Cool "tech toy" as a reward - What?

[Craino]

Hello all,

Recently a portion of my staff spent a good amount of their weekend working on a couple of our servers. They did a great job under pressure and I'd like to show them that their work is appreciated.

I was thinking of giving them some sort of tech toy. My budget is probably around 150/person. They are both system/network admins. Any ideas as to what they might enjoy?

Thanks.

 

[cyclegeek]

Hey Craino,

Accept it, Change it or Leave it.

Awesome credo. You've encapsulated perfectly a piece of common sense that can be applied to so much of life.

I hope your team appreciated your efforts - they sound heartfelt and sincere - not like they were taken from a Tools for Management Success book.

Cheers and Good Luck
cyclegeek

 

[Mattyj]

Interesting to note that everyone's suggested something to give them, why not ask the staff themselves what they would like? We recently did this for our staff who performed extordinarily work outside of normal hours and the majoity chose money, 1 however due to child support chose to get re-imbursed for some X-10 gear, no hassels from mgmt.

Also if you set a precident of rewarding for out of hours work, will they expect it in the future?

Remember the following day . . . .(maybe for a future reward)

"July 25, is your opportunity to thank your system administrators. These are the warriors that pull all-nighters, live on stale Mountain Dew and cold pizza in order to ensure that your morning coffee is enjoyed at your keyboard trouble-free. By simply receiving this newsletter via email, a lot of mice have toiled away behind the scenes to make it happen. We endure virus infections, wrecked weekends, insolent users, extraordinary demands of our time and abilities, and lack of attention when budget time rolls around. IT shops are often seen as an expensive necessity rather than the hard-working group of dedicated technical professionals that we are. Extra hours are the norm rather than the exception, yet we don't complain. We love what we do and without realizing it, every other employee in a company loves what we do. As you pass by your system administrators in the hallway, every day is an occasion to thank them. Barring that, we have System Administrator Appreciation Day.

http://www.sysadminday.com/"

 

[Craino]

Marry - excellent suggestion. Yes, one time I did ask them; actually one person in particular who had put in an extrodinary effort.

She wanted to try out a Dell Axim. We are a small company and $400 is a lot of money, but we got it approved with no hassles and she is now plugging away.

 

[HalfListener]

More important than all the toys and bobbles, may sure you walk up to the employee, shake his/her hand, and say, "thank you, you done good."

Having been on both sides of management, it is amazing how important a pat on the back is to everyone (not just the pattee). It shows that:
a) you know a good job
b) you know they did it
c) you appreciate that it was done well