Photo: TikTok
His "life-changing" Christmas bonus couldn't even change the tires on a car, let alone a life.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Apr 02, 2023
In response to a TikTok talking about how out of touch the boomer generation is when it comes to the “going rate for everything,” a man named Sam Pelissero responded with a story of his own, proving just how bad it truly is.
Prices for everything and the value of a dollar have truly changed from where they once were. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, $1 from 1955 (the middle of the baby boomer generation) has the same buying power as $11.20 as of January 2023 — that’s a marked difference.
Pelissero was hoping to increase his buying power — or at the very least, take a step out of poverty — when his boss told him he had a surprise for him.
The man’s boss gave him a bonus that he said ‘would change his life.’
“I actually love sharing this story,” Pelissero said in the TikTok video posted on January 20, 2023. “So, I used to work for a production company and half of my income went to rent a month which is…you’re not supposed to do that.”
According to NerdWallet, “One popular rule of thumb is the 30% rule, which says to spend around 30% of your gross income on rent.” Pelissero says one-third, but it’s pretty much around the same amount.
“I had no choice but to take one of my paychecks and put it toward rent every month and I only had another paycheck to cover all of my bills, and all of my groceries, and whatever.”
The point is, it’s not a lot of money, and Pelissero had no problem going around the office and complaining about it to whoever was in earshot — which included his boss.
“So after working there for [about] six months my boss would hear me complain about how underpaid I was no matter how hard I worked,” he explained. “I would ask for a raise, I would ask for this, I would ask for more work to do to get more money and he would turn me down… I started to drive for Uber and Lyft.”
When Christmas came around, Sam Pelissero’s boss asked him to come to his office.
Again, it had been around six months since Pelissero had started working there, and his boss knew how fed up he was with how little he was being paid. Thankfully, Christmas was coming around and he was about to receive his Christmas bonus.
“He brought me into the office to give me my Christmas bonus and he said ‘In this envelope, Sam, is your Christmas bonus. I just want to say I know how hard you’ve worked the last few months of being here, I see your potential to be a long-time employee.’”
Pelissero was being given a speech that would hopefully impassion him to continue working for the company and would see him looking forward to the bonus that he was about to receive — multiplied tenfold when he continued hyping up the amount.
“‘I just know how much you don’t like driving for Lyft and Uber, the money in this envelope is going to change your life,’ and he said you’ll never have to drive for Uber or Lyft again.”
He recalls going back to his desk with a stomach “full of butterflies” after his boss’s heartwarming speech. Pelissero was ready to open the check and see “thousands of dollars, it’s going to be $10,000. It’s going to be $5,000!”
Inside the envelope, his ‘life-changing’ Christmas bonus was $250.
“It was $250,” Pelissero said, laughing at how ridiculous it was but then quickly showing his disappointment. “$250.” If that doesn’t spell how out of touch the boomer generation is, then nothing will.
People in the chat went ballistic, wondering how in the world anyone could think that $250 was a “life-changing” amount of money.
“[Whose] life [is] he changing with 250 dollars?” someone asked. Another person joked “He patted himself on the back after that one. He went to church on Xmas and just knew he was a job creator.”
Many people commented on what $250 could really do for them, and it wasn’t much. Pelissero himself said that $250 wouldn’t even cover a week's worth of gas these days. That wouldn’t even cover a quarter of rent in a lot of places in the US.
According to Moody’s Analytics, via The New York Times, the average rent in the US in 2022 is $1794, so $250 couldn’t even cover one-sixth. Pelissero’s going to need a few more dollars out of that bonus for it to change his life.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.