Is this the worst employee recognition scheme ever created?

In 2025 a worker was sent an email from their employer to recognise their three years of service. Inside the email was a button that read, ‘view recognition’, which when clicked on, revealed the reward. We don’t want to spoil how absurdly bad this reward was – you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out.

In this episode James and Charles reveal some of the worst employee recognition schemes imaginable, and how some organisations are even outsourcing their employee recognition to third parties.

Then they deep-dive into an infamous incentive scheme at one of America’s biggest banks that was so morally horrifying it led to a multi-million dollar fine and a minor change to the company’s logo.

Along the way, James and Charles unpack how large organisations outsource responsibility and how jargon is used to paper over morally questionable, or even illegal corporate behaviour.

Warning: this episode contains buzzwords and other corporate bullsh*ttery that could be offensive to some listeners.

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