My mom is hospitalized, in an ongoing battle with health issues. I'm curious what I could do for her nursing staff, which have been absolutely incredible. From what I understand, there's 6-8 folks responsible for her care over the next few days. In what are dark and difficult times, these people have been kind, professional and thorough in ways that I think are easily overlooked. Focus: what is an appropriate gesture of appreciation for your gig? How do people say "job well done" in the form of an actual gesture or display? Alt-focus: what are the hollow, shitty ways you've seen "employee appreciation"? What's the wrong way to do this?
Bumping this. Focus- I work the service department at my company helping people with issues with their equipment. This would go all customer service but an overall touch of humility is the best thing a customer can do for me. Starting off with "What am I doing wrong?" or "Can you help me fix this?" instead of "Your equipment fucking sucks you are ruining my life at the moment!" or "Im an engineer let me tell you what is wrong!" Letting people help you and not barrelling through because you are upset in the long run is going to get your problem solved much quicker and with much more accuracy than fraying nerves screaming at someone. Ive gotten handwritten letters and numerous online reviews from appreciative customers. alt focus- Token gestures that HR consultants said help approve moral. We have a "shout out" board where we can highlight others helping us out. Maybe 5 or so written a month, then one of the five is given the employee of the month parking spot. Rarely do people that win it actually park in it because they already have their favorite spot picked out. We have this obnoxious guy that moves his car closer to the entrance each break and was always snagging the empty spot. My supervisor and I started taking turns taking it (after asking the winner if it was ok) so that said obnoxious guy couldnt park in it. It became an in joke. Just highlighting how worthless the employee of the month spot was. Give somebody a 25 dollar gift card, something.
We have a rewards program called Amplifi. You can give and receive Kudos only or, those that have it (normally leadership/management) can also give out Amplifi points that go into your account. From that account, you can select gifts of all kinds of things. I have ordered a robot vacuum and regular vacuum, a weather radio, a laptop (a cheap one, I'm on it right now actually), earbuds, a small sound bar.... you get the picture. There are prizes ranging from 15 points to hundreds of thousands of points (whole vacations). The most I ever had at any time was like 3000 and I had saved them for over a year and a half. I don't know what you'd have to do to get over 10,000. In my department of 20 people, at least 1 person a day receives kudos from Amp and sometimes points. Funny thing though... Everyone and ALMOST everything in our system has me entered using my middle name, which is my preferred name. The Amplifi database has my first name - which no one uses or calls me by. My supervisor sent in a ticket to get that changed, but they wouldn't do it. And she did that because she's been asked how to get me kudos and even points, but they can't find my name in the Amplifi database. Just my luck.
When I was in the hospital we brought donuts and those dispensable boxes of starbucks coffee to the nurse's station.
A hand written personal letter to upper management listing the names of the people involved in your mother's care goes a long way and costs you nothing. The giving of cash is probably considered in bad taste now, but is the gift that can be whatever that person needs it to be. I would probably give a gift card to a good restaurant with enough on it for lunch or dinner for two. When my father passed suddenly, I went to a City Council meeting and gave a shout out to the fireman who was with my mom when my father was being carted off. My thoughts to you and your mother.
This right here. Nothing made our day like donuts and coffee. "Did you ever wonder, like, what if we pissed them off and it's poisoned?" "Who fucking cares, it's a great way to go." ( Real conversation. ) When my dad was being taken by ambulance to a hospital a couple hours away, Mom and I stopped for a drink and some road snacks. For some reason, she said "nerves" she bought a shitload of candy bars. At least a dozen, probably more. When the procedure was done, and we knew he was fine, we decided to come home. She was like, "What do I do with all these candy bars?" I knew exactly what to do with them. When my wife and I drove up to get him a few days late ( Thanksgiving Day of all days ) he commented on how great the buses all were to him. Also his discharge papers were supposed to be ready but weren't. The head nurse made that shit happen super fast.
My go-to "thanks!" is something like an edible arrangement and a box of TimBits. I've also done a party tray of sandwiches. I know I did that at my dog's daycare as a Christmas "thanks for looking after my dog" gesture, and they were raving about it for a week. (They have quite a few vegetarians and very health conscious people there, so as much as the donuts were appreciated, the fancy fresh fruit snacks were just as much enjoyed). As to hospital specific, well, I read somewhere (here?) of someone who set up a big bowl of candies and bite sized chocolate bars beside the patient that really was appreciated by the staff... really brought in a ton of people to visit the patient as well as enjoy a snack. That seems like a great idea to me as well. One thing that did not go well, in my past experience, was a fruit basket. I had blown out a knee playing rugby, and ended up needing surgery (nerve and ligament reconstruction) and was in the hospital for 10 days. I was heavily sedated (demerol, morphine, etc) for the first 3-5 days of it. Little did I know that my Mom had sent me a fruit basket (I was in BC, family was in Ontario), and the nurses put it on my bedside table. I had no idea it was there for days. I finally become coherent enough to recognize my surroundings, only to find the fruit basket full of rotted fruit and a shit-ton of fruit flies. As soon as I realized what had happened, the nurses laughed and threw it away. Lesson learned... best of intentions, doesn't quite work out sometimes.
also, give nurses bags of candy, boxes of poptarts or breakfast/energy bars, anything they can eat on the go. They're on their feet and constantly moving, and rarely get a second to stop, so anything they can eat quickly for a dose of energy is going to be a godsend. Doctors might get the glory, but a hospital would grind to a halt if not for good nurses. Keep those wheels greased. A heartfelt note goes a long way too (I visited them roughly a year later to let them know I was still alive and to thank them -- I was in the neuro intensive care unit so it was a 1-to-1 setup).
Oh man, this reminds me of this guest on the morning radio show I listen to. Some out-of-touch Boomer (female) came on to talk about the poor work performance/ quiet-quitting of Millenials/ Gen Z. She fully acknowledged that they may be fully qualified, but that they aren't getting adequate pay because they don't have enough experience/ haven't "proven themselves" yet. Then she had the fucking balls to say that if they are living with their parents, they should feel really lucky because "there are so many expenses that they don't have to pay!" When the host asked her about "Employee Appreciation Pizza Parties," this cunt DID NOT skip a beat when she said: "Pizza isn't enough anymore. You need ice cream too!" After that, she said that what young people REALLY cherish is their "Me time," and that she heard they like their music. So her idea for the best way to connect with the young folk was to ask them what music they listen to on their work commute, and tell them what music you (the employer/ supervisor) like. Then she suggested that they swap play-lists. Like I would ever want to listen to the fucking bullshit musical propaganda that my Christian boss listens to. LIke he would ever like the sex/ drugs/ rock-and-roll I listen to. Hell, he'd probably give me a bad performance review next year if he found out my views on religion. Last of all, she mentioned giving out a $5 Starbucks gift card to ONE employee every week (Because you know that those Millennials ALL love Starbucks, amirite?!), and that would incentivize the other employees to work harder! And we all know how far $5 goes at Starbucks... She mentioned EVERYTHING except "Pay them more." I actually messaged the host*, to ask him if that was a serious interview, or some sort of satirical bit, but he didn't respond back. *This host is actually younger than me, by the way.
I've had an odd set of experiences with company appreciation where I work now. For being one of 3 people on a team that engineered the biggest sale in our company's history, I got a certificate of appreciation. For a herculean effort on a new product launch - months of hard work, overtime and taking on leadership responsibilities that were not my job - I got a $50 gift card to a chain restaurant. For participating in an investigation that was absolutely within my normal job responsibilities and required only about 20 hours of (normal workday) time over a 2 week period, I got a $500 bonus in my paycheck. For helping resolve a customer issue that took maybe 30 minutes, I got an extra day off. So... bit of a mixed bag. I get good raises, though, and if you ask me that's the way I want to be appreciated. Show me the money.
+1 for snacks. Good chocolate, yummy bars, peanut butter pretzels, cookies, etc. Not quite the same but I work in a clinic and my coworkers go apeshit for cold brew coffee when I bring it in, especially in the summer time. Always yummy, never tepid and stale.
There was a similar topic on reddit recently: Amongst other things, get a big bowl and fill it with candy.
Individually wrapped things that don't have mad allergens (sorry mini-Snickers, you're still my favourite). Mars bars are a great one since they've been peanut free for a long time. I enjoy the "everything except pay them more" comment. Very wise. Rarely appreciated past the first second.