Even the most patient employees have their limits, especially when their hard work isn’t adequately rewarded.

When this woman’s boss handed out cheap watches as a Christmas “bonus,” she and her coworkers banded together to forge an unexpected rebellion.

Read on for the full story!

Christmas ‘bonuses’ returned by staff

This is my mother-in-law’s story. We will call her Kate. It happened about 15-20 years ago.

Kate is a very nice woman. Works hard. Doesn’t push things.

She pulled way more than her own weight, but was never properly appreciated.

She worked at a nursing home for a while. She was general help – cleaned, helped people, whatever.

Pretty low on the totem pole – as were most people. It’s a pretty thankless job.

The boss was pretty useless, but he gets rewarded for it anyway.

Her boss was rarely around. The workers such as herself handled all the worst stuff – including things well above their pay grade.

Christmas comes around and her boss gets a nice bonus. The boss then turns around gives all the workers at the nursing home a ‘bonus’ for their hard work.

But this wasn’t a nice bonus.

The bonus turns out to be a gift – a watch. A crappy, crappy watch – the kind that costs no more than a dollar or two (if that). These are just ultra cheap and tacky.

Now, Kate is not a confrontational person. She works hard, keeps her head down – doesn’t like conflict.

But this time the boss had crossed a line.

But this ticked her off.

So she helped organize all the other workers, and every single one of them put their ‘gifts’ into a box– which was then wrapped up and given to the boss as a Christmas gift from the nursing home staff.

Someone set a big box on the boss’ desk – packed with all the junk he had given them.

Kate couldn’t believe how many of her fellow employees got in on the scheme.

The best part was that EVERY person at the facility tossed in their crap watch. It was a big, collective middle finger, and the boss couldn’t be mad or retaliate at anyone person.

My MIL was kind of freaked out by what she helped organize, as she’s so non-confrontational. But she (and me and wife) were proud of her.

The experience didn’t help her view of the company.

She didn’t last too much longer that place. Megacheap.

Sadly, the bosses are all about cutting costs – so they paid crappy wages and pushed limits to cut costs.

MIL couldn’t stand seeing how they treated the people – both workers and residents.

And that’s why you shouldn’t cheap out on your employees.

What did Reddit think?

This user thinks the workers were right for revolting against their stingy boss.

It’s clear many bosses don’t think highly of their subordinates.

This commenter applauds the mother-in-law’s power of persuasion.

It’s nice to see the little guys win for once!

It feels good to know you’ve made a stand against something that matters.

Sometimes even the quietest voices can make a loud statement.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.