Project Management

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I had a massive amount of success on a recent project of mine. I want to reward my team, but upper management won't let me. What do I do?

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Anonymous
My most recent project came in at 16% under budget and 9% ahead of schedule. My team worked extremely hard and I want to reward them, but upper management won't sign off. Some of them are feeling under-appreciated. Is there anything I can do to counter this affect?
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Eric Simms Senior Program Manager Baltimore, Maryland, United States
If possible, foot the bill to reward your team yourself. Besides being a decent thing to do, it would do much to raise you in their esteem. You can deduct the cost from your taxes (on Schedule A - Itemized Deductions) as unreimbursed employee expenses.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
You have a problem with your team if they feel that they must receive something in exchange of their work. That is the first thing to understand. Obviously if and only if they did not do extra work. In that case there was something incorrect during the project plannng and execution.
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Aaron Porter
Community Champion
IT Director| Blade HQ Payson, UT, United States
Is your company having financial issues and having to "tighten it's belt," or is this more of a cultural issue? Is it normal to recognize success? Do you have non-monetary ways to reward the team? Does your project team have managers they report to that you can work with to figure something out? Is there a way to get a positive note in their HR file that can be considered at annual review time?

In the future, can you build cost into the budget for a celebration, if certain conditions are met?
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Michael Brian Fl, United States
Gratitude often comes in the best form of being genuine and from the heart versus something tangible.

If this was something BIG in terms of the project, maybe just get a little creative. If the team is fairly small, research some small sized fairly inexpensive trophies to purchase where you can maybe customize a short message. Call on a small meeting to recap the success and deliver that to the team players as a reminder of their hard work going unnoticed. Something they can maybe put on their desk and look at for motivation on the next project.

You can do gift cards with a personalized note in a card. That will go a long way if you want to keep it simple.

There's plenty of ways to show appreciation and share gratitude. $5-10 gift cards to some common places like Dunkin' will go a long way. Some may prefer just a thank you and recognition while others feel the need to receive an item of some sort. Just human nature I guess.
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Anonymous
May 22, 2018 5:30 AM
Replying to Eric Simms
...
If possible, foot the bill to reward your team yourself. Besides being a decent thing to do, it would do much to raise you in their esteem. You can deduct the cost from your taxes (on Schedule A - Itemized Deductions) as unreimbursed employee expenses.
Thanks again Eric.
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Anonymous
May 22, 2018 7:41 AM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
...
You have a problem with your team if they feel that they must receive something in exchange of their work. That is the first thing to understand. Obviously if and only if they did not do extra work. In that case there was something incorrect during the project plannng and execution.
Thanks again Sergio.
avatar
Anonymous
May 22, 2018 2:39 PM
Replying to Michael Brian
...
Gratitude often comes in the best form of being genuine and from the heart versus something tangible.

If this was something BIG in terms of the project, maybe just get a little creative. If the team is fairly small, research some small sized fairly inexpensive trophies to purchase where you can maybe customize a short message. Call on a small meeting to recap the success and deliver that to the team players as a reminder of their hard work going unnoticed. Something they can maybe put on their desk and look at for motivation on the next project.

You can do gift cards with a personalized note in a card. That will go a long way if you want to keep it simple.

There's plenty of ways to show appreciation and share gratitude. $5-10 gift cards to some common places like Dunkin' will go a long way. Some may prefer just a thank you and recognition while others feel the need to receive an item of some sort. Just human nature I guess.
Thanks Michael.

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