The Holiday Bonus Thread!

When I first started at my company 5 years ago we got $50 gift card to Target. Not much but very useful. The next 3 years we got to choose an article of clothing from our corporate product catolog. This year we got a $50 gift certificate for the Honey Baked Ham Company. As a single guy that lives alone this is pretty useless. To make matter worse, the closest Honey Baked Ham store is 3 hours away. So if you wanted to get a ham you need to find a reason to drive 3 hours or order it online and pay for it to be shipped to you.

 

Holiday bonuses and I have a long history of disagreements.

Three years ago was my first holiday bonus. I was working at a job I hated, and was hoping to get something nice. Instead, I got a bag of caramel popcorn. Really. No. Really. Christmas bonus: bag of popcorn.

The next year I was still at that same company (though I'd be quitting in two months) and they decided to throw us a bone and buy us 5 $1 scratch offs (all losers) a mug, some hot chocolate and a bag of marshmallows. Fuck that company.

Last year I was working for a financial media company (ouch). I was actually pleasantly surprised when on a Saturday in January (January 10th) I checked my bank account to see if we'd been paid, and saw a $400 bonus. Not exactly a ton of money, but still a nice gesture. But that was only part one of the bonus. Part two came at 4:45 on Monday the 12th when I got laid off. Fa la la la layoffs, what a fuckin bonus.

This year I have no clue. I'd be surprised if we got nothing (last month was my birthday and they gave me a $50 Amex giftcard.) This company really takes care of employees, and our CEO isn't shy about spending money, so while I don't know exactly what to expect, I know I'll get something. And I know I'm keeping my job, which is nice.

 

My company's celebration is being whittled down year by year. In the good ole' days, everyone got to leave early and get dressed up for a Christmas party at the Peabody hotel in downtown Memphis. From what I understand, it was a really great time and everyone wore a coat and tie or dress. Live music, raffles, drawings, etc. Recently, the party was moved to our conference room at lunchtime, but there was booze and everyone got to go home early. This year we're having a luncheon in our conference center and everyone is expected to be back at their desk by 1:30 p.m. Why can't we go home? Well, we're currently without a company president so decision making is up to company executives. It's my understanding that most of the higher ups want everybody to go home except for one crippled old bastard who took it upon himself to let our branch offices know that we wouldn't be closing down early. This is a bold move for a man who only has one working leg, if you ask me.

As far as raises and bonuses go, we did not receive a raise in September when employee review time came around and we did not meet our goals for a bonus when our fiscal year ended in June. Despite all of this, I still work for a great company that many people would love to work for. My biggest fear is that once we're back on solid ground, we will not see the benefits and bonuses that we saw before this whole mess.

 

I hate all of you (ok not really). We didn't get a bonus or a raise this year. Oh, and we lose our jobs come March (and probably have to take a pay cut due to the job market). At least they're giving us severance if we stay until the end.

</bitching>

It could be much worse, I could have been falsely imprisoned for 35 years. I just have to count my blessings.

 

I've heard through the grapevine that last year people at my company were getting holiday bonuses to the tune of $6,000. I have no idea what to expect, but I have a feeling I won't be getting a bonus at all since I've been here for only 10 months and the effects of the "current economical climate" are starting to hit us.

Not that I really mind. Around this time last year I had just graduated and was unemployed. I just feel lucky to have found such a good job.

 

I have no idea what my bonus will be. The company I work for gives out its bonus at the end of February, rather than at Christmas. Its usually a percentage of your annual wages, usually around the 10% mark although some years its been as high as 23% and one year as low as 6%. If I'm still there in February my bonus will likely be put straight into the bank, as I'm still trying to keep a tight watch of the pennies while I seek a new place of residence.

 

Looks like we aren't going to get a bonus this year, but truth be told I'm just really happy that I've got a good job. I work in the construction industry, so there aren't alot of people around here that can say that, and over the last 4 years I've gotten about $1200 in bonus money, so I really can't bitch at all.
The shitty thing is that I'm broke right now, with Christmas coming next week.
I'm going to be doing some serious money crunching to make everything work over the next couple days.
We get two weeks off for the holidays and I should be straight money-wise this time next week, so I'm going to make the most of it.

Happy Kwanzaa Everybody

 

No bonus, just happy to have a job. I've never received any "holiday" bonus. Although i think I will be receiving a small % raise next year (military).

 

I get to spend Christmas in Iraq. What more could I ask for?

But seriously I know I have a job for basically as long as I want it, I mean sure i guess if I really screwed up I could get "fired" but even then I really have to try. In this day and age i know thats worth something.

 

you win.


normally they give us about $2k, but last year there was nothing for all except for a couple of us... and it was much less than previous years. I am not sure what to expect this year, last month I took my family on our first ever vacation and the boss tossed me $1500 on my way out the door.. bad ass... pretty sure that was the xmas bonus.

 

I just made E-4. I'm counting that as a Holiday bonus. Assuming things go as planned, I get another Holiday bonus next year!

 

Last Christmas I was working as a software developer, first real job out of school. I was making a lot less per year than I had hoped (read: expected) that I would make after graduating. The company was small, but offers just weren't coming in and so I took the job despite my misgivings about my salary. This mainly resulted from advice I'd received in favor of taking the job, along the lines of "Wagon, its a small company so while salaries might not be as high you can expect a lot more opportunity to impact the company and take part in profit sharing".

My Christmas bonus was a little more than fifty dollars, and I was pretty surprised (read: disgusted and feeling exceptionally entitled).

Now a year later, I've learned a lot and realize that I was lucky to have a job in the first place. Moreover, I've readjusted my attitude about "getting whats coming to me" and am now a lot more focused on how I can help the business I'm working for presently. I don't expect a Christmas bonus this year, but honestly I'll take the knowledge that I'm a lot less of a spoiled little shit than I was when I first came into the job market over an envelope full of cash*.

*Not that an envelope would be unappreciated, in addition to my life lesson.

 

This year I got a box of chocolate and two bottles of wine. (One of which comes from the Owners Vineyard and can't be sold because it is so shit).

Last year I got $2000.

Yay for changing countries and employers.

 

No Christmas bonus here, never has been, since we get our raises/bonuses at the end of July to tie in with the end of the fiscal year. That being said, our company structures our salaries on a 53 week schedule, with the 53rd check being paid out at Thanksgiving. It's more or less a Christmas club that you have no choice in joining. Methinks someone generates a decent amount of interest off that.

Anyway, no raise in July, bonus was cut by 25% from the previous year, and we just got word that our health insurance premiums will increase by 25% come the new year.

Joy to the world, muthafuckas.

 

Oh you're all going to be so jealous. The lovely t-shirt pictured below was my Christmas bonus last year. I think Jesus would've been proud. I can't wait to see what my dimwit principal comes up with this year.

On the other hand, this year I am working a second job at my old boss's new restaurant. Our regulars from years ago used to always give us overly generous tips around the holidays. This year, they've gotten very savvy. They've been coming in and giving us AMEX gift cards for the holidays and I'm certain my boss will be no exception. He's pretty excited that business is going well (knock on wood) and that many of his former employees have returned to help out. I certainly don't expect it and honestly don't care if he gives us bonuses or not--I'm just happy that he's back in business and I didn't have to tap into my other paycheck once to buy Christmas presents this year. That's fucking awesome. Yippee!

 

$3. No shit, my bonus this year is $3. In DoD, we moved (and have been subsequently removed from) to a merit-based raise / bonus structure. The amount of the raise / bonus combo is based on a percentage of your current income then split into a 70% raise increase and a 30% cash bonus. My supervisor decided that he would apply it all to salary, hey fine by me. So my Christmas bonus is $5500 raise. Much better than $1650 bonus, which is more like $1000 at the end of the day.