A TikToker showed off his reward for being the employee of the month at the McDonald’s where he works, sparking debate over whether some attempts at employee appreciation actually just make things worse.
Ross Barrett (@rossbarrett16) works at a U.K.-based McDonald’s and jumped straight to the point with his 30-second video showing, “What’s inside a McDonald’s Employee of the Month [Box].”
The yellow and red box, tagged with the year 2022, featured a “congratulations” certificate, a light-up “M” keychain with “EOTM” written underneath the arches, a £10 voucher for a small variety of U.K.-based stores including Argos, WH Smith, Wilko, and Foot Locker, a “push pop” Big Mac, a McDonald’s-branded pen, and a hydro flask.
@rossbarrett16 #fyp #foryou #mcdonalds #maccies #macciesworker #macciesgang #uk #bigmac ♬ I Ain’t Worried – OneRepublic
Barrett seemed generally pleased with the offerings, specifically the hydro flash, but not all of his viewers were sold.
“So a £10 voucher and £2 worth of plastic, thanks hundred billion dollar company,” @maptaincorgan wrote.
“Man got £15 worth of items for working hard a whole month,” @eclecticclouds chimed in, while @vertymon suggested, “that’s just tragic actually.”
But others were surprised to see Barrett’s McDonald’s actually put in that much effort, sharing their own stories of feeling underappreciated by both McDonald’s and other companies.
“I got employee of the month and i just got a certificate with my last name spelt wrong,” said @popsunde.
@taylorquirks said their store doesn’t even have employee of the month awards, just “yelling 24/7.”
“I got employee of the month once and i got an out of date tub of chocs,” @lauren_and_dan added.
Although Barrett didn’t make any comments about the wages at his particular job, companies offering random tokens of appreciation rather than simply paying their workers a living wage has been a hot topic of conversation in the TikTok era, and the wary assumption that any company offering something like an employee of the month box must not be paying well could be felt throughout the comments.
But if a company actually paid employees good money and offered a gesture like this for particularly good work each month, the conversation might go a little differently.
“It’s the thought that counts,” Barrett commented.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @rossbarrett16 via TikTok comment.
