This company wanted to reward its employees. The result was more like a punishment. 

It’s a nice idea to want to reward your employees with a well-planned dinner. It can make you feel like they care about you enough to put some effort in. But nice dinners are famously expensive, so they might find themselves cutting corners. But there are smart ways to cut corners and not so smart ways. Opting for pizza instead of a steak dinner? Nobody would really complain. Everyone loves pizza. But serving boiled steaks with plastic utensils? That’s not an appreciation dinner, it’s a humiliation ritual. 

But that’s what happened in one company when an employee-wide dinner turned into a night they would all want to forget. The food was wrong, the vibe was wrong, and everyone wanted to leave. What was supposed to be a fun night of reflection and celebration turned into something like a captive situation. Employees were frustrated that their higher-ups would treat them that way, with such a disregard for personal well-being. There’s nothing like a party that you can’t leave.