Well served I just received an email today from my company saying that it was time for me to pick out my ten-year service award.
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The email included a link to the online catalogue where one picks out items, and a ordering code that I was to use to register for my chosen item. So I clicked and happily browsed away. At first I thought there wasn't anything that I particularly wanted and even that the gifts seemed a little on the chintzy side, and then I realized that I was looking at the 5-year service awards.

So I chose the ten-year page from a drop down menu, looked at the much nicer items, and narrowed it down to two options (a 14K gold bracelet and a 10K gold and garnet ring), and while I took the time to think about which one I wanted, just for fun checked out the 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 year items. There was some nice stuff (i.e., digital cameras, a beautiful wall clock, a barbeque and a leather duffle bag). And some useless stuff (i.e., a sterling silver duck mounted on a green marble oval). One thing that was interesting was that the gifts didn't seem all that equitable. Among the ten year gifts was a sterling silver money clip. Could that really cost the same as the bracelet or ring I was considering?

For my five-year service award they had a variety of things (watches, desk clocks, pens) that were nice, but that I felt I didn't need or would use (i.e., I already had two watches and several clocks). I picked out a silver-plated cheese plate with a grapevine pattern and a matching knife, partly because I didn't have one, partly because it really was a lovely item, and partly because I couldn't resist the opportunity to be able to tell people that my reward for five years of work was a cheese plate. Nor did this last motivation prove unfounded. It made everyone giggle.

My then director, who had started at the company about six months after me, liked the cheese plate and tried to order one when her turn came, but they'd discontinued the item by that point. She was perturbed.

Also around that time a nice older woman received her 30-year award — a set of silverware in a wooden chest. My friend Muriel and I sat in the audience when it was presented to the woman and Muriel muttered, "Pretty nice, eh?" to me. I muttered back, "Yeah, but she had to work 30 years for it. It'd be more efficient to get yourself fired and use the severance to buy one for yourself."

On a darker note, I'd thought perhaps there wouldn't be any service awards given out this year, and I wouldn't have complained, either. There were no raises in 2010, and our work from home privileges have been taken away, and about ten percent of my office has been laid off.

I feel I should have moved on from my current company long ago and gotten something better, but as I selected the bracelet, I reminded myself how lucky I am to be working given what has happened to some of my former co-workers and the general unemployment rate, and that at least I'm not at the company I left ten years ago. During my time there, a co-worker of mine who had been there 20 years received lunch out and an ugly, far-too-large-for-her company t-shirt for her anniversary — and this was when the economy was doing well. She was so mad she emailed the president to complain.