A personal token of gratitude

The last week of October is a very special one for me, as the CEO of MarsBased. It doesn't have any particular deadline, project start/end or conference. There's nothing that can't be pushed back or pulled forward for a week, so it's a self-imposed thing, entirely.

This week is where we prepare the end-of-the-year gifts for the team. As it's customary in our region, we buy lots de nadal - a box full of local food and drinks, and send each employee one of them. Some years it's 100% local product from Catalunya, other years we've done a product of each region where we have an employee in. However, at 30 people, the latter is becoming too complicated.

This is an unwritten law at MarsBased. You don't have it as a benefit on our handbook. We just give it because we can and because we think you deserve it. It's a nice touch.

But that's only one part of the gift. The second one is a hand-written letter I prepare for every one of our employees.

This means, I spend every year an increasing number of hours writing them, by hand. While it doesn't sound like much, it's difficult to come up with something interesting for them every year, considering that we have virtually no employee retention. A couple of them have received 10 letters from me already!

While I am the least xmas person ever to walk the face of earth, I do acknowledge that it's a very special time of the year for most people in the company and, to be entirely frank, I never got a single gift from my bosses in all my years working for someone else. It's not about being a good christian. It's about being a good boss.

AI won't replace this.