RE: Bonus instead of raise -- why?

["John David Hickey" <jdhickey -at- sympatico -dot- ca>]

Greetings!

> > Basically, the bonus IS NOT guaranteed at all, but most of the times,
you
> > can expect to receive some type of raise. I'd rather have a 2 or 3% pay
> > increase per year than "maybe next year" bonuses.

Wow... do I hear your frustration! At my last job, we were promised 15% of
our gross pay as a bonus if we met the (impossible) deadlines. Well... the
doc dept did meet every deadline that was presented, but the delivery date
was pushed back because the devs couldn't deliver on time. We were assured
that the bonus plan was still in effect and that we would receive our
bonuses, don't worry.

When we finally did deliver the final product, the admins decided to award
the bonuses based on individual effort. I was doing two jobs at the same
time (manger and writer), so I decided to focus on writing the book.
Consequently, a few things got away from me managerially-wise.

When it came time to award the bonus money, the admins decided to evaluate
me as a manager and denied me my bonus, even though my team and I delivered
all the documentation on time.

Weasels...

> I just found out that a popular company in my neck of the woods
> pays people 30-50% of their typical salary and the rest is paid in
quarterly
> bonuses!!

Now these are people who have proven that they will deliver the bonuses as
promised. In my last company, they never promised bonuses, so the first time
they tried to do it, it was a disaster.

If a company promises you a bonus, try to find out if they've a) promised
this before and b) if they delivered on their promise before you go
installing that new pool.
--
Be seeing you,

Dave
-----------------------------------
John David Hickey
Grand Poohbah of Documentation

Montreal Techwriter Forum Moderator
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mtl_techwriter/
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/doc_guy/

This gubblick contains many nonsklarkish English flutzpahs,
but the overall pluggandisp can be glorked from the context.
-----------------------------------


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