Found out what our Christmas bonus is for this year.
iPads for everyone*
*one iPad per child that you own
Speaking as a childless tech professional in his mid-20s: fsck this.
One of my coworkers loved it. He's got five kids.
One per child suggests the employer felt it would be good to give them to the children. What if you, for whatever reason, don't want your kid to have one? Does the employer expect you to refuse it? Most children would basically ruin it immediately. Also what if one worker were pregnant - does that worker get an extra one? What if one worker had a child who died? What if the worker would get 3 units but had a child die last week, does the company hold one back?
HR knows how many kids each person has if there's health insurance, and that can be corroborated with general office gossip. So the company knew they were screwing people like you over and didn't care.
Further, this is just more Company-As-Parent-Figure bullshit. It's like making you get a doctor's note for sick days instead of just giving everyone PTO hours throughout the year. They shouldn't be all up in your business like that, and they shouldn't be picking the gifts your family gets.
Fucking repugnant.
I didn't get a Christmas bonus, but I didn't care as much as I felt bad about your story.
There was a Christmas party where there were randomized door prizes; 40% got a $25 gift card, 40% got a $50, and 20% got a $100.
My girlfriend, however, got an $800 bonus which is more than her usual. That was pretty cool. But she's a complete rockstar at her job and they don't give performance raises or bonuses, so she should have gotten more than that throughout the year. Also her boss made a deal with her and after she held up her end he's probably gonna renege on it.
LAME!