Bonuses

Turgon

It's bonus time for the banks!

Latest Goldman Sachs profits swell billion-dollar bonus pool | Business | guardian.co.uk

Banking aside, anyone on a bonus structure?

HeroPsycho

I am. Hate it. Doesn't encourage me to do the right thing by the company or customers in some situations. I try to ignore it.

dynamik

Same here. It doesn't suck like Hero's though

homerj742

I work for a non-profit organizations. No bonus!

Kaminsky

I spent many years working for the NHS and always thought about bonuses. Couple of years ago when I joined a big corporate, I was looking forward to a bonus finally. With the recession and all, still not had a bonus.

eMeS

For many years of my life I received 25% of my compensation as a bonus.

This was in the financial services industry and it was always received in early December.

When times were good I would sometimes receive 150% of eligibility....

One of the things about bonuses that I think is risky is that the expectation that you will receive them can cause people to structure large expenses such that the expenses coincide with the planned bonus.

I know many people, for example, who pay their property taxes in December as one lump sum (rather than through an escrow account) because they expect to receive a bonus near when these taxes are due. IMO, this is potentially risky.

MS

GAngel

I've been in management Consulting and an actuarial firm. Hand over fist money especially for the top guys who do the least work. Now i'm in a gov/private job and the bonus is crap .

At my last firm the top players made 2-3x there massive salary in bonuses and stocks. They all were lined up at the trough and nobody was retiring because they had such a great deal. Meanwhile the actuaries I know who actually did the research and stats were making about as much as a junior sys admin. This is while they were being pimped out to clients at $300+ an hour.

Forsaken_GA

Our managements idea of a bonus is a really nice Christmas party (and I'm not kidding when I say nice.... open-bar, fully catered gourmet meals, a very nice hotel room, and about 10k in gifts spread out between about 30 employees and our +1's).

They asked us earlier in the year if we'd rather have a christmas party or 1k in cash. The entire operations staff, without hesitation, said 'give us the cash' (and we outnumber everyone else). And so, of course, we're having another Christmas party!

Unfortunately, I'm going to get stuck working this year, so I can't get my good drunk on. All I'll get is a choice at the scant few remaining gifts, and probably a $250 gift card to a local grocery store.

GT-Rob

I get around 25% bonus each year, and its based on company performance, so I have very little impact on it. Its nice to get, but the tax man usually keeps most of it lol

BradleyHU

the company i work for is goin thru chp 11, so i get no bonus this year....i dont even know if i'll be gettin a raise...

sidsanders

i was and it was kinda nice. then at the end of the year (2005) they cheated the ops folk and moved us into a diff group that doesnt get one. they might as well have printed the checks and then ripped them up in front of us. what was worse was the folks who DID get them. all they did was complain they werent as big as they normaly are... yaaaaaa, try NOT getting one at all after getting cheated.