51–60 of 684 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And the one quarter, we didn't get the max bonus. In fact, I don't think we got it all. Was there a clear reason for this? Given how it’s framed, it sounds like there wasn’t.
Yeah it was clear, it was because the total company profit didn't meet the internal target, but that hadn't happened ever in the history of the company, so people were surprised.
When I worked at eBay, we had a bonus program based on company revenue. It was around 6% of your salary max and managers got around 25% max based on the same formula. For the first few years, you could count on getting a max bonus every quarter. To the point where most everyone who worked there had always gotten one. And the one quarter, we didn't get the max bonus. In fact, I don't think we got it all. People scream…
If i recall the same happened when google replaced their holiday gift phone with donation to some charities they picked.
When I worked at eBay, we had a bonus program based on company revenue. It was around 6% of your salary max and managers got around 25% max based on the same formula. For the first few years, you could count on getting a max bonus every quarter. To the point where most everyone who worked there had always gotten one. And the one quarter, we didn't get the max bonus. In fact, I don't think we got it all. People scream…
I've been at places where you get bonuses and me and the wife always call it "magic money". We don't bank on it and we try to pay down debt or invest it.
> "$25,000 was not enough money to retire on for sure, even in 1996." $25,000 in 1996 is $42,000 in 2021. Seems like a modest incentive for top tech talent, even back then. * To respond to the comment below, the author had been working as a hardware systems engineer at headquarters for 10 years by 1996.
Top tech talent, even in software, weren’t making the kind of money they are today. Top new grads going to the hottest employers could hope to make $50,000 all in (not counting stock options paying off down the road). $100,000 in guaranteed comp was all but unheard of for ICs. Programming was not yet at the doctor/lawyer level, much less the banker one. That started to change in the dotcom frenzy but that was still a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah it was clear, it was because the total company profit didn't meet the internal target, but that hadn't happened ever in the history of the company, so people were surprised.
Was it because the target was set unrealistically high or because the company underperformed?
> "$25,000 was not enough money to retire on for sure, even in 1996." $25,000 in 1996 is $42,000 in 2021. Seems like a modest incentive for top tech talent, even back then. * To respond to the comment below, the author had been working as a hardware systems engineer at headquarters for 10 years by 1996.
Given that a number of “achievement” awards are in the < 5k realm today at major tech companies, I think this should be compared to those, not annual bonuses. So in Google terms this is like an outsized spot bonus opportunity with clear (flawed) rules.
There was a ‘crunch’ coming up at work (i.e. IMHO, bad planning) and so the boss offered everyone a bonus if they performed well.
However, the older employees warned me that the criteria for such bonuses were often ill-defined. I therefore pushed for clear achievable objectives. These pre-agreed objectives were promised, but never provided.
Anyway, we all work hard, some more than others, but we met all the deadlines.
Then comes bonus time, and they propose that I be given 30% of the maximum bonus. I explained that I felt this was entirely unreasonable, as I met all my deadlines. No other objectives were set, and therefore I felt I deserved the full bonus.
They didn’t agree, and we went three rounds of meetings with more and more people in the meeting. Each time they tried to convince me what I was asking for was unreasonable.
At this point I should add that I had seen this boss (CEO, small company) be what I would now call abusive. Verbally abusive to junior staff members, and insulting members of staff behind their backs. So my loyalty was, well, absent.
So on the third round of weirdly manipulative meetings, we come to an impasse. So I explained that I still stand by my request, and I pulled out my letter of resignation.
At which point there is a long silence. My boss puts his head in his, and the other two people in the meeting (another boss, and my coworker) looked surprised, to put it mildly.
After collecting his thoughts, my boss asks: what is to stop me threatening to resign every time I don’t get my way? To which I calmly explain that he didn’t have to pay (Ie. I could just quit).
After a bit more stunned silence, the boss relents, and agrees to give me the full bonus.
I wait until the bonus is in my account then I hand in my notice anyway. Abusive bosses don’t get loyalty.
The best part is, the coworker in the meeting also didn’t get the full bonus, despite working much harder than me. He’d only asked her into the meeting to try to guilt/manipulate me. So not only did the boss have to give me the full bonus, he had to do the same for her too.
After that I went freelance. And 15 years later I can say it was the best decision ever.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah it was clear, it was because the total company profit didn't meet the internal target, but that hadn't happened ever in the history of the company, so people were surprised.
Was it because the target was set unrealistically high or because the company underperformed?
Even years later, there was still bitterness among the employee base about the holiday gift. It was a bit mystifying to me (as I never had the expectation of a $400 electronic for a holiday gift from my employer), but really shows the power of anchoring. Once people have an expectation for some reward or benefit, any downward deviation from that expectation is met with great distress.
When I worked at eBay, we had a bonus program based on company revenue. It was around 6% of your salary max and managers got around 25% max based on the same formula. For the first few years, you could count on getting a max bonus every quarter. To the point where most everyone who worked there had always gotten one. And the one quarter, we didn't get the max bonus. In fact, I don't think we got it all. People scream…