As a Christmas gift, a digital marketing firm based in Breda, Netherlands, provided its more than one hundred employees with free groceries for an entire month. Each employee received a folder, a shopping bag, and a gold envelope, and were instructed by the company’s owner, Joris Toonders, to collect and keep all their supermarket receipts in the envelope throughout December.
Initially, the employees were unaware of what the envelope was for, but when they finally realized what it contained, they were overwhelmed with gratitude and started applauding. One employee told a local news station, Omroep Brabant, that he had never seen so many colleagues be so quiet together.
Toonders did not impose any restrictions on the type or quantity of groceries that the employees could purchase, expressing his faith in their honesty and integrity. According to him, it was important to trust one’s colleagues and foster a culture of trust in the workplace.