, it _must_ by law be in the shareholders' interest. So, I'm fully aware that my employer "gifts" me with cash, gift-matching, corporate parties, and all sorts of other goodies, *in the shareholders' interest*: because they think that getting these (relatively small) elements of *compensation* in different forms than the usual paycheck will please me more, help me feel part of a team/family, make me more likely to stay with this employer and strive to recruit friends and acquaintances which will help the corporation make more money still. Being fully aware of this rationale, I nevertheless appreciate the idea when it's well executed, meets my desires, and just plain _works_ -- but when it _doesn't_ work (as in the case of the "panettone and cheap bubbly" packets I used to get a few years ago, when I was a employee in Italy) I'm actually *helping* my employer by complaining (to them -- whining about it in public is no real use, but no real damage either); they could save the money or employ it in more creative and helpful ways.
Alex
Im Belgium everybody I know gets a 13'th month pay (wich is taxed at 60% or so, but better 40% of something then 50% of nothing). Also we get payed
"""
Yeah, the "tredicesima" ("13th month") is also an ancient, near-universal tradition in Italy, where I come from. Silly, in a way: you get (say) a total yearly gross pay of 78,000 euros -- but instead of getting it as 12 monthly instalments of 6,500 you get monthly instalments of just 6,000... with a double instalment towards year-end. What's the _point_?!
"""
Many companies give some gift as well. I got 6 bottles of good wine (together with all my cow orkers) and other companies give things away as well. I
"""
(sigh) I got panettone (the traditional Italian, actually Milanese, Christmas cake, which I don't like and don't eat) and cheap spumante (bad enough that I wouldn't actually drink it) just about every Christmas I was working as an employee in Italy. My current (US) employer gives a cash bonus (crisp bills in an envelope, and they cover the taxes on it) instead, and you know what -- I like it *SO* much more. It's not so much that it's way more than the panettone and spumante would cost me -- it's that I get _whatever *I* like_ with that money, say my own favorite brand of bubbly (Freixenet, a Cava from Catalonia which I adore and happens to be surprisingly cheap even in the US) and cake (in my case, some sugar-free concoction made with Stevia, since I should avoid sugar intake)...
"""
have even once worked for a company where you could choose between a gift or giving the money towards a good cause, like the red cross. You could choose between 5 organisations.
"""
My current employer does gift-matching for thousands of recognized charities: whatever I give (up to a pretty large sum), to any one or mote of the recognized charities on their list, they give too. I absolutely love this concept.
"""
It is a gift, not a payment. Do you tell you SO or family that you hate the gifts and think they could have bought you a bigger. more expensive one?
"""
When a corporation (answerable to shareholders) does it, it _must_ by law be in the shareholders' interest. So, I'm fully aware that my employer "gifts" me with cash, gift-matching, corporate parties, and all sorts of other goodies, *in the shareholders' interest*: because they think that getting these (relatively small) elements of *compensation* in different forms than the usual paycheck will please me more, help me feel part of a team/family, make me more likely to stay with this employer and strive to recruit friends and acquaintances which will help the corporation make more money still. Being fully aware of this rationale, I nevertheless appreciate the idea when it's well executed, meets my desires, and just plain _works_ -- but when it _doesn't_ work (as in the case of the "panettone and cheap bubbly" packets I used to get a few years ago, when I was a employee in Italy) I'm actually *helping* my employer by complaining (to them -- whining about it in public is no real use, but no real damage either); they could save the money or employ it in more creative and helpful ways.
Alex
