[Closed] Who's had a Christmas bottle or two?

We've had a massive posh box of baklava delivered to work that was gone in about 20mins and a tin of those Royal Danish biscuits that also didn't last very long!

Our company gathers everything up and does a lucky dip on the last day. Last year I got a massive Italian food hamper, but normally it's a bottle of wine.

A £25 gift voucher is the only thing of note, which I'd spent in my head immediately. When I mentioned it to the boss for inclusion on the [s]bribery and corruption[/s] compliance spread sheet I was asked if I would 'like' to put it in the charity raffle for charity, which would be very charitable of me. 🙁

however in builder land corruption is still rife!

Apparently not.

Zilch. Nada. Zip. Diddly Squat.

There should be less corruption in the construction industry.

.....or more opportunity for me to participate in it personally.

We got a £5 voucher to spend on site .
Humbug .

Nothing still off work 😥

Although I have a gift bag from my boss but not opened it yet.

What timing, one of our joiners has just dropped off a bottle of reyka, looks like a posh Icelandic vodka. It should possibly be named rekya by the looks of it's alcohol content. That was really nice of him tho as he's just a single joiner who works for us, and as I told him there was absolutely no need to have done it.

People don't really get upset about a fine old tradition like this, do they?

I'm in a position where I should probably be sending bottles out to customers, but didn't think of it til just now.

🙂

Nothing. If I was working Christmas Day I would get a free sandwich and mars bar. Merry Christmas!

If I was working Christmas Day I would get a free sandwich and mars bar. Merry Christmas!

Show off!

i work for the largest insurers in Europe, posted record profits for last 10 years........no pay rise for 4 years and i got a £10 Amazon voucher, whoopdy, ****in doobdy..

Booze/biscuits/hamper passed on to relatives

Kept the Google beanie and Red Bull mug

My neighbour (holiday home owner) usually gives me a bottle of Whisky for putting his bins out and any other wee errands I do for him over the year. Last Xmas it was a Balvenie Doublewood. He handed in a 12-year old Glenisla last night.

We've all been given a case of 12 bottles of wine: a mixture of white, red and prosecco, as our Christmas bonus. I'd rather have the cash, tbh.

public sector, so no, nothing like that.

the office usually gets a box of posh chococolates from whichever graphic design agency we've used that year. There are about 50 people in the office so it lasts approximately 0.000024 seconds.

nice bottle of bombay gin from a supplier, and £100 in vouchers from a customer.
very much appreciated.

Gifts?! Ha!

The past couple of years I have received a nifty desktop sewage transfer pump calendar. The best I have received this year is a rather festive "The 12 Pump Case Studies of Christmas" email.

Bah bloody humbug

I worked a couple of Christmases in a factory that had a really nice community staff feel to it. The first year I was there we all got a turkey and a ham the day it shut for the Christmas break. They also gave us all a turkey dinner in the canteen where the managers served the staff.

The second year a new company had taken over and declared the turkey and ham gift to be a benefit in kind and that it would need to be declared. Therefore it was not cost effective and would not be happening again. The turkey dinner also fell through. It's a shame as it really did bring all of the teams closer and was a significant gesture at a time of year when things could be a bit tight.

Got an e-card from the head office 🙂

We're giving small Carluccio's (the Italian restaurant/food shop) hampers along with £25 John Lewis vouchers to our team.

Nothing left to give ourselves a bonus.

🙁

I work in social care, no gifts allowed over £5 in value.

Also in construction management. Absolutely F-all. I should probably try and upset fewer people.

I got a whopping £121 Christmas bonus, wooooooo.

Geotechnical here, so sort of construction. So far I have won-

An awful "Risky Roger and Safety Susan" calendar from our health and safety training course mob.
A big old tin of posh chocolate biscuits and a bottle of champagne from our chemical lab.
3 bottles of wine and a cider from our drilling crew.
A bottle of Glen Moray and some cheese from the boss.

Reasonably pleased with that lot.

What’s a Christmas Bonus? Is that when you get both Christmas and Boxing Day off?

The second year a new company had taken over and declared the turkey and ham gift to be a benefit in kind and that it would need to be declared. Therefore it was not cost effective and would not be happening again. The turkey dinner also fell through. It's a shame as it really did bring all of the teams closer and was a significant gesture at a time of year when things could be a bit tight.

That's a rotten shame.

But at least the union rep could roll up his/her sleeves at the next meeting with management and say: "Right, let's talk turkey!"

😆

(Laughing at my own joke as nobody else will)

*likes*

We usually get a couple of bottles from the company.

This year we have a hamper, consisting of...
Stuffing mix
Super salt and power pepper (I’ve no idea...)
Sprout seasoning
Walnut halves
Hot chocolate
Mix of 6 different spices
Recipe book

All company branded, so no regifting...

So, £50 PPG?

"Risky Roger and Safety Susan" calendar

from our health and safety training course mob.

perchypanther - Member
however in builder land corruption is still rife!
Apparently not.

Zilch. Nada. Zip. Diddly Squat.

There should be less corruption in the construction industry.

.....or more opportunity for me to participate in it personally.

You're a QS aren't you. You destroyed the contractors entertainment budget and the expect him to give you a gift?

It's OK, both a "Babes" and a "Hunks" calendar were passed around in our secret Santa, so we are well covered for calendars to masturbate in the office to for all genders and persuasions.

£2k bonus for each team member regardless of salary size, we have has a good half year.

You're a QS aren't you.

Yes, i am

You destroyed the contractors entertainment budget and the expect him to give you a gift?

I awarded many millions of pounds worth of work, and then valued it fairly and paid for it on time.

I expect nothing.

I awarded many millions of pounds worth of work, and then valued it [b][u]fairly[/u][/b] and paid for it on time.

Rookie

I awarded many millions of pounds worth of work, and then valued it fairly and paid for it on time.

I expect nothing.

You've not the hang of this QS thing at all, have you? Are you new?

You should be driving the small subcontractors to the wall and then doing a special festive dance over their emaciated corpses.

 and paid for it on time.

Will be my last Christmas in corporate life before I go into the not-for-profit sector.

Sadly I have received nothing. Nada. Zippo.

So I hope you all - while complying with your bribery act policies - you enjoy your free gifts and make merry..!

Our anti-bribery policy says we have to declare gifts worth over £250. Chance would be a fine thing!

I awarded many millions of pounds worth of work, and then valued it fairly

Translation - I played everyone off against each other to drive the price right down, then re-valued it lower after the work was done, when I realised we weren't making enough out it ourselves.

Had an email from our new grinch manager with the company attached terms on receiving gifts etc. No bonus. No card. Nowt. He's demanding we all turn in on Xmas day and boxing day those that are rostered on shift even though it was usually given off as nothing happens on Xmas day so a nice 12 hour boring night shift. Oh and the pinnacle of his grinchness is he's interpretation of our 16 yr contract is now that we get no day in lieu for bank holiday working and no extra pay either. I doubt a nice bottle is on its way to us. Merry Xmas

Oh and the pinnacle of his grinchness is he's interpretation of our 16 yr contract is now that we get no day in lieu for bank holiday working

I'm fairly sure that's not even a contract issue and basic employment law...

see note 1.

https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights

current tally...

2 individual christmas pudding from the companys phone supplier. One of those is from a colleague who doesn't like them.

We're supposed to have a raffle of all received gifts... no word of that yet and the Freee computer games that come with our gaming machines (not for gaming) always seem to go missing in the IT department despite us putting in the legwork to get them ordered and specced.

I'm fairly sure that's not even a contract issue and basic employment law...

Yup you’re not entitled to bank holidays. Still a bit rotten though.

Drac - Moderator
I'm fairly sure that's not even a contract issue and basic employment law...
Yup you’re not entitled to bank holidays. Still a bit rotten though.

But you are entitled led to 5.6 weeks of holiday. Which is 8bankholidays plus 20days. If you don't get your bank holidays you should get 28days annual leave.

Well yes of course.

It’s 28 days at 7.5 which you employer can count bank Into so they don’t have to give another day. If you work bank holidays you get a day another time.

Well I should still have my job after Christmas, which is always a bonus of sorts, but the way things are going here that can't be guaranteed at the moment.

Guys it's not so simple we work a rolling 4 on 6 off 24/7 , our holidays are "built in" to our 6 off through a strange contract drawn up years before I joined. However it was written in that if nothing operational was happening on bank hols you could have them off or if we were operating we got a lieu day and enhanced pay of 2x hrly rate. Company has historically honoured all this until a new manager arrived and his interpretation of said contract. He's taking the stand it's tough get on with contractual obligations. It's making for some interesting HR communication between us, them and him ref contracts, custom and practice etc. Meanwhile we will just crack on as expected so for me it's days Xmas eve then nights Xmas day and boxing day. I'm not rostered on next year but some other folk will be. Not going to dwell on it.

I guessed it would be along those line bigbloke as I work 12 hour shifts too on rotations.

Hopefully your HR change the policy to suit the way it has been given previously.

About 30 bottles of wine, numerous boxes of chocolates and a leg of Prosciutto ham donated by my lovely suppliers.
All ready to be dished out to my staff on Friday, apart from the ham of course, that has my name on it 🙂

Bottle of fancy Spiced Rum, oh and a full service and repair at TFT for my shock, bit specific I know, but Xmas Bonuses are open to suggestions ha ha.

not feeling the QS love on this thread 😆 Subby dropped in a couple of bottes of wine to site, plant hire rep dropped in today with 3 pens a planner and 2 note pads 😯 good job the company name was on them a packet of biscuits would have gone down better. Oh and no bonus from employer but a good night out on saturday was had. just hope sites this year dont loose as much as the one last year £1M !"not feeling the QS love on this thread"!

Apparently not.

Zilch. Nada. Zip. Diddly Squat.

There should be less corruption in the construction industry.

.....or more opportunity for me to participate in it personally.

This!

Although my gifts only stopped coming when I decided I didn’t want to be a QS anymore...

I won't be getting anything specific, but the office has been full of goodies for the last few weeks. It's been a bit of a chore keeping to just a couple a day.

Vendor usually takes us on a jolly sometime in January/ February as we can't fit anything in in December.

Bonus time is April.

Don't think Mrs Dubs has had much this year, but last day of school is tomorrow.

Teachers seem to do alright, get ridiculous amounts of wine at my little ones school.

As does the lollipop fella, George. He's in his late seventies and just a gem of a guy, deserves it all.

Found out last night the aforementioned lollipop man in the last post, George, passed away on 29th December...

A true gentleman, a smile and a kind word whatever the weather, he will be deeply missed.

Turns out he was 80, a life well spent caring for others.

God bless you George.

A mate works at a local recycling centre (AKA The Tip) and he brought home his share of the stuff given them by regular visitors. Out of his share he gave me 52 25cl bottles of Kronenbourg and 2x12 packs of Stella 😯
He kept some beer and a couple of bottles of spirits, they also had a lot of cash to split between then.