Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

Contrary to my plans, I didn’t do any re-edits this weekend. The monkey-boy day-job got in the way. Executive Management decided to push up a deadline, so, for the second weekend in a row, I had to work (no overtime, no compensation). I noticed that Executive Management was not online, working with us…but I digress.

But I got a “thank you” from my immediate lead. He tossed me a quarter. That’s right. $0.25. That was my thank-you for nineteen straight days of work.

In his defense, that’s all he was able to give me, using our company’s “real-time rewards” program (RTR). Here’s how it works.

As a “thank you” or “atta-non-gender-specific-person”, a colleague or manager goes to a website and awards you “RTR points.” Colleagues have a limit of 25 points, and management is generally limited to 100.

These points can then be “played” in a variety of cheesy, uninteresting games. Each point has a chance of winning “tokens.” These tokens are worth a penny a piece. The games return an average of 2-3 tokens per point, but it’s not unusual to walk away with a penny per token.  There’s a rare chance you can get a bigger reward, like $10-$50. I’ve never seen one of these, nor do I know anyone who’s received one of these “high-dollar” awards.

These pennies can then be loaded onto a debit card. The debit card has a monthly service fee of $1.50. Thus, unless you’re really racking up the RTR points, anything you’re given is eaten up by service charges.

So, to sum up, as a “thank you,” I was given 25 RTR points, which I could use to win between $0.25 and $1, which would go to service the monthly fees on my debit card.

I tip my barista better than that!

And yet, there are people who think this is the neatest thing since dominoes.

Personally, I find it insulting.

k