Pizza Parties Do Not Equate to Employee Compensation

I came across an interesting post, “If pizza parties are adequate rewards for hard work or extraordinary accomplishments, why aren’t they a bigger part of CEO compensation?”

The statement had two effects on the replies, I saw.

1) Some replies were neutral while attempting to answer the question. One particular reply explained bonuses have a flat tax rate applied to them, as opposed to your normal pay rate.

2) Some replies could be explained as negative, conveying that the measure of millionaires’ and billionaires’ tax avoidance annually is usually more than most people receive in a lifetime.

One particular reply stood out to me. “My boss gets pizza every Friday, he’s been doing such for the past thirty years 

 He’s just a nice boss, nothing more nothing less.”

The key note here is ‘He’s just a nice boss..”

I replied to this statement on the post but wanted to expand my thoughts on this.

Depending on the company’s policy and culture will determine the work environment and morale of its employees. In each company, there are certain parameters set involving compensation and the attempt to boost the employees’ morale.

When a company is restrained by those policies and culture, typically a good manager will find other avenues to show their employees appreciation. The post used pizza parties as an example to compare.

As some indicated, many employees wish to be shown this appreciation through monetary means, not pizza. I can agree with this because we live in a system where our worth is typically based on money and time.

There are some good articles conveying how time and money are intertwined. You can calculate the monetary value by dividing the total earnings by the hours spent to earn it. Obviously, if you can reduce the time, providing the same quality as someone spending more time, then your monetary value increases.

Nevertheless, the point of my post is the boss showed appreciation by providing pizza to his employees. A method he could and willingly did, outside the restraints of company policy or willingness to share appreciation. I have seen this in the company I personally work at. You have many managers with those employees underneath them. Yet, some managers willingly go the extra mile to show appreciation to those they are responsible. Whether this is through pizza or other personal events, or individual gifts to the employees during the holidays. The manager chooses to take part of his own pay, to apply it toward the employees.

This showing of personal appreciation, to me, may convey a couple of things.

• The manager is attempting to go outside the norms to express appreciation and boost morale.
• The action of the manager may show a flaw in the company’s policy and culture.

My reply to the original post stated, “just a nice boss’ is the key here. More than likely, the cost is from his own, and he is showing his group appreciation in a way he can. The type of management will determine group morale much more than one believes.”

The role of management, regardless of the company, is not an easy position for those managers having a high empathy and higher consciousness. Their personal ego has an incredible effect on the morale and group culture they personally control. Their actions can be more restrained than the employees they are managing. If you do have a manager providing these pizza parties or other methods outside the company’s policy, you better thank them.

LinkedIn Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pizza-parties-do-equate-employee-compensation-matt-cole

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