It’s natural, when times are tough, to get pissed at your company for doing stupid things. Let’s say your pay was cut or raises have stopped but somehow your boss still manages to get away for that round of golf with the client. Or you work for a holding company agency that’s had tons of layoffs and now your global ceo is running around buying all sorts of weird companies you’ve never heard of. That’s annoying. What’s worse? When your agency sends someone to play ping pong.
The Egos sound like a good time. For those of you who aren’t familiar, the Egos are “the first and only unbiased and insidputable award show for the communications industry”. It’s sponsored by Bing and if you’re in NYC tonight you can catch the suspense, if you have a ticket.
The spy who wrote to us had some interesting comments about his/her agency’s decision, shared here for your reading pleasure:
“After years of steady declines in budgets and revenues that have resulted in multiple layoffs and significant payroll cuts, struggling ad agency __________ has hit upon a bold idea to improve a staggering loss of employee morale: an all-expenses paid trip to New York for a __________ to compete in a bogus music house ping pong tournament. ‘I’ve helped grow my client’s business 200%, but I haven’t had a raise in almost four years,’ said one staffer. “But this young [person’s] trip to New York, that makes all of my unappreciated efforts worthwhile.” Other employees agree. “Sometimes, the way our ___ blackmails us into driving _______ and contributing thousands of dollars to the _________ to make [him/her] look good, sometimes that pisses me off. But now that I see we’ve got a nobody being flown to this ping pong tourney, well, I have never been more proud to put in long hours and weekends away from my family for _________.” Rumor has it other morale building ideas include putting carpet in the parking spaces of upper management, giving bottles of Cristal champagne to summer interns, and free hair plugs for the guys on the 10th floor who clearly need them. ‘Last year, we didn’t get Christmas bonuses,’ said one administrative assistant. ‘And if we don’t get one this year, it’s okay, because I’ll tell my children their present was a co-worker playing in a ping pong tournament. What kid wouldn’t love that?'”