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Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

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Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#171

Post by beardbandit »

ccortes wrote: post #39

Oh man I hate bonuses so much. At my last job we had a monthly bonus that made up to 33% of our total income. These were based on certain KPIs we had to achieve. The thing is, everyone can cheat the KPIs. Even more so if such a big part of your income relies on it. I also felt they killed creativity and intellectual freedom completely. You were not able anymore to work on something else that you'd consider more impor…

I've had my variable annual bonus converted into a permanent salary increase.

I will say I like this a lot more.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#172

Post by alienthrowaway »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #128

This reminds me of a story back around that time about a guy who was, like, employee 200 at Amazon. He goes to the can, and sees a vestment sheet for the early employees, and realizes that he’s been hired just after people were getting stock grants. Just just prior to him are shortly to become millionaires, and he’s sitting there with a regular job. He quit because of the inequity, and did a tour with this story as a…

There is something buried deeply in our minds that recoils at being treated unfairly. I have a good job, the pay is decent, the work is interesting - but I'm in the process of looking for a different job because I didn't get a promotion. Some junior members on my team did get them though, and it feels unfair (I absolutely have no idea if they don't deserve it, and I like them as team mates). However, I had previously talked to my about the promotion, set the targets, and went above and beyond to meet those ambitious targets.

I've introspected a bit, and I admit it's weird reaction - nothing changed about my job, except knowing my colleagues were being recognized and getting something I am not. The perverse thing is, if no one got a promotion, I wouldn't be this pissed.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#173

Post by heyoni »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #167
whack wrote: post #94

I see a lot of comments bemoaning performance-based bonuses, but consider the following: > I remember being in shouting matches with our signal integrity team about among other things, how many capacitors we needed. These tiny devices evened out the power of the system, but they wanted far too many to be added to allow the design cheap and easy to build > Meanwhile I was waking up at 4AM on most days, in full-stress-…

Your "skin in the game" should not be arbitrarily tied to a metric/achievement that is not under your control or else working to the same objectives. If manufacturing have no motivation to go faster, I have no control over their speed, and I know they'll just take as long as the schedule allows? then screw it, getting it to them early won't help me get my bonus. Now, if manufacturing was also getting a bonus dependen…

It sucks but you can't just get bonuses for trying hard, especially when your company is on the verge of collapse or getting bought up for scraps. It's not always fair but in this case, the OP was still getting a good salary. They decided to take a risk together with their employer and it didn't pan out as well as they'd have liked.

Happens all the time.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#174

Post by Proven »

taeric wrote: post #168
kbenson wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It sets obvious precedent and will upset more folks when you stop. Isn't another solution to make perks not variable, and clearly outlined in the contract as part of the employment package? You only have to worry about what your employees will do if you take away a perk when it's actually something you can consider taking away. If you treat it as part of the guaranteed compensation, you'll budget for it accordingly…

This is what I meant by working it into raises. Investing in workers is investing in the company.

they can leave. it's a risky investment

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#175

Post by dan-robertson »

suifbwish wrote: post #140
dan-robertson wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The typical startup problem like the above is a more extreme example of people mailing it in until bonuses are out: people mailing it in until the startup is acquired or goes public because the company is doing well and they lose their shares/options if they quit

Don’t EVER work for a company that will take your shares if you quit. It’s a psychological trap and you are the prey. Any startup owner that strips your stake if you leave deserves to become the personal target of an obsessive and vindictive IRS auditor.

Generally I think the trade is that you can keep the stock if you quit but you don’t have stock. You have options that expire if you quit, so if you want the stock you must pay a lot of money to exercise the options, and you then pay tax based on gaining a high value of stock (potentially more tax than you could afford) even though its real is quite undetermined.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#176

Post by thyrsus »

mulmen wrote: post #65
dilyevsky wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If i recall the same happened when google replaced their holiday gift phone with donation to some charities they picked.

Wait what? Who gets the tax break there?

Obliquely relevant question: can U.S. sole proprietors make expensed charitable contributions? I'm guessing not, because that would decrease the 13.5% Social Security "contribution", and would be on top of the "standard deduction" that was increased to make Schedule A itemization preferable only in exceptional cases.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#177

Post by hrocha1 »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #87
hrocha1 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step 1. create a charity that would "adopt" Google employees and give them Pixel phones Step 2. choose that charity and pick yourself for an adoption

Step 0: remember that people have been creating scam charities for a long time, so the IRS looks for it, knows more than you do about it, and does not like it.

It was just a joke. I'm not from US and have no idea how any of this work :)

To me the whole idea of a gift where the employer donates money to charities in a name of a employee seems like "The Human Fund" sketch from Seinfeld rather than anything that would actually exist in a real world.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#178

Post by dilyevsky »

sneak wrote: post #162
tjr225 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m back at a more traditional company after being at a startup for two years and the unlimited PTO was amazing. It wasn’t passive aggressive at all and now I sit here one my hands waiting to accumulate enough pto to take an extended break.

It wasn't unlimited though. If startups will let you take 4 weeks, or 8 weeks, or 12 weeks, or whatever - they should simply publish that up front. I am fairly certain that they would have had an issue with you taking 52 weeks of paid vacation time off per year. The actual policy number is somewhere between 2 and 52. I agree that 2 weeks of PTO for an employee per year is too little, but I think we are talking about…

When employer says “unlimited” they actually mean “take as many as you like as long as your manager is happy with your work” so I doubt you can formalize that in the offer. It’s good deal tho for people who can deliver the goods

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#179

Post by taf2 »

bsder wrote: post #122
taf2 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited China in 2000 and remember one night in Beijing I very poor sad little came up to me asking for help for food and I handed her 5 dollars. As I recall at the time the little ones always were asking for “one dollar” so i felt it very nice to give 5... after an hour or so eating in the restaurant when I came out a literal sea of children were gathered all around me begging for the same gift... I had given the…

> very poor sad little came up to me asking for help Never give to beggars. Ever. For any reason. If you just feel you must give, give food --something that can't be converted to cash. Nothing pisses off "beggars" faster than giving them a sandwich. 1) Most of the time it's a scam. Often the individual isn't really that badly off or, if they're children, the money is being skimmed by adults. 2) A lot of the time it's…

Yup , yup and yup... 20 years ago many lessons learned
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