They routinely held an end of year meeting at the start of December that was a bit of a Christmas party. The meeting was always a show of appreciation that ended with the boss handing out bonus pay.

One year the boss finished thanking us for contributing to the busiest and most profitable year in company history. He then announced that all that big profit would be used to open up a new location! And for that reason nobody would be getting Christmas bonuses because the new location was really expensive. The next year he sold to a corporation who immediately fired most of the senior staff due to their high salaries, myself included.