Imagine being so cheap that you bring your own bottle of wine to a restaurant. This man’s boss did just that at a team holiday dinner.
In a viral video that has more than a million views on TikTok, JC Camarillo (@jccamarillo) absolutely exposed his workplace for being stingy with its employee holiday appreciation.
Camarillo’s bio states that he’s a celebrity and bridal makeup artist, but he doesn’t state where he works or if the viral incident in question happened at a makeup-related job or possibly at a corporate 9-to-5.
Camarillo starts by calling his employer out for gifting him a candle in a gift bag that was obviously used. It had tape on it from a previous gift, and the tissue paper was crumpled enough that Camarillo suspected it wasn’t freshly bought. (We can let this slide since the earth doesn’t need any more unnecessary waste for the sake of present packaging.)
He said that while his workplace had a group dinner (on the company dime, of course), it wouldn’t pay for any alcoholic beverages.
If someone wanted to drink, they had two options: pay for it themselves or drink the wine their boss brought.
While companies aren’t expected to get employees multiple rounds of alcoholic beverages—nor is that appropriate in a work setting—at an office dinner, a drink or two during the holidays is perfectly normal, especially considering the number of office parties where people are known to get regrettably drunk. (Like this guy who got an email from HR after the holiday office party.)
Plus, alcohol is a reimbursable business expense, according to Emburse.
The company owner instead brought boxes (boxes!) of wine from his house to the restaurant “so he didn’t have to buy them there, and we could just drink that.”
“But what did your job give you for Christmas?” Camarillo asks.
@jccamarillo Replying to @Juan Chamoun ♬ original sound – JC Camarillo
Out of the more than 16,000 comments, several people responded directly to Camarillo’s question.
“Nada,” multiple people said, sharing that their job gave them absolutely nothing for the holidays.
“Stress that’s all they gave me,” another wrote.
One person pointed out that it’s normally small and/or family-owned businesses that give bonuses, and that trend seemed to hold in the comments.
“Family owned business here. We took everyone out, including their spouses to a Japanese hibachi dinner with unlimited food and drinks and $1000 cash bonus,” a person shared.
“I’m a small business and I gave them each $500 cash bonuses,” another chimed in.
The Daily Dot reached out to Camarillo for comment via email.