I had to tell you all this story

[Apathy]

Back at the place where I used to work, they gave out "incentive checks." The point was, if the store did well, you got a bigger bonus. Of course, there are other variables besides employee enthusiasm that affect how well a store does: how many people come into the store in the first place, what type of product they're buying, etc.

The only thing these IC's were used for was threat-making. "Work harder or your incentive checks will be small!" That kind of thing.

They tended to be around an additional weekly paycheck in amount. Good stuff. Then, of course, they became worth less. I'm not sure if we were told why.

I was talking to my friends that still work there, and the IC's now come in the form of a 20% off grocery items coupon at the store (one time use, of course). Not monies. That was my first smiley ever, but I thought the situation warranted it.

I had to share this with everyone.

[wagegoth]

Wow. 20% off a shopping trip. That would incentivize me into finding another job.

[sms001]

Back at the place where I used to work, they gave out "incentive checks."
They tended to be around an additional weekly paycheck in amount. Good stuff.

How often?

Also - the 20% off? Not to be sneezed at, but not nearly as good as our friend cash.

[Andara Bledin]

Well, that depends on how much a weekly paycheck was.

And a place that gives incentives at all, even if it is just a 20% off deal, isn't to be sneezed at. Most places don't give anything at all.

^-.-^

[Boochan]

Our incentives have recently been cut back heavily with work. Before it used to be in the form of cold hard cash, and still is with Warranty Plans. Otherwise? We now earn it, as well as performance bonuses through something called "Star Performers", which is a website that the group formed, where all the previous incentives and performance bonuses are now earned in a virtual currency (star dollars), which we can redeem for merchandise or gift cards for various different stores.

Not as extreme as we would have thought, but still over-excessive IMO.

[Apathy]

How often? Once every... three months? Something like that.

How much was the pay? A little bit over minimum wage. 40/hr. week times 6 or so $'s/hr., you do the math.

And yes, incentives were good to have. But how would you feel if they were giving you good incentives, and then, for no reason, dropped those by a huge percentage, and then, instead of real money, they gave you a coupon you could only use in their store? You'd be pretty pissed off, I imagine.

[Slytovhand]

I used to work at a servo for (I think) now the biggest chain in the country (they've got a leading portion of supermarkets as well... and liquor outlets etc... can you guess???)

I was told by one of the 2IC's that it used to be, if you had a staff member who was really good at their job, the AM would give them a double pass to the movies, or some such similar (and given all were doing is the basics of the job, that isn't too bad...). After new management came in, if you had a staff member who was doing a good job, then the store manager could offer them a Freddo Frog....


Not to mention the fact (part of the conditions of working for the place) that if you took one of those petrol cards (fleet cards, etc) that came up as stolen and handed it back to the company, you weren't allowed to claim the $50 reward - no, the petrol chain company kept that instead!

Grrrr....

[CancelMyService]

Any company that gives "incentives" in the form of discounts on their own merchandise is horribly tacky. You're not giving your employees a bonus, you're just enticing them to pour their money back into the company.

[Becks]

Also - the 20% off? Not to be sneezed at, but not nearly as good as our friend cash.

I love cash, but I really would NOT mind 20% my shopping order.

Prices are going up, you know.

[Boozy]

Any company that gives "incentives" in the form of discounts on their own merchandise is horribly tacky. You're not giving your employees a bonus, you're just enticing them to pour their money back into the company.

Bingo.

Many items have a greater than 20% mark-up. Ergo, if the employees choose to use these incentives, its possible the store will be making a profit.

Bonus Bastard Points if the company is using these "incentive" coupons as a tax write-off.

[sms001]

How much was the pay? A little bit over minimum wage. 40/hr. week times 6 or so $'s/hr., you do the math.

About $190 dollars. For you to save that much with a 20% off coupon you'd have to spend around $950. Might be doable if you were allowed to spread it out across the quarter but, of course, the catch; "one time use." What a rip.

Any company that gives "incentives" in the form of discounts on their own merchandise is horribly tacky. You're not giving your employees a bonus, you're just enticing them to pour their money back into the company.

I used to work for a company that did tacky worse. Boss would receive the pay info and cut checks, then exchange the checks for cash which went in an envelope with the stub. Pretty obviously an incentive to spend freely on payday before you left the store. I asked him once for a check instead and was asked why I would want to inconvenience myself like that.

[CaroPhoenix]

The gaming store I work at, gives all employees 20% off of all their purchases (including drinks/snacks).

Plus, like everyone else, we have Loylaty Points that are attached to our accounts. That's nice too. (Basically, you receive 2 points for every dollar you spend at the store. Then you can start to use the points for any future purchases you make at the store. The customer is responsible for tax 'cos that's the government and not us. Let's put it this way: One guy spent over $40 in dice one day, used his points, and ended up only paying 84 cents - which was the tax on his purchase. )

[IvorTangrean]

My work has a fairly nice incentive program, we get annual sales bonus checks (should be in the next few weeks ) and we also get a employee points system to buy stuff. Some of the points items are quite nice, before they stopped 'selling' them I picked up a couple night out at the movies tickets (2 tickets, 2 pop, 1 popcorn). Me and my SO went and saw Harry Potter 4 on opening night and it cost us $4 (1 for butter and 3 for a slice of pizza as I was coming straight from work)

[XXDarrienX]

Since my company is not really a retail company. If we get a certification through the company we get to schedule anytime to either come in 4 hours later or 4 hours early paid time as well. The other is hero of the week with the highest scorecord stats gets also 4 hours early or 4 hours later start time. Since our team is pretty small its not hard for someone to earn that.

[Evil Queen]

The gaming store I work at, gives all employees 20% off of all their purchases (including drinks/snacks).

Plus, like everyone else, we have Loylaty Points that are attached to our accounts. That's nice too. (Basically, you receive 2 points for every dollar you spend at the store. Then you can start to use the points for any future purchases you make at the store. The customer is responsible for tax 'cos that's the government and not us. Let's put it this way: One guy spent over $40 in dice one day, used his points, and ended up only paying 84 cents - which was the tax on his purchase. )

.....Where do you work, again? I need a new game store to hang out at. One with, you know.... actual games and I don't mean electronic ones!

Lots of gaming love,
-EQ

PS. The World WANTS DICE!