Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 72 total)
  • Christmas bonus…
  • Albanach
    Free 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?

    Liftman
    Full Member

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

    Northwind
    Full 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.

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    donsimon
    Free 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.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

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

    fadda
    Full Member

    Discretionary means exactly that – no entitlement at all.

    I think liftman has it…

    stugus
    Free Member

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

    TheFlyingOx
    Full 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”.

    Popocatapetl
    Full 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.

    KonaTC
    Full 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

    RobHilton
    Free 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 **** 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?)

    Zulu-Eleven
    Free 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.

    neilsonwheels
    Free Member

    What’s a Christmas bonus.?

    matt22
    Free 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

    aracer
    Free 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?

    grantway
    Free 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.

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    This yr I’ll be getting a stately home!
    **** hall!

    mikewsmith
    Free 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

    john_drummer
    Free 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

    Lifer
    Free Member

    +1 Wrightyson, although **** Hall was far too much I’m in the gate house 🙁

    allyharp
    Full 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.

    clubber
    Free 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.

    oneoneoneone
    Free 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.

    project
    Free Member

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

    Weasel
    Free 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!

    weare138
    Free Member

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

    donsimon
    Free Member

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

    RustyMac
    Full 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.

    Crell
    Free 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.

    gsp1984
    Free 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

    MrSalmon
    Free 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

    DezB
    Free 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.

    tonyg2003
    Full 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.

    druidh
    Free 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%?

    druidh
    Free 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.

    aracer
    Free 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% – yeah that’s completely out of order. Or are you one of those unfortunate people who gets made to pay 40%? Struggling to buy that new Porsche after the taxman’s had his bite?

    Maybe you’d like to explain why they shouldn’t tax your bonus in the same way as any of your other earnings?

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    private sector – always whining 🙄

    matt22
    Free Member

    I with aracer those bastards that have bettered themselves and got good jobs smash them with 40% tax and teach the nation its not worth making anything of yourself

    mattbee
    Full Member

    My Christmas bonus is still having a job in 2012….

    Albanach
    Free Member

    Cheers for the replies having thought about it some more it’s not going to get me anywhere raising it and will more than likely not do me any favours in the long run.

    As Rusty Mac says maybe one of the lads will buy me a pint or a scone from the canteen instead 🙂 Love the tag BTW

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 72 total)

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