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I worked in a restaurant for 2 years, every waitress and waiter there would hate your idea. In fact, just the idea of pooling tips for banquets caused an uproar.
Pharmacy Secret Santa, max $50.00 ?! What the...?!?
Started by swatchgirl
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I worked in a restaurant for 2 years, every waitress and waiter there would hate your idea. In fact, just the idea of pooling tips for banquets caused an uproar.
Typing is optional?! Maybe if the service is truly horrid, sure. But tipping is fundamental to eating out at most places.
I agree that everything "should" be flat. But it's not.
I agree that everything "should" be flat. But it's not.
I don't have a problem with paying more for a better service or product. A flat rate means you are only paying for someone's time and not the quality of work that they do. The counter argument to this point is that every other job is a flat rate but since they are paid by their employer their yearly raises/bonus will reflect quality of work, waiters and waitresses do not make the bulk of their earnings from their employer so raises/bonuses are not a part of the equation. In other words the only incentive that they have to do a good job is to provide better service.
Tipping is definitely not optional unless the staff is intentionally rude. If you think tipping 10, 15, or 20 percent is unreasonable then don't go out to eat. If you occupy a table for an hour and a half on a Friday night and leave a $3 tip on a $50 bill you are a cheap ass, it reflects more on the type of person you are than it does on the service.
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Wtf are you talking about? I always tip 15% for regular service, more if I feel the waiter was really nice. Are you saying people like me can't go out to eat? Get your condescending ass out here
My problem with the 20% tip is that I often get better service at a local diner, where my bill is like $9, as opposed to going to Applebees/Olive Garden/Fridays/etc where the bill is considerably higher. The menu prices shouldn't dictate how much you're paying the server. Or if one person gets a salad and another person gets a steak, the server came to the table the same number of times and provided equally good service, but the salad person is going to pay a fraction of what the steak person did?
I can relate to the OP a bit. I hate getting gifts (have to feign happiness/appreciation) and giving gifts (worrying other won't like it). I find the concept of gift giving to be dumb and just an excuse to get people to spend $$ on crap they don't need and drum up business like any other holiday. But that's the norm of society, gotta deal w/it. Personally I think it's stupid to spend $50 on Sephora, Forever 21 also and I also don't shop for useless junk. I think part of the issue is that the tech, who makes very little, is spending a large part of $$ on something unimportant and not really high priority (according to probably most people who manage $$ well) when they should focus on bills, debt. I'm sure if the tech was going to use it for groceries, pay back student loans/debt or whatever good, useful, wise, mature purpose, OP would totally be okay with that. The fact that it's being wasted would frustrate me. If used wisely and for something not so stupid, I'd double it probably tbh. But OP can't dictate morality or control their business. It's the tech's decision, stupid as he/she is.
I'd probably do the $50 or close to it. As others said, you'll get something in return and it is a very tiny drop in the bucket. You started your job recently? This is a good opportunity to establish good relations with your staff. Making techs happy and appreciating them for good work is going to be way more valuable than $50 imo. Treat them well and hopefully they'll repay that in kind. They are low wage, and it's very tough living a life there. Not easy, yes they might expect more cause you make more but big picture, this isn't so important, spend a little, $20-50 and move on. Plus you'll get a gift too, so it's not that bad really, nothing to stress over in the long run.
I'd probably do the $50 or close to it. As others said, you'll get something in return and it is a very tiny drop in the bucket. You started your job recently? This is a good opportunity to establish good relations with your staff. Making techs happy and appreciating them for good work is going to be way more valuable than $50 imo. Treat them well and hopefully they'll repay that in kind. They are low wage, and it's very tough living a life there. Not easy, yes they might expect more cause you make more but big picture, this isn't so important, spend a little, $20-50 and move on. Plus you'll get a gift too, so it's not that bad really, nothing to stress over in the long run.
So now 20% is the standard restaurant meal tip? The whole tipping concept is becoming ridiculous, especially since it seems like the expected tip percentage increases every year while the quality of food served in most restaurants continues to drop. I notice that waiters/waitresses are also becoming more emboldened in terms of attitude (e.g., getting mad when someone comes in to eat an hour and 10 minutes before the restaurant closes, being snobby and defensive about fixing incorrect or undercooked menu items, lying that they're out of a sauce or dessert because they don't feel like going through the hassle of making it, etc.). I live with my family, and we used to eat out at restaurants all the time, but these kinds of factors in combination with rising food prices and the aforementioned decrease in food quality have actually given us the motivation to save $$$ and start cooking our own food. So what's funny is that now, the local restaurants I used to visit every week are simply not getting my business anymore. Maybe they've replaced my business with someone who tips 25+% whenever they visit.
Recent example -- I visit an Italian restaurant that serves a dessert that I was told by a server is delivered frozen from a food supplier. I was being served by a waitress I never had before, and when I ordered the dessert, she says, "Um, let me see if they made anymore, we actually ran out earlier." Then she walks back to the door to the kitchen and she asks someone in the kitchen if they'd made anymore of the dessert, and I see a chef shake his head in a really broad, contrived notion, like it was all a big inside joke. In reality, I knew they had the dessert because we were told by someone else when we first arrived that they still had "plenty in the back," and nobody else came in while we were at the restaurant, so I knew it was BS. They just didn't want to fool with cooking something 25 minutes before closing time. Of course, at the same time, they think they're entitled to the 25% tip.
Here's my 2 cents:
I agree with most that it's not about the cost, but what you are investing in. If you're a fairly new staff pharmacist, then you want to be on their good side and maintain relationships. I work in a pharmacy where we even include the really good interns, floater pharmacists and techs. Also, it doesn't matter if you picked a tech's name or a pharmacist's name, it's the fact that you were even included in something as personal as Secret Santa.
$50 limit doesn't mean you have to get $50 gift card. In fact, I would prefer not to give or receive a gift card since it's so impersonal and lacks imagination/care. You don't have to go with what the receiver recommends. My advice is to go elsewhere and get a similar gift, but at a lower cost. Go somewhere you are pretty sure they've never shopped at so that you won't feel obligated to spend exactly $50. You can easily find gift sets that cost between $25 and $50 that include items worth double that (just remember to peel off the actual worth sticker, haha). Sephora? Then, check out Tula (they have an online presence, not sure about an actual storefront) or Origins (They have stores but also sections in Macy's/Nordstrom's/etc. and online too) or The Body Shop (same as Origins). Just Google/Bing/Amazon similar categories. If you yelp it, you can even find locally owned specialty shops that are just as good. Shopping does not necessarily mean stepping into fancy, expensive stores.
No matter what you opt for, just remember that as a new employee you have a big disadvantage during all pharmacy gatherings. Everyone talks about you before, during and after. If you're still worried about cost, you can drop hints here and there stating how you're struggling this year or how you've grown up to save and not spend, so this secret santa will be hard. *shrug* I don't have much advice for excuses 😉 because as a senior tech, I've given a separate gift to really nice coworkers even when I drew their names for SS giving. In this economy, once you have a good staff you really do not want anyone to leave for a better work/social environment.
I agree with most that it's not about the cost, but what you are investing in. If you're a fairly new staff pharmacist, then you want to be on their good side and maintain relationships. I work in a pharmacy where we even include the really good interns, floater pharmacists and techs. Also, it doesn't matter if you picked a tech's name or a pharmacist's name, it's the fact that you were even included in something as personal as Secret Santa.
$50 limit doesn't mean you have to get $50 gift card. In fact, I would prefer not to give or receive a gift card since it's so impersonal and lacks imagination/care. You don't have to go with what the receiver recommends. My advice is to go elsewhere and get a similar gift, but at a lower cost. Go somewhere you are pretty sure they've never shopped at so that you won't feel obligated to spend exactly $50. You can easily find gift sets that cost between $25 and $50 that include items worth double that (just remember to peel off the actual worth sticker, haha). Sephora? Then, check out Tula (they have an online presence, not sure about an actual storefront) or Origins (They have stores but also sections in Macy's/Nordstrom's/etc. and online too) or The Body Shop (same as Origins). Just Google/Bing/Amazon similar categories. If you yelp it, you can even find locally owned specialty shops that are just as good. Shopping does not necessarily mean stepping into fancy, expensive stores.
No matter what you opt for, just remember that as a new employee you have a big disadvantage during all pharmacy gatherings. Everyone talks about you before, during and after. If you're still worried about cost, you can drop hints here and there stating how you're struggling this year or how you've grown up to save and not spend, so this secret santa will be hard. *shrug* I don't have much advice for excuses 😉 because as a senior tech, I've given a separate gift to really nice coworkers even when I drew their names for SS giving. In this economy, once you have a good staff you really do not want anyone to leave for a better work/social environment.
Oh, I would also recommend giving a gag gift with a nice gift inside.
When I was an intern, an rph gave me a farmer's almanac with $100 inside.
Thankfully, I reacted nicely to the almanac so I didn't look like an ass.
Good way to test character / embarrass a tech with a bad attitude. Lol
EDIT: I forgot to mention the limit was $20 for the party where I got the $100 bill.
BONUS DOUBLE EDIT:
Here's an interesting look at the concept behind viewing generosity as "wasting money"
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/07/20/331975032/exposing-the-illusion-of-homo-economicus
When I was an intern, an rph gave me a farmer's almanac with $100 inside.
Thankfully, I reacted nicely to the almanac so I didn't look like an ass.
Good way to test character / embarrass a tech with a bad attitude. Lol
EDIT: I forgot to mention the limit was $20 for the party where I got the $100 bill.
BONUS DOUBLE EDIT:
Here's an interesting look at the concept behind viewing generosity as "wasting money"
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/07/20/331975032/exposing-the-illusion-of-homo-economicus
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To the OP: since $50 is considered a lot of money, do you eat just one meal a day at Costco via free samples to have $0 on annual food expenses?
I'm not the OP, but your question is irrelevant. $50 can be a lot of money when you prevent lifestyle inflation. Do you know how much good healthy food I can buy for $50 with careful shopping? A whole cartful!
People used to walk into our all you can eat buffet 1 minute before closing all the time, once someone even came in after the door was locked because another customer leaving had opened the door and expected me to seat her an kiss her ass while doing it. Unbelievable. No different than people handing you 6 scripts 1 minute before you close, in fact it's probably the same group of idiots doing this to everyone. Whether it's 15 or 20% wasn't my point, my point was if you can't afford to tip then don't go out to eat.
Lifestyle inflation? A lot more to consider here than a single annual expenditure of $50. If this pharmacist gives something interpreted to be "cheap" or "stingy," have you thought about the ramifications for having a technician who may become unreasonably vindictive or feel like the pharmacist is a stingy-bastard? We all know how much harder (or easier) a technician can make your life.
$50 can seem like a lot, but for the individuals who may be socially challenged and can't see past dollar signs, screwing your teammates on a gift and having them increase your workload/ making your workplace environment suffer is a lot worse than spending $50. I get it though. Even a $5 gift might seem like a lot of money to a pharmacist.
Healthy food? Are you talking about living a long life?
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Sadly many people in this thread have already easily wasted $50+ worth of time and effort working this thread.
This will be direct, but still respectful:
1). This isn't post worthy. Getting upset about something so trivial, in an industry that deals with life and death, indicates lack of perspective.
2). Your comments about your Dad being cheap.....but you're following in his footsteps.
3). It's their gift, not yours. Applying what YOU think is appropriate to spend money on is self centered. Let them live their life and you live yours. Thinking you know what is best for them is moving back to point number one. Not realizing how you come across also points you back to number one.
4). You will learn soon enough, or be swallowed up by the real workplace, that you should be buying $50 gifts for each of your techs. They support you, they make or break your numbers, you couldn't do it without them. When a DM comes in and starts asking around when you're not there you want them on your side. You want that store swap? Better hours? Promotion? The path is through your techs, not your DM. A well written letter of rec from a tech for a new job is extremely valuable. Are you a whiney idealistic boss? Or are you compassionate while keeping your head down while posting great numbers? Do you know how life works? Back to number one.
If I were your boss I would be thinking "they don't have the wearwithal to handle a simple gift giving process with any level of dexterity. How could I possibly trust them to run the pharmacy/make rounds/make a time critical decision without supervision. I'll wait for them to grow up and gain experience. Until then.......". Hopefully there aren't staff reductions coming down the pipe.
1). This isn't post worthy. Getting upset about something so trivial, in an industry that deals with life and death, indicates lack of perspective.
2). Your comments about your Dad being cheap.....but you're following in his footsteps.
3). It's their gift, not yours. Applying what YOU think is appropriate to spend money on is self centered. Let them live their life and you live yours. Thinking you know what is best for them is moving back to point number one. Not realizing how you come across also points you back to number one.
4). You will learn soon enough, or be swallowed up by the real workplace, that you should be buying $50 gifts for each of your techs. They support you, they make or break your numbers, you couldn't do it without them. When a DM comes in and starts asking around when you're not there you want them on your side. You want that store swap? Better hours? Promotion? The path is through your techs, not your DM. A well written letter of rec from a tech for a new job is extremely valuable. Are you a whiney idealistic boss? Or are you compassionate while keeping your head down while posting great numbers? Do you know how life works? Back to number one.
If I were your boss I would be thinking "they don't have the wearwithal to handle a simple gift giving process with any level of dexterity. How could I possibly trust them to run the pharmacy/make rounds/make a time critical decision without supervision. I'll wait for them to grow up and gain experience. Until then.......". Hopefully there aren't staff reductions coming down the pipe.
Please. I've worked a lot of jobs and have never received a $50 gift for Christmas because of it. You are not required to buy your techs $50 gifts. You are required to treat your coworkers with respect, but you can't buy that.
I have never heard of any pharmacists asking a tech for LOR lol
Also what is it with everyone say that the techs might not be as respectful or work hard anymore because they didn't get a $50 gift card, are all the techs you guys work with that petty? lol If they are, I don't think a 50 gift card is going to all of sudden make them a star tech
I eat a bowl of Cheerios and 4 boiled eggs for breakfast (estimated total cost $0.80), three protein bars (each $1.99) Q 2-3 hours at work (for the duration of the entire shift), then when I finally get to go home I eat a lean cuisine for dinner ($2.00 on sale price), then I sleep. Total is less than $10 a day for food.
80 cent for 4 boiled eggs, cereal, and milk?! Do you get your groceries when they fall off a Food Lion truck?
Thanks for everyone's advice! So! I bought two gift cards for one tech ($50 for Sephora, $25 for Victoria's Secret), two gift cards for another tech ($50 for Victoria's Secret, $25 for H&M), a $50 gift card for a third tech ($50 for EXPRESS), a $15 gift for a fourth tech (from Forever 21), a $20 gift for two pharmacy interns I hardly know (also from Forever 21), and a $40 gift for my pharmacy supervisor (QT gift card plus an insulated ski cap and a "Deluxe" package of Kisses chocolate). I also bought $10 prizes for the technicians' raffle game.
So I spent only $285.00 in total for everyone I know and don't know. Hope I did well as a newbie pharmacist? My techs were happy, which made me happy. 🙂
I hope you deliberately selected the dollar value based on how much it would piss off each person?
I hope someone takes OP to a nice restaurant and pays for them one day.
Haha, did the fourth tech wrong you? $15 vs. $50-75 for the other three.
And I'm also flabbergasted at where you're sourcing your 80 cent breakfasts. Hook me up!
And I'm also flabbergasted at where you're sourcing your 80 cent breakfasts. Hook me up!
Piss off each person... 😕😕 I think I may be too simple-minded to understand you, I grew up with Asperger's Syndrome so I am not sure what it actually means to select gifts "based on how much it would piss a person off"? I don't get what you're implying. The $50 is for my only guy tech. He is very confident and assertive and he doesn't really like me. It seems like I respect him more than he respects me on some days... The $75 are for my two other full-time girl techs who get along with me in a cordial way. The $20 is for the young trainee tech who just started training. The others I just decided on the amounts as I see fit.
I got the technicians what they all wanted and wrote for themselves on their wishlists so I am very happy.By the way, it was the first time I stepped into a Sephora store, I took a deep breath and got in there, and I'm glad I did it, but I don't ever want to go there again because I didn't feel very feminine compared to all the salesclerks there. But you know what my fiancée thinks I'm feminine enough, all 105 pounds of me, so maybe it's all in my head but no more Sephora for me thank you!! Now the store called "H&M" did seem interesting, though a bit pricey at a quick glance. I don't entirely regret going in there and spending 4 minutes if my life picking out that gift card. I may go back in there at least once more on my own volition, maybe next month.
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Naw no fancy restaurants, that's a waste of money and time. I just hope I don't have to take any medications when I get older. I don't like medications...hate 'em, all of them. Lol. Just wish health for the body and the spirit for me please, more specifically, less pulsatile tinnitus, less anxiety and fight or flight responses at work, less lower back pain, less migraines, less colds, coughs and sniffles, less toothaches and infections from my three impacted wisdom teeth, and better blood sugar control inspite of my family history. I really really wish for all that! 🙈 I'm not taking any medications and I don't ever want to. I even told my family in all seriousness that I would rather dawdle and die than to take a single maintenance medicine to stay alive, be it insulin, warfarin, beta blockers or whatever the hell else. Health without pharmaceuticals is the ultimate good wish for me. Thank you!! 🙂
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The cereal is from Kroger, the eggs are from Sam's Club, the 18 count white shelled ones cost only $2.99. The brown ones are $3.16, I believe. I get the white ones because I'm cheap.
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Piss off each person... 😕😕. The others I just decided on the amounts as I see fit.
And this is why people will be pissed off.....they will correctly assume that you like the people you gave more money to better than them. And then they will passive-aggressively make your worklife hellacious. Just no. When buying gift cards for coworkers, always buy them the same amount. If you really thought you had to spend different amounts on them, then at least buy them actual gifts so it's not overly obvious. Your techs will all talk, and they will all respect you less for having gotten them different gifts--plus it may create jealousy and fighting between your technicians. The better thing was just to do the Secret Santa instead of buying gifts for everyone--that is one of the reasons places have Secret Santa's.
I don't know why people ask for advice on this board, and then without fail they ignore all the advice they get and do something completely different.
It's not like that. I don't think my techs are that shallow. Why not just assume the best about people. I work with the three senior techs the most (one guy who hates me and two girls), I know them for six months. The new trainee I just met, she comes in twice a month, and I've worked side by side with her only once. She is the youngest of the group and lacks pharmacy experience. I believe she is a good enough person to appreciate the gift I gave her and not have to compare what's in her bowl with what's in other people's bowls. I was hoping even if she is that kind of a person who likes to compare what she has to what others got, she'd use it as a motivation to learn and become a more experienced technician. Man, what the hell... Why do people make gift giving so damn complicated.
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I didn't ignore "all" the advice that I got. Be reasonable.
My pharmacy manager bought me a $40 gift so I returned the favor. The interns I never met (I'm not a preceptor), but since they are my manager's interns, I just gave them $20 worth of Kisses Chocolate and candies just to make their holidays merrier. At our informal holiday gathering (the techs, the interns, their boyfriends and girlfriends, and myself and my fiancée all met up after work at this local arcade), I literally shook hands with each of them, introduced myself to them and handed them their gifts. What's so wrong about that?
The girl techs wanted gift cards to buy makeup and clothes with, not actual items. The guy tech wanted "anything as black as his soul kthanks". The interns and the trainee wanted "anything is good". They all said so on the Secret Santa wishlist we all typed up together and posted in our pharmacy. I just went with what was on the list.
My guy tech is not going to be jealous. He hates my guts and wasn't expecting me to surprise him with a gift. Truth is I respect him for who he is and I wanted to send him some cheers. I thought $50 was appropriate without neither of us feeling too awkward about it. You don't even know him. You're wrong about my techs. I am willing to bet my life on it.
I recommend not betting your life on anything. I suspect you aren't as good at reading people as you think you are, but hopefully for your sake I am wrong.
Grab a handful of ketchup packets at McDonalds or where ever to fill up your bottle!
Lol, that's honestly nice that you have that perspective.
I suspect you'd change your tune if someone treated you to a dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant, though.
You can't un-taste amazing food and go back to thinking all food is the same. Lol
As for anxiety, I think this directly ties in to your perception of needs & money.(hierarchy of needs, etc)
You've been burdened with an obsolete sense of pinching every last grain you can find by the culture of your family that maybe did experience times of extreme want.
Paging grover?
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It would have been better to buy everyone nothing than to buy them each gift cards of varying amounts. And for someone who is worried about $50 you sure did splurge! Lol
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I came into this thread thinking you would be complaining that the maximum is too low.
At least, she did (finally). At my previous job, neither staff rph nor RXM gives out anything. One day I told them if I were to become pharmacists I would treat my tech with lunch or coffee/ donuts once a month, they said the couldn't afford that. I highly doubt that but some people are just cheap.
No ****. It would have been better if I weren't a pharmacist, but I'm gonna ride this thing for as long as it will carry me. It's just depressing. If some people feel the need to take other people's well-wishes and gifts the wrong way, and repay kindness with malice, then they just showed me a darker side of Christmas and of humanity that I will just have to accept, and then, move the hell on.
Cheapness evolved as a survival mechanism. There is vulnerability in practicing empathy and generosity. Maybe some people appear cheap because they've been burned in the past. I'm probably getting burned this time as we speak, people on this board are already implying that by doing what I did, I probably just f***** myself in the *** and don't even know it yet. I'm just testing the waters to see what people are capable of. From this point on, if my technicians start to dislike me or even sabotage me due to some imaginary reasons they come up with in their heads, then maybe I'm just not fit to be their pharmacist... I'd sooner excuse myself from a dinner table that no longer needs or welcomes me.
I think what matters is you did something for them, they should just be happy with that. And if they don't " oh well". You can't make everyone happy, just keep doing your work.
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Is this a serious question? I mean...really?
First of all: treat yourself and your parents to some nice gifts, y'all deserve it!
Second: I would NOT spend more than $25 on techs I barely know. They said max is $50? They didn't say minimum. Just saying.
Third: sorry if this offends you, but you are probably the most frugal person I've ever heard of. I mean...do you not spend on some nice things? Don't tell me you still have a cellphone from 1999.
the OP ended up spending $285 on all her techs if you followed the story till the end
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