Something for the weekend: While most organisations use annual dinners or celebratory events to recognise their top-performing employees, a Malaysian organisation has decided to put a light-hearted twist on its latest award presentation.
At a recent dinner event hosted by the employer, formal presentations that included a large screen displaying nominee lists for some unconventional awards were made. Trophies were awarded for the most medical leave taken and the best sleeper at work awards, with the winner of the former having racked up 365 days of medical leave.
No additional information was provided, so this could have been a joke, or the winning employee could have been on leave due to medical reasons.
To mark its 10th anniversary, the organisation wanted to do something out of the box. Instead of the typical top sales awards, the boss decided to come up with some different and unusual categories.
Malaysian law states that employee sick leave is 14-22 days annually, depending on the number of years of service. Employees with more than five years’ service are entitled to a maximum of 22 days of sick leave per year and can also take a total of up to 60 days of hospitalisation leave per year.
The incident came to light through a TikTok video posted by user @elninaz, and has since gone viral, with users of the platform debating whether the awards were meant to be amusing or a workplace behaviour critique.
One user said: “[The winner is] happy to be sick [for] 365 days? If I were [him], I wouldn’t come to this”. While another added: “What kind of [organisation] embarrasses its staff at a company function?”
While these awards do sound unconventional to us, especially considering the categories at today’s Employee Benefits Awards, perhaps they were merely intended to be light-hearted.
