What's a Bonus?

[Spiffster]

My wife works at a surgery center as an RN. The holiday bonus is a miserly $200. $200 more than I get, BTW. I think the last bonus I received was back in 2007. Anyway, she was told yesterday that the bonus this year will be $150 and will be distributed the Friday before new years, not before xmas as has been in the past. CEO says employees should not "expect a bonus". While I can somewhat agree with that, this apparently was the most profitable year for this particular company.

I would bet my bonus that the doctors and this CEO will see a little more than $150. So much for employee appreciation.

[rennigade]

This is a real life example of conditioning. Employers slowly condition employees to not expect anything and to make them feel like they're lucky to have a job. How often does someone complain about a new policy at their office then they follow it up with "well it could be worse...at least I have a job." Its sickening that employers do this.

Where my father works the company used to match maybe 2% to their 401k. Last year they told everyone they would no longer be matching period. This is pretty rare. Usually for 401's the percentage goes up...not down! This scenario wasnt even conditioning...they just flat out told them they were done matching.

And yes.....its very unlikely that the ceo's bonus or salary went down.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I've found from friends a lot of them don't get holiday bonus. Everyone gets the annual bonus at different times of the year and that's it. And a lot of companies are moving towards use or lose vacation time. No more banking it for more than a year. Too much liability on the books.

[Spiffster]

I've found from friends a lot of them don't get holiday bonus. Everyone gets the annual bonus at different times of the year and that's it. And a lot of companies are moving towards use or lose vacation time. No more banking it for more than a year. Too much liability on the books.

Yes, this is becoming very common. Last company I worked for announced the vacation policy change at the end of November where carryover was limited to 1 week. I had 6 weeks saved up at the time. Considering you have to give 2 weeks notice for vacation I lost around a months worth of paid vacation, just like that. The company was making money hand over fist too... one of many reasons why I feel the whole trickle down thing will continue to fail. People are greedy. Heck, when times are tough, employees seem to carry more value.

[StormRichards]

This is a real life example of conditioning. Employers slowly condition employees to not expect anything and to make them feel like they're lucky to have a job. How often does someone complain about a new policy at their office then they follow it up with "well it could be worse...at least I have a job." Its sickening that employers do this.

Sadly, I hear this from people all the time.

And I would either respond or think to myself "NO, I don't have to feel grateful to have a job when my employer screws me over." It is a horrible way to run a company, and it certainly can backfire on them.

[rennigade]

And a lot of companies are moving towards use or lose vacation time. No more banking it for more than a year. Too much liability on the books.

My company does the use or lose on sick time. They give you 80 hours at the beginning of the year and whatever you dont use gets wiped. Funny how I always seem to be sick between 76-80 hours a year. Was sick 79 hours this year

I actually asked one time if we were ever going to start carrying over sick time. They looked at me like I was an idiot. They said the industry standard is to always erase sick time...which every single person I know who works at different companies does not follow this policy. That includes wife, friends, parents, sister...but I guess thats the industry standard.

[phantom]

I would call anything that accounts for less than 1-2% of an employee's total compensation a gift rather than a bonus. To me a bonus is additional compensation that's worth mentioning in salary negotiations. I would guess that $200 usually wouldn't fit that definition. But, if you call it a gift rather than a bonus, I think $200 is pretty nice.

I've worked places with bonuses and without, and I wouldn't call the companies that didn't have bonuses stingy. It's just a difference in compensation structure. Suddenly dropping or reducing bonuses without reason or explanation is what I see a stingy, jerk move. Like reducing a 401k match or reducing time off, it's akin to a pay cut.

[Fishindude77]

We don't differentiate between sick time and vacation. We call it PTO paid time off and nobody cares how you use it. This way HR doesn't have to hear all the drama regarding why someone missed work. You use it or lose it, can't bank it. Our firm encourages use of your PTO because people need to get away from work, relax, unwind, etc. it makes for a healthier happier workforce.

[corn18]

We don't differentiate between sick time and vacation. We call it PTO paid time off and nobody cares how you use it. This way HR doesn't have to hear all the drama regarding why someone missed work. You use it or lose it, can't bank it. Our firm encourages use of your PTO because people need to get away from work, relax, unwind, etc. it makes for a healthier happier workforce.

^^^^This. We just have PTO. We do offer an option to sell back up to 80 hours / year. I will grant that request if you have taken PTO this year. If you try to sell back 80 and you haven't taken any PTO this year, you get to have a chat with me. I want my people to take time off. They are more productive when they do.

Tom

[sv2007]

My wife works at a surgery center as an RN. The holiday bonus is a miserly $200. $200 more than I get, BTW. I think the last bonus I received was back in 2007. Anyway, she was told yesterday that the bonus this year will be $150 and will be distributed the Friday before new years, not before xmas as has been in the past. CEO says employees should not "expect a bonus". While I can somewhat agree with that, this apparently was the most profitable year for this particular company.

I would bet my bonus that the doctors and this CEO will see a little more than $150. So much for employee appreciation.

If make you feel better, I've NEVER received a Christmas bonus. Never, ever. I've also never received a Christmas gift except for gift exchanges.

If I had to guess, I'm going to guess that CEO will not get a Christmas bonus. He might get other bonuses but likely not a Christmas bonus.

But, I do like one of the companies that I worked for where it grosses up my bonuses (and everybody's). Excellent company back then, although not doing all that well right now : (

All my bonuses are tied to performance or going above and beyond. None of the companies I have worked for have ever given out a bonus just for a holiday or just for working there. So, if I get a Christmas bonus, I wouldn't complain at all -- it'll be like free money !

[sv2007]

I've found from friends a lot of them don't get holiday bonus. Everyone gets the annual bonus at different times of the year and that's it. And a lot of companies are moving towards use or lose vacation time. No more banking it for more than a year. Too much liability on the books.

At the companies that I've worked for, the policy ranges from carrying over 1 to 3 years worth of PTO time.

I've also worked at 2 interesting companies
(both are pretty well known that most have probably hear of their names):

One company had unlimited sick days and another had unlimited vacation days.

At the unlimited sick day company, I never took any sick day.
At the unlimited vacation days company, I took a lot of days off.
So, I highly prefer companies calling unlimited days "vacation" rather than "sick" days.

[rennigade]

Just found out that we arent receiving any bonuses this year...lame! Ive only been with the company for 5 years and the first 4 years we received an xmas bonus.

This is actually a good reminder imo for anyone looking for a new job. Sometimes during the hiring/negotiation process companies will say something like "for the past x amount of years employees have received a $3000 bonus, etc etc." Never assume you're going to get a bonus and negotiate your salary for what you want it to be...not what you want it to be with a bonus attached to it. There are no guarantees!

[disneysteve]

No bonuses in my line of work (medicine private practice).