Christmas bonuses. Anybody get one?

We get a profit related annual bonus which is sometimes paid at Christmas.

It has varied between £500 and £2000 in the last ten years.

Nope nothing here. My Brother lives in Oslo, he tells me that all Norwegians pay no tax on their December salaries to encourage them to go and spend it in the shops or whatever. I like that idea.

I get 1% of revenue that I generate.

Get about £80 before tax. Not really sure why they continue with it tbh. Means very little to us but costs the firm a small fortune in total.

Apparently we used to until I joined and for the last two years we’ve just been ‘reinvesting in the business’ …think we’re supposed to be pleased about that but given we don’t own the business not sure why we’d care!

We don’t directly get one but we get a VERY decent Xmas party.

This year it’s at the Williams F1 centre with simulators and museum + free booze and a hotel so cant complain.

It’s not specifically for Christmas, but we get at mid year and year end, based on company performance and individual performance over the previous 6 month, this month I’ll get about 3/4 of a month worth of salary as a bonus.

I like this way of doing things compared to my old role which never had a bonus, it helps incentivise both my performance and my working towards the company performance, but it’s not so much that folk become obsessive over their performance to get big bucks. Plus because you have to live within your means on the normal monthly salary, the bonus can be put towards buying some nice stuff rather than just sucked into the mortgage! This year I’ll be getting some shiny new Sonos kit and a healthy contribution into the new bike pot 😀

a significant amount of my december workload is preventing any expenditure related to Christmas.

bonuses, parties, decorations, cards

i am rightly called scrooge.

As company director I’ll probably ward myself a healthy dividend along with giving the sole employee (me) a little extra 🙂

Hahahaha!

they’re certainly not part of normal incentive structures in this country anyway.

Problem is that incentives to work hard have reduced or eliminated almost completely over the years. Yes we should just do the job to get the standard wage we are promised but there never seems to be anything above that to show that your efforts, even when they are way above what is expected of you, are actually appreciated.

Only been here a few weeks and not aware of any Xmas-related bonus. There’s a Year End one in the offing early next year though 🙂

As someone who works in finance “bonus” payments are the prime method of rewarding/controlling the workforce. By having so much at stake come the end of the year it tends to keep staff in line/incentivised as well as reducing basic day to day costs for the employer. For example it also means if they want to get rid of people it costs less.

One of the key misunderstandings with bonus is the fact that it’s seen as an “extra”. In reality its part of the total basic pay for the job, it’s just held back

Got a 3 day trip to new york as a xmas bonus once (I was only a lowly accounts clerk at the time) – should have stuck with that company.

No bonus this year, and a xmas party at the local holiday inn… oh the joy!

As someone who works in finance “bonus” payments are the prime method of rewarding/controlling the workforce. By having so much at stake come the end of the year it tends to keep staff in line/incentivised as well as reducing basic day to day costs for the employer. bankrupting the country through ludicrous risk-taking, leading to going cap in hand to the taxpayer to save your sorry, overpaid, over-incentivised arses

FTFY 😉

I got made redundant – which to be honest, I see as a bonus 🙂

I got a letter from the taxman yesterday which I can’t really fathom but either I owe them less than usual in January or they owe me some, I need to investigate further. Either way its a win. Scotroutes, you forgot the bus pass and TV license. Presumably you’ll be available to work for free in future? Or we could just pay you in pies.

Yep paid my staff one this year since its been a year good and they have worked damn hard. About 5% of their salary. They don’t know yet 🙂 It will be a bit of a surprise for their December pay packet.

My last company did this too. Just have to get around to organising one for myself although that feels “weird” since I run the company/organise these things.

I got a £600 bonus in a place I used to work at, that was quite cool as I’d only been with the company 8 weeks, where I am now, I’m getting a bonus in January (£400) along with our normal annual bonus in April(I’ve had a promotion so that should be quite nice this time round). All accounted for unfortunately as the Mrs’s car needs replacing 🙄

One of the key misunderstandings with bonus is the fact that it’s seen as an “extra”. In reality its part of the total basic pay for the job, it’s just held back

That’s not really a misunderstanding, it’s just the way people choose to budget. It’s pretty long winded to budget in such a way that a one off bonus payment goes against normal monthly living costs, unless you bank it and drip feed it into your account on a monthly basis. So most people I know tend to budget based on their normal monthly salary, then treat the bonus as an “extra”.

We get an annual bonus in September and occasional amazon vouchers when we’ve gone above and beyond and isn’t billable to a client as OT. Fair play to them though, I’ve had a bonus every year and we floated earlier this year and still got a healthy bump.

One of the few nice things about working for a massively US centric company, they motivate with money. All they ask in return is dedication and your social life.

Can get an xmas one of 5% in a good year

Can be 10% in a very good year

In a bumper year there’s half a chance of a interim in feb

But …. It’s not a good year

Lets hope the second half of the year is better for the end of year one.

Not sure it will be, so being carefully now already.

I once joked in my annual review in a previous job that my five year plan that I wanted to get a xmas bonus, five years later I’m somewhere else…

I think we had £200 last year, which was awesome and unexpected – this year – who knows – find out next week.

When I worked in a bank I was on performance related pay – which the tabloids love to call a ‘Bonus’ I once earned a £20k payment, but I was paid in March based on the previous years performance, that was exceptional, it was usually half that.

Back when I owned my own company we used to pay a small Christmas bonus (couple of hundred quid or so) but I don’t recall ever getting one as an employee.

@tenacious – not in finance or indeed in other businesses (law / advertising etc). For example if you are a top earner your total compensation might be £2 million. You’ll probably have a £200k salary and £1.8m bonus.

@binners I think you let me off lightly there, a combination of Christmas and it being a Friday I suspect.

Work for an Employee Benefit Trust (like what John Lewis is) which means the profit we earn gets put back into the company, including a nice little bonus for the people that earned it.

Wish more companies were EBTs and not PLC etc.

Pigface – Member
No
Same here……

And I just sent an email to my bosses which showed I recovered £180k for them

I think you work for the same quango as me. I directly saved £910k on a single project this year.

Yep, still not been paid our 1% pay rise cut (for the 5th year running.)

Our Christmas meal is today but it’s £25, a few of us just can’t afford to go.

🙄

Science research at a uno/ cancer institute so no

But they try and be nice by giving us extra holiday etc, which is good
And this place have a paid for Xmas party which is nice, even though i m not sure I’ll go

when I started working here I had a final salary, good wage increments and bonuses

all gone thanks to a succession of useless CEOs

Did do, occasionally if things were going ok (small startup).

Not every year at all, and not really around Christmas time (in case there was no cash by year-end). It was usually across the board flat rate which was good, so the secretary got – proportion to income – a shed load more than the directors.

Now – self-employed. Occasional bonus still but not by any means every year. When they do arrive though it’s nice.

For the time I’ve worked at my current place, 10 years, yes. An incredibly healthy one too. Used to be way more when the company were doing really well but in the last few years its been a grand or so.

I understand I am very lucky!!

Shame the gaffers don’t gamble on horses like they used to, as that meant bringing the biscuit tin back in full of notes which were handed out.

Not for us. We get paid before Christmas rather than at the end of the month so there’s a bit more money in the bank account than normal at that point in the month but it’s then a long wait til January pay day.

There is sometimes a bonus after the end of the financial year (April) but eligibility and the calculation are far from transparent.

our place now offers a ‘health bonus’ at christmas – £200 if you’re not off work more than one day in the year. previously everyone got £50 vouchers for john lewis no matter how hard you worked or days you were ill… i’ve been off sick 3 days over the whole of this year (legitimate, honest guv) so get nothing, even though i’ve busted a gut the rest of the time – but why should i feel pressured to go in when i feel like shit like some muppets do, just for a little bit of cash? funnily enough quite a high turnover of staff…

only had one job with a proper bonus, which was at worst £500 and at best about £1100

@gazc – that’s most bizarre, encouraging people to come in when they are sick, passing colds to everyone in the office ?

Yep.

However, as the old joke goes, what’s the difference between your bonus and your…….

at’s most bizarre, encouraging people to come in when they are sick, passing colds to everyone in the office ?

Discouraging those from going sick because they have a bit of a cold seems reasonable to me.

For the first time since the GFC, everyone who works for us got a bonus last year and this year it’s double what it was last. Long may that trend continue.

nope, never had one, probably never will.

if i had a time-machine, my first stop would be 1994 – to punch my careers advisor straight up his bracket.

This.

Used to get them (3 months pay or thereabouts) in a horrible job working with horrible people

Now I’m a stay at home dad I’ll get a bottle of craft ale and a home baked cookie from the children

😀