Regarding Christmas Bonuses

JOhnH said:
I understand your points because I used to work for a company where I could pull down around 30% performance bonus. But I suspect that both of us had jobs with a lot more influence on the bottom than these hourly people have. They are well paid even though only one of them has more than a high school education. Plus, this is just a Christmas bonus. They also get other performance bonuses. This is a gift from me and my wife that they get even when the company is losing money.
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It certainly changes things if this is a Christmas gift rather than their one and only annual performance bonus...as other posters above have suggested, could you give the gift in a different form, such as a gift card? It may be deemed a little impersonal if it's only a different amount on the salary statement..?
 
Flying Viking said:
With all due respect, I would not say thanks for such a paltry bonus. One extra week = 1/52 or less than 2% of the annual salary.

Just my 2 percent cents...
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Thank you. You just reminded me that I am not required to give any bonus at all.
 
I am the director of a non-profit, and I do give out a very meager Christmas bonus to my employees (which is actually coming from the approval of my board of directors). My staff seems extremely appreciative, and almost everybody thanks me personally (most of the staff I get to give the bonus to personally; some come in after I leave for the day) and I'm pretty sure the rest email me a thank-you. Several also ask me to tell the board thank-you as well. And I thank them as I pass them out (I write each a personal card that says specifically how they've helped the agency over the year.)

Personally, if it's $5 or $5000, I would still say thanks. My mama always taught me to say thank you if someone gives you a present.
 
I would tell you in person about my gratitude. Sending a letter or email to me cheapens the thank you. No inflection, no tone and people generally want to squeeze it by. In person takes.....wait for it..........face to face communication. A lost art in today's MyFace-Twerk.com generation where you email the next cube asking about lunch and water coolers are replaced with Vaping breaks.
 
JOhnH said:
Do you thank your boss for your Christmas bonus?
I'm specifically referring to those of you that work directly for the owner in a small business.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much, but when I give someone an extra week's pay at Christmas, plus an extra $50 cash to buy a gift in a gift exchange at our rather lavish Christmas party (at my house), I would think at least one out of ten would day thank you. They voted to have the party at my house because it is more personal and informal than a restaurant, and I hire good caterers.
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Yes, I think a "Thank you" would be indicated, I always say "thanks" to the boss anyway.:dunno:
 
I have a sister who is somewhat more successful than the rest of us in the clan. Last year she bought a new M3 with part of her Christmas bonus. I asked her if she thanked her boss, she gave me a "are you a martian with 3 heads?" kind of look.
 
Bonuses totaled over $300k this year from $35k to $500, I got exactly 2 thank you's. You are not alone. I do performance reviews in January, I will have zero empathy...
 
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I am sure I make significantly less than most here but I am always grateful for any bonus I recieve. Hell, it is more than I had prior to getting it. I thank my 2nd job for the $100 Christmas bonus just as much as I thank my main employer for my $3000 yearly bonus.
 
N747JB said:
This is why I don't do Christmas bonuses. :nonod: As a small company with 70 employees, that are pretty well paid, I can't justify a $40K expense at the end of the year, just to pi$$ some people off. They are just as happy with 0 and you would be with $1000.00. :D
I think we are confusing year end bonuses that are part of one's pay and a Christmas bonus. If I expect to pay $XX amount at the end of the year to employees, I will adjust their pay plans for the entire year and accrue the money for year end. But, I don't, I pay my people above the industry average all year and they are generally on their own for Christmas. ;)
I do pay my office staff a yearly bonus that is part of their pay plan, my dad started it 20+ years ago and every September we pay out $500 to $2500 to them. It started because they were all on salary and often worked late one or two days per month to close the books. Now they are all hourly, with overtime and they still get the bonuses. :dunno: Once you start a bonus it is VERY hard to stop it, so as an employer, be careful what you start. ;)
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You can stop it if you think that it's in your best interest. The company I work for used to pay a lunch bonus to the hourly workers. If they had perfect attendance for the pay period, they got a 30 minute paid lunch, otherwise, they did not. We got new owners that apparently thought this $6 or $7 per day was too generous, and they stopped doing it. They gave those who had been receiving this a choice: either take a pay cut or work an extra 30 minutes a day. All chose to work the extra half hour.

As much as it pains me to say this because I am one, you can treat employees pretty poorly these days with few or no repercussions. The basic crumminess of the job market, particularly for lower skilled jobs, combined with the utter arcane insanity that is a job search, tends to make people stay put.
 
Mrs. SixPapaCharlie said:
I am the director of a non-profit, and I do give out a very meager Christmas bonus to my employees (which is actually coming from the approval of my board of directors). My staff seems extremely appreciative, and almost everybody thanks me personally (most of the staff I get to give the bonus to personally; some come in after I leave for the day) and I'm pretty sure the rest email me a thank-you. Several also ask me to tell the board thank-you as well. And I thank them as I pass them out (I write each a personal card that says specifically how they've helped the agency over the year.)
.
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^This.

And definitely be distinct in separating "holiday" bonuses that are personal from the owners from their year-end/performance bonuses. I'll thank the boss for giving everyone $25 out of their own pocket/budget as a Christmas gift/bonus.

OTOH, developing half the company revenue during a lean year in addition to managing my own projects before getting a $500 "performance bonus"? :mad: Physical "thanks" becomes very tempting.
 
I've worked for places that did them and places that didn't. I've always said thanks.

But... The best places were the ones who simply threw open bar Holiday parties. (And made sure to book rooms in the hotel for those who weren't responsible enough.)

The stories have lasted for decades as some of the wildest, dumbest, and most fun of any Holiday party ever.
 
Zeldman said:
Thank you. You just reminded me that I am not required to give any bonus at all.
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Correct - and no employee is required to stay if they get a better offer somewhere else. It's the free market at work!
 
They disguise ours by calling it profit sharing. We all consider it our Christmas bonus though. The boss included a nice appreciation letter this year too. The money is always good but it's also important that employees feel wanted and appreciated so I thought that was nice. When I worked as a part time car detailer during my teenage years, Toyota thought of us little guys every quarter with profit sharing checks. I didn't say thanks just because the company was so large but with the one I'm in now I did since we all work so close with one another.
 
I've never worked anywhere that did a Christmas bonus. Closest was a big megacorp (who shall go unnamed) that used to do a quarterly bonus if you exceeded your goals.

Except the running joke was, we called it a "BONE US" because the company used to hype going the extra mile, etc, and then for all that extra work, give you a few hundred extra per quarter, subject to taxes of course.

The long timers like myself wised up pretty quickly and stopped busting our humps just to get some paltry check. "BONE US" indeed.
 
Instead of my Xmas bonus I got laid off yesterday, no warning just pack up your things by the end of the day....even worse...it was my 30th birthday. The low oil price is crippling my (former) company.


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deftone said:
Instead of my Xmas bonus I got laid off yesterday, no warning just pack up your things by the end of the day....even worse...it was my 30th birthday. The low oil price is crippling my (former) company.


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I'm very sorry to hear that. I was afraid that the low oil prices were going to put an end to the oil boom we were having, and it sounds like you are one of the first victims. There is an old Kenyan saying, "When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers."
 
I give Christmas gifts to my employees who are in my opinion very deserving. I get (or don't get) a thank you based on the personality of the person. Honestly, I do not give these gifts hoping for a pt or thank you but they are always welcome.

They are paid very well and have 100% of their insurance premiums paid by the company.

The Christmas gifts I give make Christmas much more enjoyable for the families of my team. With the amount of travel and overtime half of my staff work, we also close the week of Christmas and they get paid for being home in addition to vacation time.

The ability to give these gifts to my team is one of my benchmarks for success. I think it means more to me than to some of the better paid employees.
 
deftone said:
Instead of my Xmas bonus I got laid off yesterday, no warning just pack up your things by the end of the day....even worse...it was my 30th birthday. The low oil price is crippling my (former) company.
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Ouch. Been there, done that. Same time of year, too.

Hope it helps to share that it eventually turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to my career. But it didn't feel like it for about four years...

It sucks that the Saudis want to destroy the Russian economy, and the U.S. Oil biz just got caught in the secondary squeeze as a bonus for them and OPEC.

They're trying their best to topple Putin. Cutting the price per barrel to half of what Russia needs for a stable economy may not be enough to trigger the revolt they want, though. Russians have put up with being far far poorer under worse leaders, historically.
 
deftone said:
Instead of my Xmas bonus I got laid off yesterday, no warning just pack up your things by the end of the day....even worse...it was my 30th birthday. The low oil price is crippling my (former) company.


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Lots of work here in Nebraska for people who want to work. Hang in there bud.
 
deftone said:
Instead of my Xmas bonus I got laid off yesterday, no warning just pack up your things by the end of the day....even worse...it was my 30th birthday. The low oil price is crippling my (former) company.


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Yep, I'm in Houston too and also in the oilfield service industry..... it's about to get pretty ugly around here in general for quite a few companies. It's been a pretty good ride though.
 
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