One of the things companies often do is spend money on employees with parties, recognitions, etc. to observe holidays. They might buy expensive dinners, or choose to give gifts to top performers in the company. They might even give bonuses to everyone in the company, something that actually used to take place regularly in many companies if you can believe that.
At the same time I see many technical people frustrated at times by the lack of resources being devoted to issues. This might be people or hardware that could help make something run smoother, save time, save the company money, etc. I actually saw a post recently with someone venting about the expenditures on the Christmas party by their company when they were regularly spending time deleting files because of a shortage of disk space on a server.
Shouldn't money be spent on things needed to generate revenue?
On one hand I agree that companies should focus on spending when it helps the company grow, or maybe just survive in times like this. On the other hand there should be some rewards, and things to look forward to for everyone in the company. I like the idea of having some celebration and reminding people that there are more things in life than work. They can have fun and enjoy some time with one another. It's bonding, it's team building, and while it might not seem lasting, it can really help to build a better team of people.
You can go too far, and definitely spend too much money. Companies don't need to "out-do" each other, or their event last year, and create some lavish event. They can make a reasonable expenditure without it being a waste. Spending some funds on the company itself, on boosting morale, can be a good use of money. Even if you'd rather have another TB of disk space for the SAN.
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
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