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I gave everyone at the company, including myself, a huge Christmas bonus.

Is "including myself"—not "including me"—correct here?

Thank you.

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    "Including X" means and X. So it's just a conjoined object, and can be switched around: I gave X and everyone at the company Which pronoun would you use for X here?
    – John Lawler
    Commented Jul 13, 2014 at 15:46
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    @JohnLawler: "I met three women and a man" = "I met three women including a man"?
    – Brian Donovan
    Commented Jul 13, 2014 at 16:07
  • @Brian: In that context, where everyone at the company may or may not include the speaker, it means and. It's a clarifying addendum, since the NP is ambiguous. In the example you cite, three women cannot include a man; different construction, different meaning.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Jul 13, 2014 at 16:49

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The pronoun myself there might be considered either as the object of the present participle including, or more likely (see below) as an included component of the object of the finite verb gave, i.e., an included component of “everyone at the company.” But since the person doing the including as well as the giving is you, either way you are at once the subject and the direct object of the verb; and that is precisely the situation where the reflexive pronoun myself is indeed appropriate.

OED s.v. including adj. sense 2:

Including pres. pple. often governs a n. particularizing a person or thing included in a group previously (or afterwards) mentioned; = Inclusive of.

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You can go intuitively by the sound of it, instead of figuring it out according to grammatical rules. Thus, you would not say: "I gave me a bonus", therefore, in the sentence in question you should use 'myself".

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