Microblog Memes

Former job, I had to be the bearer of bad news to a team of 10+ employees that they all were not getting bonuses and no raises. I really fought upper management went directly to the CEO, who by the way all did get bonuses/raises. I got a raise and bonus as well probably to keep me complacent. This was one of our better profit years, so it made absolutely no sense to do a freeze.

So I decided since I couldn't get anyone above to reason. I instead told my team it was bullshit and exactly why in each of there reviews, even though I was given a script and explicitly told not tell them more than that. I told them that they should start looking for a new jobs and I'll help anyway I could. Told them honestly that this was probably a tactic to push some of them out without firing them and replace them with lower wage workers, I wasn't told that but I knew.

Worst year of my life. I left as quickly as I could myself. When I left they offered me a significant raise to stay, they were literal villains so I obviously said no.

Some of my team unfortunately stuck it out and got fired over petty shit months after I left. 2 years later they were all gone and replaced with low wage college interns. I hated myself because I was their shield for over 10 years and finally lost, as soon as I was gone they had no one to fight for them.

I don't know if there is a moral to this story, the bad guys technically won.

Guess a take away is unless your company is struggling and the management also takes cuts or freezes, no one below them should. Don't stay.

I got $100 and a video from a bunch of dead-eyed execs I've never seen before in my entire life thanking me for all the hard work that I do. I'd almost have rather just gotten nothing at all.

More accurate caption: Someone saw a movie about some people who expected a bonus and didn't get one. And from that they got the weird idea that most people in the 80's got bonuses.

I don't know what movie that's from, but sorry to tell you as someone who was there: No, most people in most jobs didn't get bonuses in the 80's or any other time. It was the same as today--only certain kinds of management types or financial sector types got bonuses. I've had some pretty decent jobs and never got a bonus and no one thought they'd get one.

Edit to Update: Yes, of course I know that some jobs gave bonuses. My point is that the post's entire raison d'etre is the incorrect assertion that bonuses were something that everyone, or most people, routinely expected to get in the 80's and that those people sure had it easy compared to people today. That is not the case at all. Most jobs didn't give you a bonus back then either.

And BTW kids, this isn't the first time there's ever been inflation either.. Look up inflation rates in the mid-late 70's and early 80's. A lot worse than now.

In France we have the "thirteenth month" as we call it. I never had one, but in that latest job they announced having one, so I was rather chuffed to finally discover the practice and asked them about it during the interview. "so you gonna give me a full month salary bonus at the end of the year?" cue a long, convoluted explanation... which boiled down to "no, we just shuffle shit around so you get more in December, no extra money, really".

But it just shows how ingrained that idea of a Christmas bonus is.

Just got informed last week that we didn't meet the qualifications to get a bonus this year.

The qualifications they didn't tell us about.

The qualifications that we have no control over.

No bonus because people higher in the chain didn't meet specific goals. (Pretty sure they are still getting a bonus because rank.)

I won't meet the qualifications next year because I'll be working somewhere else. The pay is low because bonuses make up for it (supposedly).

A company I worked for laid off an entire site a week before Christmas. Assholes couldn't wait 2 more weeks, they had to ruin their holidays.

And the cop was on his side too.

I've been part of a workforce in one way or another for over 30 years and I've never gotten a year end bonus. Not that I can recall ever getting at least.

Eh, Clark was rich, even by the standards of the time. He had a posh executive position. He was easily in the top 10%, probably more like the top 5%. You saw what kind of neighbors he had. He was well off enough that he was going to spend his entire annual bonus on a swimming pool in a place that snows half the year.

Not only a bonus, but a bonus big enough to get a pool.

… a white middle class family …

Have literally never gotten a holiday bonus

Closest I ever got to having one is having Christmas as a paid day off

Edit: And I've been told that Christmas Eve is a working day this year, and Christmas is now only paid as a reward for those who work 30 hours in a week, and this comes on the heels of "Btw, we're cutting your hours and if you work over this amount, you are fired.", meaning it's an unobtainable prize.

Bonuses are typically tied in as a salary expectation. If you have a job good enough that you expect a bonus then its dictated in the terms of your employment. Its usually some amount like 10-15% of your salary based on performance review along with a multiplier for the company's overall performance. Companies use this as incentive while giving dirt annual raises. Not getting a bonus when its expected as part of your salary is definitely getting the shaft. Clark has every reason to be pissed.