Hardworking woman gets a 'RAISE' at work, then learns it's actually a cruel acronym

In a post, Reddit user u/Reeltoreel01234 shared how his girlfriend came home excited, thinking she had finally received a "raise" at her job. But what sounded like a financial reward turned out to be far less exciting. In his post, which has since gained over 8.3k upvotes, he explained, "So about a week ago my girlfriend was excited to tell me she had been given a raise at her job. Apparently raise has a different meaning now than more money in your paycheck."

When she messaged her manager to ask about the amount, the response was deflating. Her boss explained that it wasn’t money at all but a recognition card: "I didn’t give you a raise in your check. It was a recognition card. RAISE is an acronym," to which she, clearly disappointed, replied, "Well, that was kinda misleading :(." Instead of a paycheck boost, his girlfriend received a slip of paper labeled R.A.I.S.E., which stood for "Recognizing Amazing Individual Service Experiences."

Months later, the user followed up with another post that showed that the practice hadn’t stopped. Sharing an image of yet another R.A.I.S.E. card, he wrote, "My girlfriend’s job gave her another 'RAISE.' So glad she’s leaving that sh** hole this week." The card read: "Thank you for improving drive time results for nighttime. Your shifts went from over 200 to ranging from 155 this week. Keep up the motivation." The story highlighted a growing frustration many workers feel when companies use symbolic gestures to replace meaningful rewards.

A study published by Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes revealed that symbolic awards can actually backfire in competitive workplaces. Recipients often underperform compared to peers, and trouble doesn’t end there. Their co-workers may react with subtle sabotage, like withholding help, or even stealing clients in sales roles. The study suggests that in resource‑constrained environments, symbolic praise can foster resentment and social undermining rather than motivation. The post drew a flood of reactions, where users couldn’t believe a manager thought this was a good idea, and how misleading it felt.

u/NorCalMikey wrote, "I normally don't believe people should be tortured, but whoever came up with this should be waterboarded until they apologize to the world." u/DreCapitanoII added, "It's indistinguishable from satire. If this had been a gag in Office Space or Dilbert, we would have laughed while recognizing it's too absurd to ever be real." u/retiredcatchair pointed out, "This kind of thing, consciously or not, is a product of the managerial class' utter contempt for working people. It's an insult. Whoever hands out one of these would never accept the same treatment from their own higher-ups, but they're perfectly comfortable doing this to someone who reports to them. That's how confident they are that the employee is so stupid, they will take it as genuine praise for good work."

u/janepublic151 commented, "The company probably paid the consultant who came up with this vile idea more than it would have cost them to give all of their employees a tiny 'bonus.'" 

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