Reminds me of when I was working remote for a bank and went through a grueling 3 month period of work. Morale was at rock bottom, people were quitting and the dept. heads held a conference call to thank us and said the bank was sending us a gift for our hard work via overnight fed ex.
The gift arrives the next day. A cheezy sports water bottle branded with the bank logo.
Similar experience for me but I was fortunate enough to end up with Bose headphones (adorned with the company logo) and metal straws (haha).
When the company I worked for went public the really cheaped out on anniversary awards. A generic plaque at 5 years and every 5 after that a magnetic plate with the new number of years. When I hit 15 a honcho from headquarters was in attendance. You got your “award” and could say a few words. I said “Nothing says thank you for 30,000 hours of your life like a refrigerator magnet.” It was a miracle I made it to 25 years.
Worked for an insurance company and a buddy of mine was put on a project where they were putting in 20-30 hours per week OT. At the the project appreciation party they gave everybody a $5 gift card to the company cafeteria. Later on that day, there were gift cards all over the floor in garbage cans people were so po’d.
My wife worked for a school system and one year for appreciation, they had an admin cut scrap paper in quarters and staple them and hand them out as notepads. I thought my wife was going to stroke out.