I have a friend she works in a large (ish) organisation (aged care facility - mix of both publicly/privately funded care) she works in administration at the best of times her workplace doesnt have much of a Christmas function usually a little lunch , a few drinks and a bit of down time the week before Christmas - the workplace culture is reasonability poor.
But this year she (and everyone else who works there - bar management) has worked right though COVID and had to do some frontline support tasks and on some level put themselves at huge risk to keep the place going (i wont go into deals)- the staff all felt a little overdue a bit of gratitude now things have clamed down.
Keep in mind this is in Victoria and during the peak of the pandemic they were under huge pressure.
Apparently there was a notice saying during lockdown that when out of lockdown the organisation would aim to improve staff moral in what had been a hard year fully acknowledging the team had gone above and beyond what many where employed to do (esp the health care workers - which my friend admits she only works in admin but still was dealing with loads of people and was worried she would get COVID and spread it to her family)
However now management have decided to not have any Christmas functions and the money that was going to be used on a staff function is now to be given to charity.
Now I used to work at this organisation so i know first hand how sh*t house; management, HR and the executives are essentially the are greedy flogs on high wages where as most of the workers are just your run of the mill low-middle income individuals who generally work hard and aren't treated particularly well.
SO back to my mate, She was fuming not that the money was going to Charity but that they are no say in where money would go and that the one function they did have (which wasn't much) had been taken away in a year where she quotes "we have carried those, useless f**ks all year" - Keep in mind whilst the workers mostly stayed on the frontline during the pandemic keeping the place running management worked from home mostly were safe from the virus - still collected massive salaries.
Although i got nothing against giving the money to charity it does beg the question is this entirely fair?
Of course no one is entitled to a Christmas party or anything but morally I kind of feel for the staff because they feel like they put in when were asked to during the hardest times this year and though no one is formally complaining about the money going to charity they do feel like it is a kick in the teeth. - as the management could of easily made the donation themselves and still put something on for the staff or i dont know given them a small bonus (highly unlikely at this place)
I know some other companies did give staff who worked though the pandemic little bonuses - Coles, Bunnings, Woolworths etc
So i thought i'd leave this poll and ask what people thought? Is it fair that staff are essentially getting no recognition and now not having the small Christmas event after the year they have had?
Ill add this year isnt over and my friend and the workers may still get some recognition but as someone who worked there many years back this is highly unlikely - it is also not clear which charity the money is going too so it is entirely possible management would just pocket it all and say they donated it too i wouldnt put it past them they have done loads of dodgy sh*t in the past.
You can't force the employer to appreciate the employee.