Ugh, this brings back (bad) memories of my first job out of college. I remember some of the engineers who really put in a lot of extra time -- like, we're talking plenty of 60+ hour weeks for months on-end to get projects done for various customers. These customers' contracts were easily in the seven-figures (USD), sometimes eight-figures. In at least one quarterly meeting, the CEO & some VPs were thanking these engineers for their efforts... With $50 gift cards to Starbucks or wherever.

From a purely logical, objective measure, this is good - these engineers received extra compensation. But I think most people saw it as a huge slap in the face. Probably hundreds of hours of extra work compensated by an "atta-boy" and a gift card worth a few coffees and scones; in exchange, the owners of the company reaped huge monetary rewards.

Or better yet - $150 gift certificate tailored to the employee's interests. For example, if Tom likes to golf, find out where he likes to play and get a gift card there. And give him an afternoon (or better yet, whole day) off to play golf - and don't count that as PTO. The small personalization means a lot, at least in my experience.

Better yet the CEO could puckerup and kiss my bhole with tongue and it won't cost a thing.

What prompted you to write such a strange comment?