Bank Gives Christmas Bonus...Sort Of

A Fargo ND bank is giving its employees a Christmas bonus of a different kind:

FARGO, N.D. — A bank is giving its full-time employees $1,000 each and part-time employees $500 each. There's one condition — use it for people in need.

State Bank & Trust Chief Operating Officer Michael Solberg said each full-time employee will receive $1,000 and each part-time employee will receive $500, as part of a $502,000 "Pay it Forward" initiative.

"We're going to really see some huge impact on our community," Solberg said.

Employees were told not to use the money for themselves, their families or families of other bank employees. The bank asked each employee to document the good deed with a video camera. The deadline is June 30.

The employees were told they may choose an individual cause, pool their money for a larger project or collaborate with donors outside the bank. The privately owned bank has more than 500 employees, he said.

The bank made the announcement over the weekend.

In previous years, the Fargo-based bank has taken 5 percent of the company earnings and divided it up at holiday time among employees.

At the risk of being called Scrooge, I'm not impressed. I'm sure liberals will applaud this act of generosity on the part of the bank, but if I was one of the bank employees, I'd be disappointed. After years of giving bonuses to the employees without strings attached, suddenly the employees are denied the funds but are instead commanded to give it away. How many employees were counting on that money to make their holiday a little brighter? What this story doesn't tell us is if the employees were also given money for a bonus that they could keep.

I'm all for generosity and giving to those in need, but I think that generosity comes from the heart and not from a corporate directive. Certainly some employees will gladly participate, but I predict that many will do so with less than generous spirits and kind words.

The liberal idea of generosity is taking your hard-earned money from you and giving it to somebody else. A conservative believes generosity comes from a grateful heart, not a forced obligation. This bank's plan could easily have been dreamed up by any Democrat congressman planning a new entitlement program.