Cards Against Job Stress

December 24, 2015 11:14 AM

This year, the makers of Cards Against Humanity ran a holiday project titled "Eight Sensible Gifts," where they promised participants a different gift for each night of Hannukkah. The sixth nights' gift, however, went to someone else - instead, the CAH team paid for a weeks' vacation for the entire staff of their Chinese printing company.

There actually was no policy in place for providing paid vacations at the firm, so the CAH team says that they bought 100% of the printers' capacity for the week, essentially paying everyone at the firm to do nothing for that week. They're starting to get vacation photos and thank-you notes from the staff now and are posting some of them on their web site.

This seems to be a trend - last year, CAH sent participants in a similar holiday project an itemized list of all the PACs and donors from whom their representatives in Congress had received funding.

posted by EmpressCallipygos (12 comments total)

I'm part of the apparent minority which doesn't love CAH, but this is the best.
posted by namespan at 11:19 AM on December 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

Now I feel shitty about downloading the pdfs and making my own.
posted by Keith Talent at 11:26 AM on December 24, 2015

This plus sponsoring Siracusa's toaster reviews... CAH is the best.
posted by gyc at 11:28 AM on December 24, 2015

that is so great
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 11:29 AM on December 24, 2015

I wonder whether that Picasso will get cut into squares
posted by infinitewindow at 11:30 AM on December 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

> Now I feel shitty about downloading the pdfs and making my own.
posted by Keith Talent at 11:26 AM on December 24 [+] [!]

Nah, don't feel sad. As Billy Bragg almost said in his version of the Internationale,

For though they offer us concessions,
Change will not come from those bros.

posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:31 AM on December 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

I feel like such a killjoy for saying this, but instead of this publicity stunt they could've been having their cards printed somewhere with actual labor standards, where employees get vacation time as part of their overall compensation package. I kinda feel like this does a whole lot more to make people feel good about CAH as a company than it does to improve conditions for workers. The fact that they had to find some kind of procedural loophole to make a paid vacation happen at all really speaks to me about the quality of employer that they have chosen to do business with.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 11:36 AM on December 24, 2015 [10 favorites]

Now I feel shitty about downloading the pdfs and making my own.

I feel like that's some of the most brilliant marketing that has ever been done. The vast majority of people print them out, or start to, and realize either it's a lot harder and more expensive to do right, pieces of paper get damaged and don't last long, or just give up halfway through cutting them out.

Then they go buy a full deck because they have a sunk-cost-fallacy.

But on topic: Go CAH! I've always really enjoyed their business practices, even if I'm not a huge fan of the game.
posted by mayonnaises at 11:36 AM on December 24, 2015

Amazing to consider that a single day's profits from one promotion could fund all production at a factory for a week. Really puts things into perspective. A sensible gift indeed. I wish more companies did stuff like this.
posted by tempestuoso at 11:38 AM on December 24, 2015

They're a visionary marketing department tied to an incredibly bad game.
posted by codacorolla at 11:39 AM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

I dunno, obviously this may have been exceedingly meaningful for the individuals who received this vacation, but...come on. How about, like, only working with factories that provide time off to their employees? When companies degrade the environment year-round but are happy to brush petrol off a cute pelican for the camera, we call it greenwashing, so I don't really feel bad calling this laborwashing.
posted by threeants at 11:41 AM on December 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

The makers of Cards Against Humanity are a bunch of __________.

Richard Nixon's bowel movements

Using the word 'literally' when you mean 'figuratively'

Smegma

Eating a big bowl of dicks

Art Garfunkel's carbuncles

That douche who endlessly quotes The Big Lebowski

Real Mensches

posted by Atom Eyes at 11:45 AM on December 24, 2015