All About Bill Bucks
What is this?
Bill Bucks are one way to recognize and show appreciation to each other. Bills, and their associated prizes, enable us to encourage our peers by empowering us to see and reward good work; to say “Thanks” for going above and beyond, in deed and in attitude. This is a simple system for employees – all GodTools Product Team, Digital Products & Services, US Digital Strategy and US Technology Team Members, Team Leaders and Directors – to feel noticed and tangibly rewarded.
How does it work?
Bills are a departmental currency; an optional, self-regulating reward system, which can be used to help recognize your peers for awesomeness. All participants are issued 33 Bills to give away each tertile (Team Leaders and Directors are issued a double-portion). You may give Bills to any participant, including your Team Leader or Director.
Gifted Bills can be kept or redeemed for various prizes: some expensive, others are cheap and easy to obtain (see below). How you use Bills is up to you!
When you reward someone with Bills, indicate on the Bill why you are rewarding them.
Some examples of things for which you might give Bills away:
- Someone plugged the production server back in.
- Someone baked a cake for your birthday and even shared some of it with you.
- Someone negotiated a difficult interaction with aplomb.
- Someone explained what “aplomb” means and didn’t make fun of you.
If you’d like to reward someone for something they did, big or small, giving them a few Bills is a great way to do it; the amount of the reward is completely up to you.
Visit https://billbuck.app/ and go reward someone, but please remember that these Bills are tied directly to a real fiscal budget, so let’s all practice diligence and stewardship with this privilege. Don’t go completely bananas. We’re on the honor system here, folks.
Remember: that’s 33 Bill Bucks for you to distribute each tertile. Here’s the DPS tertile schedule: T1 (Oct 1 – Jan 31), T2 (Feb 1 – May 31), T3 (Jun 1 – Sep 30).
Prizes?
You can redeem Bill Bucks that you have been rewarded with for some excellent prizes, keep them, or frame them as next the family heirloom. Your call.
Contractors and Consultants can participate in this reward program, but (due to IRS regulations) they are not eligible to redeem Bills for prizes.
There’s an “I’m Awesome” Sash (1 Bill gets you one-week rental for personal wear, or to gift to a coworker to wear), and 40 Bill Bucks gets you a Full Day Off (max of one day off per quarter; check with your Team Leader before just disappearing)!
But if neither of those sound fun, don’t fret! Fill out the Bill Bucks Prize Request Form. Once a month or so, we’ll place an order for you (by submitting the form, you’re committing to actually redeeming Bill Bucks for that item). The exchange rate is currently US $2 to 1 Bill Buck. To calculate the Bill Bucks cost for an item on Amazon, divide the US $ cost by 2 and round to the nearest whole number. US $1 is the minimum cost; US $100 is the max. Need some inspiration? The list of prizes that have been requested so far is available.
Digital Bill Bucks
We recommend using https://billbuck.app/ for your Bill Buck rewarding needs.
Use the Bill Bucks Prize Request Form (as mentioned above) to request something cool and we’ll let Amazon handle the shipping.
However, if writing “hey, you’re awesomesause” notes by hand is your speed, you can exchange your undistributed Digital Bill Bucks for real, live Bill Bucks by emailing appreciate.dps@cru.org. Just let us know how many Bills & Vonettes you need. You’ll be able to pick them up near the Help Desk at Lake Hart (located at H1… H as in Help Desk).
Questions, Comments & Complaints
Requests for clarification, cookies, Bitcoin, suggestions for improvements to this reward program, and complaints can be emailed to appreciate.dps@cru.org. Bonus points for clever puns, usage of non-sequitur humor, and effusive kindness.
Cheers,
Andy Kellogg, Holly Bennett, Jason Buckner, Scott Sumner, Shelby Benton, &, and Tracy Stewart