WASHINGTON — There’s nothing like a grateful boss who puts his money where his mouth is.
Henry Engelhardt, the retiring CEO of聽聽United Kingdom-based Admiral Group plc, and his wife, Diane, are so grateful to the company鈥檚 estimated 8,000 employees, they are giving each one with over a year of service a surprise bonus of 1,000 British pounds (or $1,448 U.S. dollars).
Even recent employees will get to share in the spoils — each worker with less than a year will get 500 pounds (about $723).
This includes about 500 people in the Richmond, Va., area who work for Admiral’s Elephant Insurance Services, and another 55 who work for the company’s.
鈥淚t was a complete surprise,鈥� Louisa Scadden, head of people services for Elephant Insurance, told the . 鈥淗enry only announced it yesterday to everybody.鈥�
The paper said that the total gift is worth $10.6 million in U.S. dollars and will show up in one of May’s paychecks.
鈥淧eople are quite emotional about it,鈥� Scadden said.聽Engelhardt said in a statement Friday that the gift is a token of appreciation for the 鈥渉ard work and team spirit鈥� of employees.
鈥淪aying thank you to all the Admiral staff who work so hard every day to make Admiral great is the most important thing we can do,鈥� he said.聽鈥淚 am proud to have been part of the team of thousands who have created such a great business and great place to work. My wife and I just want to say a very sincere thank you to everyone at Admiral.鈥�
Engelhardt plans to retire from Admiral in May after 24 years leading the company.
