The vanishing holiday bonus/ CSMonitor

[TexasLawyer]

from the November 27, 2006 edition

The vanishing holiday bonus

Year-end cash seems to be going the way of the fruitcake,
replaced by gift cards and performance-based awards.

By Marilyn Gardner | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

As Christmas approached two years ago, Valerie Bent was looking forward to the sizable semiannual bonus she and her colleagues always received at the investor relations firm where she was a vice president. Although their salaries ranked far below industry standards, the company paid out 90 percent of its profits to its staff as a bonus.

But this time Ms. Bent and other employees received a shock: Despite the most profitable six-month period in the company's 30-year history, and contrary to everyone's expectations, managers reneged on the bonus. "The company elected to take that money and open plush offices in West Los Angeles and New York," she says. "We were left with zero."

Although her experience may be unusual because it came without warning, it symbolizes the growing uncertainty in some quarters surrounding bonuses. In many companies, the year-end bonus is becoming a quaint memory of earlier times, when an extra envelope from payroll in December was an almost certain reward for everyone in a firm.

"We're seeing the holiday bonuses disappear," says Brian Drum, president of Drum Associates in New York.

<snip>



http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1127/p12s01-wmgn.html

[Target_For_Exterm]

1. Corporate greed has taken over. Screw the employees is

the rule of the day.

[zbdent]

8. Remember, "Greed is good"

that's always the mantra of the Repukes ...

[RoyGBiv]

2. One of my "favorite" tactics ...

A lot of companies spend much of the year pushing the idea that end-of-the-year bonuses will be based on a percentage of positive cash-flow at the end of the 4th quarter. They build entire programs around it, reducing costs, increasing sales ... snitching on your veteran co-worker who made some personal copies with the office copy machine and got fired, demoted, or just had his or her salary reduced because of it, all in the name of reducing costs and increasing the positive balance.

Then during the 4th quarter, the company uses its positive balance to shell out bonuses for executives, furnish offices with fancy, but unneeded, new equipment or furniture, etc. Amazingly, by the end of the year the positive cash-flow has evaporated to just slightly below the level that would have allowed for a payout to front-line employees according to the original plan.

And then the next year it starts all over again, apologies and excuses given ... and all the new people fall for it completely, and all the veterans get jaded and either quit or perform lower than to standards and get moved or fired.

Wonderful racket.

My end-of-the-year bonus is (and always has been whenever I've actually had one) based on unused time off. I can cash-in about a week's salary at the end of the year as long as I don't get sick or take "too much" vacation.

[Skittles]

3. join the real world

for most of us, bonuses have either never existed or ceased some time ago

[Sherman A1]

7. Agreed

Bonuses exist in a few places, but when they do, they are hardly fair and pretty much are just a carrot on the end of a stick to wave in front of the eyes of the workers.

[undergroundpanther]

4. When will the rich be forced to

pony up for what they take from society(which is WAY more than everyone else)?
The get the best fruits of all, and they pay no significant taxes, they give nothing back, and don't even THANK the people that made them rich with a bonus. I say that is being a PIG. Far past time to pull the rich piggies out of the feed trough and make BBQ of them before they consume us all.

When will people act in solidarity and say ENOUGH.And force these rich pigs to give back instead of the workers being taken for chumps cowed by fear and social atomization, caused by working all the time..as in no time to organize?

[Missy Vixen]

5. We haven't seen one for years

My best "holiday bonus" story, though, occurred almost thirteen years ago.

DH was working for a software startup that will go unnamed. My husband was in tech support. He had one day off in two years, and carried a beeper for that entire period of time. Everyone at this company was putting in 80+ hour weeks to make sure the company survived. Marriages were hitting the rocks, other employees' spouses brought their young kids to the office in the afternoon so Mom or Dad could actually see the child for a few precious minutes. Things were generally insane.

The holiday party that year was quite an occasion. It had been intimated that there would be a "very special event" taking place, and the scuttlebutt was that the event was financial. Better be present. The company was now firmly in the black, so it could be a very Merry Chri$tmas for everyone involved.

The president/CEO of the company was a wealthy man in his own right that thought nothing of calling staff members at 3 a.m. and screaming at them over some unavoidable issue. When dinner was over, he got to his feet and announced that as of that moment, the company had $20 million in the bank and was acquiring business faster than they'd ever anticipated. Things looked good. He then announced that after a lot of thought, he'd decided it would be "wrong" to give a holiday bonus. He'd calculated the amount of the bonuses he would have given, and written a check that afternoon to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for the full amount. I've never seen a reaction quite like the one I saw at a corporate event. Ever. Ever. The rank and file employees were very upset, but the executives were the ones who basically pinned the guy to the wall of the room and demanded an immediate explanation. The party broke up fairly quickly afterwards.

While it's a laudable thing to donate a sum of money to a children's charity, the way he went about this is still being laughed about with those we still know that worked for that company.

Julie

[nashville_brook]

6. my CEO got a 400% raise and all i got was this lousy gift card

the rest of the article is a hoot. phffft.

[RebelOne]

9. Year-end bonus? What's that?

The only bonus my company gives out is a catered luncheon for its employees. And this is a large multi-billion dollar corporation. I'm sure that all their top executives are given bonuses, though.

[blogslut]

10. I once worked in a restaurant

...where, at the xmas party, the owner gave us all a bottle of wine and informed us the place would be closed for two weeks while he and the wife went to Europe for the holidays. What a prince.

[Tyler Durden]

11. Bonus? Sick time? What are those?

My outfit pays no sick days, and writes you up for an "occurance" if you DO get sick or one of your KIDS gets sick and you have to take them to the doctor. Too many "occurances" and it's ADIOS TONTO AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON.

Other "joys" of working here: Mileage POV paid: $0.25/mile vs $0.41 (National average)
First year, 3 days VACA.
401k match: ZIP.
FOUR late meetings (lasting after 6pm) for me this quarter alone.
Our "bonus" was a $10 gift card to "Super K-Mart" at Thanksgiving.

[Javaman]

12. Okay call me kooky, but isn't a bonus something that is just that

a bonus? Meaning, it's not a something you get automatically?

Granted, greedy corps that could easily give out bonuses and choose not to are scum, but given the fact that it is a type of reward a business gives to their employees, it's up to them to choose whether or not to give them out. It's not required.

So we can scream all we want but the fact is, we have become complacent with the idea of getting a bonus that we now feel that we deserve it for no other reason than it's just a matter of fact.

Personally, I never plan for one nor do I ever expect one, so if I get one, it's a nice surprise.

Planning for one is like planning on tomorrows fishing catch. You can plan for it but it doesn't mean it's gonna happen.