I've now been at my workplace for 25 years.  That's a lot of time, a lot of experience, and a lot of productiviity.  Children's Hospital is a large teaching hospital, with over 10,000 employees overall.  They make a big deal out of recruitment and retention.  Recruitment because nursing is in a shortage, and nursing is generally something of a high turnover career, as are some of the other positions in the hospital.  Retention because if you don't have the experienced staff to teach and mentor the newer staff they're going to suck and kill patients.  At this point, I even mentor the new physicians.  I can't tell you how often we call them and tell them what's wrong, and they hem and haw, and then we suggest "I'll bet you want us to do this and then this, right?"

Anyway, I got a letter from the hospital the other day, thanking me for my years of service and offering me a gift.  Sounds nice, doesn't it?

It was a form letter.  Not even a form letter specific for my years of service.  There was a little graph in the middle of it, telling you how much your Visa gift card would be worth if you had 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years of service.  I was supposed to get a $225 gift card.  Not even $10 per year, but still I was okay with it.  After all, it was $225 I didn't have before, and I'm usually not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Then I get to the next paragraph in the letter.  The amount of my gift card will show up on my next paycheck as a 'svc awd' where it will be taxed at the 60% bracket.  WTF?

This rant is now over, as I need to move back before the gift horse bites my face off.

Every time I read someone complaining about the years of service gifts they get, I just have to tell them what I'll be getting for my 25 years of service come November: Nada. And what I got for my 10, 15 and 20 years of service anniversaries? Uh yeah. Nada.

I'd wet my pants if someone told me I was getting $225, even if I did have to pay taxes on it.

Congrats on working there for 25 years.

Congrats on 25 years. I understand completely about the biting gift horse. I'm trying to figure out if my last award puts me into the next tax bracket. Because that would be so wonderful... to get taxed twice. LOL.