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Christmas bonus...

72 posts & 55 voices | Started 5 months ago by Albanach | Latest reply from allyharp

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Albanach - Member

I may or may not get flamed by the masses given the economic climate etc for this but the company I work for have just given out a christmas bonus to all staff except any members of staff who joined the company in 2011 (like me incidentally).

Now the bonus is given entirely at the company's discretion and it does state this in my contract but does not state a minimum employment period for entitlement as confirmed by HR. The amount can also vary from person to person as decided by the directors of the company.

I am more aggrieved about not being given a 'proper' reason why I have not received the bonus, other than you joined this year, than receiving the bonus itself (although the extra money at this time of year would be very handy). I have been told by HR if I want to discuss this with my manager or my department director I can do - would you go ahead and discuss this matter further or just accept it and move on?

Posted 5 months ago #
Liftman - Member

Accept it and move on unless you want to single yourself out as a troublemaker

Posted 5 months ago #
Northwind - Member

Tricky one... Depends on your manager really, do you feel you can discuss it without creating problems? It's very unlikely to achieve much but personally I'd want to get it in the open and clear the air- as long as I could trust my boss.

Posted 5 months ago #
don simon - Member

I'd be kicking off bad style. I assume your input is counted the same as employees who started before 2011. They're taking the piss in a big way.

Posted 5 months ago #
deadlydarcy - Member

If it's not just you, then I'd keep shtum.

Posted 5 months ago #
fadda - Member

Discretionary means exactly that - no entitlement at all.

I think liftman has it...

Posted 5 months ago #
stugus - Member

I'd suck it up and get on with it, I think saying anyone who started in 2011 is reason enough.

Posted 5 months ago #
The Flying Ox - Member

It seems a bit odd that you get nowt. We get our bonus in April 2012. I started in August this year, so I get 66% of the full bonus.

I'd have a word if you could be sure you won't get your name on "the list".

Posted 5 months ago #
Popocatapetl - Member

The clue is in "Given entirely at the companies discretion". you have no grounds to challenge that. ( Unless you don't want a bonus next year as well!) Merry Xmas.

Posted 5 months ago #
Kona TC - Member

Suck it up, no bonus, no pay rise for two years and lucky not to have a brown envelope with a P60 in it

merry bloody christmas

Posted 5 months ago #
Rob Hilton - Member

When I contracted at the evil AT&T our manager & the girl who kissed his ass & did no work were the only perms in our "team" of 10. Come bonus time he gathered us into an office to tell us about the profit share the perms would be getting whilst the contractors got nothing.

He claimed he was told he had to!
Which could be true, but he was a **** and I wouldn't have been too surprised if he'd just done it to piss us off. Either way someone made the decision...

Also, after many months of much hard work (some of the most productive being on 2/3rds of what some of the less able were getting paid) we were told a perm position had opened on our "team" and and that existing team members couldn't apply!

What a wanky way to run a company! Nearly everyone I knew there hated the place and got shat on daily, but there were financial rewards that kept them taking the shit they were given.

[/rant]

Edit: On topic - suck it up; you won't do any good being a moaning myrtle (how's that for a cultural reference then, eh?)

Posted 5 months ago #
Zulu-Eleven - Member

Depends when in 2011 you joined

February, then I would say its fair to expect a little - if you joined in September, you're having a laugh.

Posted 5 months ago #
neilsonwheels - Member

What's a Christmas bonus.?

Posted 5 months ago #
matt22 - Member

Thats a nice way for a company to make one of their employies feel unwelcome and unappreciated. A christmas bonus should be given with the spirit its intended, no discression means theres nothing to stop them. I would raise my feelings with my manager, its little things like this that annoy good workers who get on with things and dont normaly say anything. Sometimes you have to say how you feel

Posted 5 months ago #
aracer - Member

What grounds do you think you have to complain about not getting a discretionary bonus, when the grounds for getting one or not appears to be perfectly even handed and non-discriminatory? Should the person who joined last week get a bonus? The person who joined last month?

Posted 5 months ago #
grantway - Member

Best thing is to ask them But I would approach your manager.

Hard one to be left out. But I give out such bonuses has a thank you
and people whom have say been with me for a short time have been
given something but not nothing.

Posted 5 months ago #
wrightyson - Member

This yr I'll be getting a stately home!
Fook hall!

Posted 5 months ago #
mikewsmith - Member

been srewed both ways for them (leaving & starting) and just had to get on with it, worth having a quick word with your boss to suss out the situation/liklehood - not worth the hassle of being labeled the "I know what I'm entitled to" guy in the office

Posted 5 months ago #
john_drummer - Member

never mind. if you're still there next year you can look down on the 2012 joiners & be entitled to feel smug about the christmas bonus that you're getting and they are not

Posted 5 months ago #
Lifer - Member

+1 Wrightyson, although Fook Hall was far too much I'm in the gate house

Posted 5 months ago #
allyharp - Member

Sounds a bit unfair of the company to exclude everyone who joined even at the start of the year, but there has to be a line somewhere I guess.
What it boils down to though is that it's discretionary, so personally I'd swallow it and move on.

Posted 5 months ago #
clubber - Member

When did you join? Less than 6 months ago and you'd be taking the proverbial.

Otherwise if you can justify why you reasonably should get a bonus talk to your manager in a reasonable way ideally with facts and figures and maybe suggest a prorata bonus to reflect your reduced input compared to the longer serving staff. Nothing wrong with asking. Just don't sulk if as is likely you don't get your way.

Posted 5 months ago #
oneoneoneone - Member

my firm dont give a xmas bonus and we had to pay for our own xmas dinner (once we all said we would go they then informed us it will be £25 per head can we have a deposit)

great!! they only employ 8 people.

Posted 5 months ago #
project - Member

If you dont like tyhe rules theyve applied, move or resign, and set up your own comapny and then make equally good rules.

Posted 5 months ago #
Weasel - Member

In my previous role at work my quarterly bonus was held back even though I had met my financial target. The ops director stated some other reason for not paying me (as he was trying manage me out at the time).

I went to HR and stated the company could not go changing the bonus criteria as and when they felt like it, and as I was on a final written, if I was poorly performing why not adresses this 'issue' and also have the decency to tell me the reasons I wasn't going to be paid that quarters bonus.

I was then given a typical middle of the road response from HR and bonus paid the next month.

Up the workers!

Posted 5 months ago #
weare138 - Member

We got given a bottle of Blue Nun one year and have received nothing since.

Posted 5 months ago #
don simon - Member

*makes mental note on who to work for and who to avoid*

Posted 5 months ago #
Rusty Mac - Member

I wouldn't say anything, there could be alot of reasons why staff that joined in the last year dont qualify - bonus use to encorage staff to stay longer with the company, last year was particularly tough and no one got a bonus this is to make it up to thoes that stuck it out, payroll can do basic maths of adding up hours and multiplying by figure x but fractions of a bounus are beyond them.

Suck it up and hope one of your work mates feels sorry for you and buys you a pint.

Posted 5 months ago #
Crell - Member

Pretty common policy. Write to your HR Director to share your concerns and become instantly popular.

I am more aggrieved about not being given a 'proper' reason

Define proper? Seems proper and reasonable to me.

Now the bonus is given entirely at the company's discretion and it does state this in my contract

I guess your contribution so far has slipped under the radar of the Directors who are responsible for awarding it.

Posted 5 months ago #
gsp1984 - Member

Our fiscal year is end of October. If your not employed from the start of the fiscal year you don't get a bonus at some place.

Where I work you get it pro-rata.

If it's any concilation I got 4.5% instead of 15% because of a clerical area in Decembers pay check January's payrises better be good lol

Posted 5 months ago #
MrSalmon - Member

Sounds a bit unfair of the company to exclude everyone who joined even at the start of the year, but there has to be a line somewhere I guess.
What it boils down to though is that it's discretionary, so personally I'd swallow it and move on.

+1

Posted 5 months ago #
DezB - Member

A bonus seems to be of more benefit to the bloody taxman than it does to normal folk. Absolutely f-in ridiculous how much of the bonus amount is paid as tax.

Posted 5 months ago #
tonyg2003 - Member

Luckily in this present economic climate everyone in my company gets the same amount (post tax - a decent amount too) of Xmas bonus whether they are the CEO or the part time folks who work in the shipping department. You get the bonus if you have just started or worked there since we started. It's a bit of a hidden secret - no-one tells the newbie's until it's paid - always a great moment. A few years ago we had one lady from shipping come in to tell the CEO that the company had made a mistake payment to her bank account. She'd only had a £20 gift voucher in 15yrs at her previous company.

Posted 5 months ago #
druidh - Member

DezB - Member
A bonus seems to be of more benefit to the bloody taxman than it does to normal folk. Absolutely f-in ridiculous how much of the bonus amount is paid as tax.
20%?

Posted 5 months ago #
druidh - Member

I've been in a similar situation. Basically, the rules were that you had to be there the whole year or you got nowt. If the same rules apply to all employees, it's hardly unfair.

Posted 5 months ago #

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