Goldman Sachs Bonus Day Is a ‘Bloodbath,’

[The Straight Story]

The New York Times reports that the company set aside $12.2 billion last year for compensation and benefits. But on a personal level, albeit a skewed one, John Carney of CNBC hears that things were "really ugly" today. According to one employee from the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities division, "It's a bloodbath. People are trying to put on a strong face but there are a lot of clenched jaws."

DealBook called the occasion traditionally "tense," as employees "are called one by one into a managing partner's glass-walled office, where they are informed of their bonus numbers, as well as any stock awards or deferred cash payments they will get." Afterward, "employees return to their desks, where some celebrate, others sulk and still others trade gossip via the firm’s internal instant-messaging system."

Luckily for us, a few also reach out to reporters. A trader told Carney, "One girl was actually crying, I think." Another said, "My number was so low I thought I was fired. My director had to convince me that the firm still wants me to stick around." Someone more optimistic said they thought it would be worse.

A source told Dealbreaker that base salaries are not being reduced and said, "I'm personally down 20% which was exactly the right level to piss me off but not enough to make me dive across the desk and beat my boss to death." Now that'd be a story a blog could run with.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/goldman-sachs-bonus-day-is-a-bloobath.html

[MinervaX]

1. "Sorry Jennings, your bonus this year will be a mere $500,000

I know last year you received a $2,000,000 bonus and you must be disappointed by this measly pittance."

[closeupready]

7. Yep, that's about it. "How am I supposed to live on that? How will I pay my chauffeur?"

[Nuclear Unicorn]

32. I wonder what the chauffeur thinks?

[aquart]

12. I don't know how to break it to you, but $2 million is pocket change in bonus land.

Some years before it was dissolved, Bear Stearns was giving the big boys bonuses of about $17 million. The little boys got about $2-4 million. That was years before 9/11 (my dividing line). The base salaries are purposely low, lower even than Romney's total speaking fees. All the important bills are paid with the bonus money.

It's a scary way to live but a great way to control people.

[taught_me_patience]

27. $500k doesn't go very far in NYC

And I don't care who you are, if you take a 20% paycut, you'd be upset. You're telling me you wouldn't be upset at a 20-50% paycut?

[alcibiades_mystery]

29. You mean the kind these GS douchebuckets force flight attendants and pilots to take every three year

Fuck 'em hard. They can eat a bushel of 20% paycuts far as I'm concerned.

[meaculpa2011]

36. I live in New York.

I've lived in New York my whole life. I don't make near $500,000. I've never made near $500,000. My wife and I and our two kids live just fine. When the kids were young my wife stayed home and we got by on half of our previous income. Did that for nine years. I'm pretty sick of listening to my fellow NYers whining about how they can't make ends meet on a HALF A MILLION DOLLARS!

[Brickbat]

2. The horror...the horror.

[bemildred]

3. Feudalism is like that sometimes. nt

[Gold Metal Flake]

4. Not painful enough.

Fucking leeches.

[rfranklin]

5. How can you live on a mere $500,000?

As impossible as it seems, some bankers actually manage to exist on these near poverty wages!

[MinervaX]

8. I just made that number up

sorry

[rfranklin]

13. I did too, but didn't see yours until I posted...

Great minds and all that!

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. Remember, these are the people to whom the OWS folks "look just like ants".

I hope the bathtub was nice and full.

[hifiguy]

9. These parasites can screw themselves

with an iron stick wrapped in barbed wire.

[Salviati]

10. You know, as a rule I'm a pretty nonviolent person...

but whenever I hear these self-entitled wall street sociopaths whining, I feel like making an exception...

[safeinOhio]

11. Don't like it?

Quit, go out in the job market and find your true value.

[redqueen]

22. +1

Well said.

[Romulox]

14. The US government should step in and pay the bonuses. Think of the hit to Manhattan's economy,

otherwise!

[sarcasmo]

15. Is it wrong that a rich person crying makes me smile?

[marmar]

16. ........

[SOS]

17. Life has ups and downs

Markets soar and markets crash.
Stop crying in your Glenfiddich and carry on.
There are still a few middle class people left to destroy!

[lapislzi]

18. I'm ready

to advocate something that will likely get me banned.

No mercy. No quarter. No prisoners. Eat the rich.

[bhikkhu]

19. That whole system is ridiculous

I can't imagine that the psychology involved could be anything but destructive - whether one finds suddenly, after a year of hoping otherwise, that one's work hasn't been nearly up to expectations, or whether one gets a fat check for services rendered. All eyes follow the big boss in hopes of a reward or some sign of a reward to come, desperate to perform whatever is asked, loyal and attentive as a dog to its owner.

[Lawlbringer]

20. Unfair characterization

I work in the industry and I was told that there wasn't going to be a bonus or raise. Considering I'd have to double my salary to get close to 6 digits, that came as heartbreak (especially considering my second daughter is due within the next 3 weeks). Not everyone who works in the industry is Gordon Gekko, and some have to struggle to make ends meet.

I do appreciate having a job in the first place, what with this economy and job climate, but really, the rent...is too damn high.

[gratuitous]

23. Then maybe . . . just maybe

This isn't about you?

[Lawlbringer]

25. true

They actually GOT bonuses lol

[gratuitous]

28. Sorry for the snark

But, yeah, I think it happens to just about everyone at some time or another. A group you're in or that you identify with gets some bad publicity or does something bad, and the wolves are in full baying pursuit. Not everyone working on Wall Street (in fact, it's a very small percentage) is actively looting the wealth created by labor. But it becomes a symbol for wretched excess, and that broad brush tars even the lowly factotums who don't get paid seven and eight figures annually.

What's being bruited about here are the folks who are accustomed to getting the mega-bonuses whining that the bonuses are getting cut back mostly due to heightened public scrutiny. It's tough to feel sorry for someone getting only a measly couple millions when they're used to getting several millions. And with people homeless and starving, in part because of the shenanigans of these same people gaming the system, "tough to feel sorry for" morphs quickly into "get out the guillotine, and let's visit a little real misfortune on some of these pointyheads."

[Lawlbringer]

30. "get out the guillotine, and let's visit a little real misfortune on some of these pointyheads."

is my new favorite quote.

These people don't usually get high salaries, so if you're making 65k annually, and you normally get a 10-15k bonus, it throws your whole year into disarray when you get nothing. Sure, those in the 6 figure range don't have a right to complain, but there are two sides to this.

But yeah, I understand it's hard to feel sorry for people in this industry. I was debating with someone the other day and they said I was part of the establishment because I work for a specific wall street firm. Another said I couldn't be objective about OWS because I work for the 1%. I'm conditioned to be defensive yet again, especially being half Arab and FINALLY getting over the hate that's been associated with that for 10 years. I tune out the negatives, but it's like, man, I can't catch a break. Soon I'm going to find myself posting a defensive comment in a thread mocking people with facial hair who eat too much spicy food.

[just1voice]

31. Not unfair at all, the industry leeches off the rest of us

Ever hear of bailouts? Austerity measures? Cuts to social programs? The 10-15K that someone like you doesn't get is going right into the pocket of a CEO or criminal trader and out of the pocket of the American taxpayer whom can't even afford to have 1 child.

Look at what your industry is doing via predatory capitalism, it's destroying most of the planet and you've got the gall to say it's unfair that corporate suck-ups like yourself aren't getting paid to do it?

Oh it's totally fair.

[Lawlbringer]

33. So, everyone

who works in the industry is inherently evil or a stooge?

I don't normally get the 10-15k, nor do I make close to the 65k I mentioned. Just saying that not everyone who works for a Wall Street firm is necessarily a leech who has wrecked the world. Some of us pee-ons are just doing what we have to so we can provide for our families. Mid ranged salaried workers generally make the 65k and get the 10-15k bonuses. Lower paid exempt workers like myself make far less but work a lot more. We're not the ones who whine about low bonus payouts because we aren't going to get a new Porsche, we're the ones who plan for a bonus to make or break the year and wind up getting none.

Case in point: I was assured that after not getting a raise or bonus for 4 years, I would get one this year. This eased my mind a bit considering the accidental pregnancy my wife and I happened to have, because the extra cost of diapers and formula would be too much for my regular salary in addition to our....preexisting daughter. Like Goldman, my company did horribly and now my bonus isn't coming. Yet again.

I don't deserve your ire, and neither do the people like me. But if you feel better by blindly hating everyone who works for a bank or brokerage firm, go for it.

[greytdemocrat]

21. I feel so bad for them!!!

[HughBeaumont]

24. DU-correct adjectives fail me.

Motherfuckers.

I'll take your bonus and retire in Ohio.

[Blue_Tires]

26. I'm willing to bet that lost 20 percent is more than I've made the past 5 years...

[BreweryYardRat]

34. Oh, boo-fucking-hoo.

I wasn't in any position to get a bonus. Hell, I spent last year doing shitty temp work -- when I had a job at all.

Wish that "source" had beaten his boss to death -- one less human leech in the world, and another human leech behind bars for 20 years.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go back to competing for a steady job with several hundred other applicants per position.

[Warren DeMontague]

35. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO AFFORD MY POODLE'S THERAPY NOW???

I ask you, fellow Manhattanites, IS IT FAIR?