What would you do with $1000?
June 27, 2008 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Phil Gerbyshak, creativity, management
Your manager just walked into your office and said:
“Today’s your lucky day. You have $1000 to spend on your team, however you want to. Come back to me by lunch time with your list of items and we’ll buy whatever’s on the list, as long as it doesn’t exceed $1000 total.”
What would you buy?
- A good lunch: I manage 8 folks, so at $25 per person, that’s $200
- Refreshing beverage of choice: Some like iced coffee, some iced tea, and some want juice. At $5 per person, this would spend another $40 of my $1000.
- A box of thank you notes: Hand written thank you notes are a very effective way to let your team know you care, especially if you offer them with specific praise. 40 thank you notes means 5 thanks per person. That’s another $25 spent.
- 40 stamps: I like to mail my notes to my team at home, instead of just handing them to them at work, so their family can see them too. $16.80 cost.
- Frozen custard: If you’ve never enjoyed frozen custard before, you don’t know what you’re missing. Maybe it’s just a Wisconsin thing, but instead of ice cream to fill a sweet tooth, I’d go and get some frozen custard from Kopps, not far from where I work. $50.
- Direct lighting: One of the worst things that can happen at work is eye strain, and it happens frequently if you don’t have good lighting. My team sits at their desk in front of their computer all day, so an investment into some direct lighting would be nice. I’d guess this would be $300.
- Amazon gift cards: Maybe this is cheating, but this is what I’d buy. With whatever is left over, I’d buy Amazon gift cards in various denominations to have on hand for the next time I need a spot reward. ~$400.
If you had $1000 to invest in your team right now, what would you buy? What impact would it have on your team’s morale?
This was today’s Friday Fun Question.
Wow Phil what a kind boss you make. I have a very small staff of one, me. I do have co-workers all over the world though and I’d like to buy 50 dollars worth of underpriced shares for each of them. That or put it into a moneymarket account, grow it and then distrubute the profits.
Phil,
I love the question. It could be a whole new movement to creating a GRAND day at Work! I would see if we could use it for a community project that offers service to others outside our normal area while also building us as a team. Of course I would also keep about 15% of it for a nice celebration at the end of the day. I have seen that social project have been one of the best ways to reach all the different generations in the workplace to enhance morale.
David
I would research what leadership/management books/programs where available (highly suggested by others) and have a training session to improve the employee dynamics in the office.
Of course management would be included but in a seperate session with the feedback from the employees so not to stiffle the dynamics of the employee brainstorming session.
Such areas that would be covered are; leadership, communication, EI, etc. such as “Primal Leadership” and “Dream Manager.”
Something fun like a Foosball table or ping pong table. To me, its got to be something that has a more lasting effect on the employees. Books or programs perhaps if that is of interest to them.
Well Mike King beat me to the foosball table but I will include that in my list.
Wii Fit ($90)
Foosball Table ($400)
4 $50 Gas cards ($200)
20 new company polos $300
1 Worlds Greatest Boss mug ($10)
So the office I manage currently has about 20 staff members out here on the east coast. Our new office has a huge breakroom that already has our new 42″ plasma and Wii set up for breaks and after work bowling/tennis tournaments! So the Wii fit would be a nice ‘match’ to the current setup and there has been requests for the foosball table since before we moved in.
The 4 $50 gas cards would be given away by name in the hat fashion. I have a few employees driving over an hour and would be a nice treat to them to get ALMOST a full tank of gas. Me I commute 10 mins on a busy day.
The company polos is something we have been putting off for a while. It presents a uniformed appearance when/if we get walk in customers. Which we are not normally setup to handle.
Everyone else seemed to mention a company lunch or food on company. We already provide out staff ‘company lunch’ on a weekly basis and this is a pretty good moral booster, that and the tons of caffeine we keep pumping into them.
And the mug? Well damn it I just got them all that other stuff I think Im a pretty damn awesome boss!
Ooh, what fun!
We try to do a firm social every year so I think I’d make this one more grand than before - maybe a club box at the Riversharks for our team and our fave clients? A client did a similar shindig and with tickets, booze and food, it came to about $1000.