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Hey, everybody. I'm Tariqa Foster-Brasby. What's up, y'all? I'm your girl, Cheryl Swoops. When you tune in to a new episode of our podcast, Levels to This, you're definitely going to get some spicy WNBA analysis. But we're more than just hoops. And the real conversation is what we actually bring.

It's been really, really cool seeing kind of these women just really step into their power off the court and understand that they aren't basketball, right? And they're not asking for permission.

Listen to Levels to This with Stroh's Hoops and Tariqa Foster-Brasby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Paul Verzi here, and I want to talk to you about Paul's best podcast. On Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio. I sit down each week with a special guest, and we discuss the absolute best of things.

It's that, and then there's everything else.

Dude, his whole life has sounded like the first drop of a roller coaster. I mean, I can't even tell you, Paul, how crazy it was. It was insane. Listen to Paul's best podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Where's my phone?

Juliana, maybe we can ask an actual human.

Yes, because I have questions. And I bet you do too. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. And I still need to know why my poop's been green.

We've got actual people answering these exact questions. Listen to Bill and Juliana.

The podcast.

On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hey!

All right. Watch on the morning show. Yeah. Okay, so Chan's got a topic to bring up. and we're going to do it here right now. The worst Christmas bonus. Not the best Christmas bonus, the worst Christmas bonus.

We're sensitive to the fact that a lot of people don't even get Christmas bonuses, and that's not so much what this is about.

No, because we don't really get bonuses here. At least we haven't in the past couple of years.

We get gifts once in a while, but this is interesting because it really is a personal twist on a boss here. that when I heard this story, I was like, oh, that's not a good move.

So one of my guy friends got handed an envelope at work the other day by his boss. And his boss was like, you know, this is your Christmas bonus. And so my friend was like, oh my gosh, didn't even expect to get a bonus this year. Thank you so much. Thanked his boss for his generosity. But he didn't open the envelope until he got home later in the evening. And when he did, he was kind of miffed. And he's like, look, I am thankful for even being thought of, okay? Or even having a job, probably, right? Or having a job, yes, yes. But he opened the envelope, not even having any idea what this bonus was all about. It was a $50 gift certificate. Really nice, $50. That's a lot. A $50 gift certificate to the Honey Baked Ham. Ooh, I'll take it. Again, he appreciated the sentiment. I love Honey Baked Ham. We both, we both do. I do, too. I love it. Problem is, his boss had just given this big speech to him about, really to the company, about getting to know all of his employees better and creating meaningful connections with his employees. My friend is vegan.

Oh.

So he's like, there's literally- He can get mashed potatoes there. Nope. They put dairy in there. Oh, crap. There is literally nothing on the Honey Baked Ham menu.

Nothing at all. Everything's got- How about bread? Maybe some lettuce. He can get bread. Maybe some lettuce.

Okay.

Yeah. It's funny.

It's literally the worst Christmas bonus.

Plus, they say about one in 15 people in America are now living a vegan lifestyle. So it's like you got to assume some people in your workforce are not going to appreciate that gift.

Also adding insult to injury was the fact that his boss had just given a speech to the employees about getting to know everybody better.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought that was great. It's funny. some people would probably look side-eyed at some of the gifts that we've gotten over the years but I always love them I always loved when we would get the Target gift card oh I love a Target gift card because you can always use a Target gift card absolutely there's nothing better than than that the I would say the best bonus that I have ever gotten in my entire life was when I was doing morning radio in Tucson Arizona and my general manager Debbie Wagner gave everybody on the staff a hotel stay. It was trade but at a five-star resort in Tucson. It was called the Westin La Paloma. We all got to stay. We all got an overnight weekend stay.

Any time that we wanted to with a spa day the next day. So everybody on the staff. But here's the wildest part.

I would die.

Here's the wildest part about the whole thing. One of the guys that was on my staff, Jeff Dollar, was helping people resell theirs. He was trying to make extra money by helping people resell them because he would find friends of his. Because some people were like, I don't want to stay in a hotel. They didn't want to do that at all, which I think is a wonderful gift. So what he would do is, and this is pre-throw something up online and you'd be able to sell it. He would just go and he would randomly sell it to people that he knew that would want it.

That's very Jeff.

And get money, isn't that funny? I can totally see Jeff doing that.

I would love that today. Oh, yeah. If they did that with those downtown Detroit places. Oh, yeah. That would be amazing.

Well, even as far as 20, 30 years ago, a lot of financial companies, they would refer to the Christmas bonus as the 13th month because they would give you an extra paycheck or something. Wow. Right.

And obviously, the auto companies always had great bonuses back in the day.

Yeah, the year-end bonuses were typically way higher. Now, some people just know them to be non-existent as corporations try and increase profits and don't take care of the little man as often. But it's also, you know, some companies and industries have been through some tough times in the last couple years. But if you're looking to retain employees, I feel like that's a good way to keep them from running early 2023.

Somebody just texted in that they got gifted Glade plugins as their Christmas bonus. Wow.

That's a bad one. Sarah?

Hi.

Hi.

So my now husband, he also, him and many of his coworkers are strict vegetarians and also received a honey baked ham gift certificate. um they had no idea what to do with it a lot of them aren't even from the country so we're very

confused by it oh wow that's now you can get veggies there well or if you're vegan the issue is they put butter you can sell them to megan and i megan and i love honey jennifer what did you get

hi um hi everybody good morning good morning um our company gave um all of us and this is a big company like a big local company and um medical and they gave us all a frozen turkey and you had like a time slot to go outside and pick it up from this big truck and someone stole the turkey truck oh my gosh no so basically my husband gets this like big bonus and i'm like oh i get a frozen turkey but like we didn't get it this year they stole the turkey

wouldn't be funny if it was one of the employees they're like i'm taking them all what's up sophie Sophia? Hey. Hey, what was your bonus?

So our Christmas bonus was a bottle of lotion from Bath and Body Works. No. Oh, wow. What scent? A bottle of lotion. Vanilla Bean Noel. There's different scents, but I'm allergic to lotions and sprays and stuff. So every year, I would just give it to my sister or to a resident because I'm like, what are we supposed to do with this? But that's all we got. Doesn't it almost feel more disrespectful than getting nothing at all? Yeah, it's a nursing home.

Yeah, it's probably free samples, too, that are like the counter samples that they have at all times.

Yeah, they were small bottles.

You say better than nothing at all, Megan. One of my first radio companies gave us all, the Christmas bonus was a Christmas ornament of the company logo. Oh, God. No, thank you. And I was like, oh, thank you. You want me to advertise my job on my own Christmas tree? That's a wonderful bonus.

This texter said we got a $1.99 hot cocoa bomb this year as our Christmas.

Merry Christmas. What's up, Jess?

Hey.

Hi.

So we used to get company logos, sweatshirts, and shirts, and all kinds of company merch. And then I was the controller for the company. I had to write it all off as advertising expense.

Oh, no. Well, so the employees didn't even realize that that was the case. No. Yeah.

It was terrible.

Yeah. Somebody told me that you have to pay taxes on your bonuses. Yeah. That's now the big thing. The companies, even our big company, that make you pay taxes on it. What's up?

Someone just said they actually text in that they got a $25 Meijer gift card, which was adjusted in their paycheck equals $17. Yeah. Brock, what's up?

Hey, Mojo. I actually own a small assisted living facility out in West Olive. It's called Pine Ridge Assisted Living. Yeah. And I just recently gave my employees a $1,000 bonus. Oh, my goodness gracious.

Can I work for you? Yeah, you hire me? That's wonderful.

You need a club DJ or anybody there?

Honestly, I'm sure everybody's so thankful.

I'll make the morning announcements.

Can I host Bingo?

Yeah, go ahead. I'll come with you.

I've always wanted to.

There's a buddy of mine who...

owns a company. And what he did for his employees, which I thought was really cool, was and it doesn't really cost him, is he gave everybody three extra days off the next year.

That's great. So he said

to them, he goes, here's the deal. I'm going to give you three extra days off. He said, you have to use them during these months. And it was all the summer months. That's a great one. But he basically said, so that was kind of a cool bonus. And then the IRS can't figure out what's going on. They can't get their grimy fingers on it.

Hey everybody, I'm Tariqa Foster-Brasby. What's up, y'all? I'm your girl, Cheryl Swoops. When you tune in to a new episode of our podcast, Levels to This, you're definitely going to get some spicy WNBA analysis. But we're more than just hoops. And the real conversation is what we actually bring.

It's been really, really cool seeing kind of these women just really step into their power off the court and understand that they aren't basketball, right? And they're not asking for permission? Listen to

Levels to This with Cheryl Swoops and Tarika Foster-Brasby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I mean, I can't even tell you, Paul, how crazy it was. It was insane. Listen to Paul's Best Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Where's my phone?

Juliana, maybe we can ask an actual human.

Yes, because I have questions, and I bet you do too. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that, and I still need to know why my poop's been green.

We've got actual people answering these exact questions. Listen to Bill and Juliana.

The podcast.

On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.