AIBU to be upset that my end of year bonus is significantly less than last year?

This is so normal. Bonuses depend on so many factors and each year the factors that impact it change. I honestly couldn’t get worked up by this. My bonus is up to 20% and last year we got 12% and year before 15%. This year I think it’ll be around 12% mark again. That’s just the nature of bonuses it fluctuates.

Could be worse, could've been a year membership to jelly of the month club when you'd been planning putting in a pool...

Some people will get no end of year bonus

it’s just the company ensuring the shareholders are ok if they are reducing it

Not tax free you rube.

Lots of companies have reduced this year's Christmas bonus.

Many factors but a major reason is the increase in national insurance employers will need to pay next year is astronomical for employers.
Many are making redundancies

A bonus can be those things but doesn’t have to be. It can be performance of the company based and a % of salary, as in John Lewis. Although their employees are partners, the bonus is discretionary. However employees do know it’s based on company performance. JL have made a profit this year, they are not paying a bonus - only the third time since 1953.

Bonuses are often split into a business performance component and an individual performance component

Bonuses are often extra contractual and the calculation methodology not set out in a contract

Really? Employees aren't house servants subject to the occasional munificence of their employer. Bonuses aren't given out of the goodness of corporate hearts but as incentives and rewards and usually subject to some transparency of calculation. Hardly is a pan employee grabby as fuck!

You are so lucky to receive a bonus.

You are paid above minimum wage and you work hard; well done for a productive year.

Usually bonuses are calculated on the overall health and profitability of the business. It's not been great for many businesses.

That's not a bonus, that's an insult!

I really want a micro pig! Much better than a bonus.

All the best for the future, OP, that must be awful, I wish you a prosperous New Year🌸

Is micro pig a typo?! Or are there cute little pigs trotting around in the private sector?

Usually a bonus is discretionary. It’s not a set percentage or sum. It’s could be £zero. John Lewis very their bonus payouts. Most are related to how well the company is doing. It’s nothing to do with individual work unless the contract says it is. So read your contract. Do you have performance management which allocates you a bonus? Or is it based on company profits? Your contract or company handbook should make it clear.

Well I guess the OP should give her house away to a nurse and then walk through the strips whipping herself. Do you think that would make her feel better about her particular problem that she has posted about, about her solely?

Public sector education is entirely different from private sector IT. Private sector tech is big bonuses, trips abroad, free food and drink on tap, micro pigs in the office.

I work in an industry where bonuses are paid but it’s always dependent on the ‘pot’ that’s available, so you may well find that you got the same (or bigger) percentage of the available pot, but that works out as a smaller percentage of your salary. Economic factors play a part on how much is allocated to the bonus pot.

I think it would be ok to ask whether the smaller percentage is reflective of whether they think you have performed less well than last year, and it’s important to know that, but don’t be surprised if the answer is just that the overall bonus pot is smaller.

also, bonuses can be used to address some discrepancies in wages, generally new starters come in on higher salaries than existing staff (don’t agree with that but very common) so someone on the bottom of the pay scale would get a higher percentage than someone who is already near the top. I did work for a company who actually clearly explained that and it was really helpful

Oh I should mention that we got really shitty raises this year with the explanation ’oh but we’ve structured the bonus scheme to make up for it!’

Yeah anyway that thought about it for half a minute realized it was a preemptive way to pay out less money and will long term hurt our retention and hiring. I do hope that this is reversed under new leadership. I suspect it will, but we shall see.

At this point I’m hanging in for about 2 years then I’m out, and I’m not early on my career so it’s ok for my financial situation at the moment. If nothing else watch the show for the couple of years will be interesting and I’m maxed on expected severance payouts if they make me redundant.

(Sorry @laylababe5 I think I’ve turned your thread into a vent! I’ll go back to reading now 😁)

1%

🤣🤣

I work P/T in HE. Two years ago our departmental bosses proudly announced that they had decided to give us all bonuses as they'd had management consultants in who pointed out how many unpaid hours we all do week in week out. I got £22.07.

It's tough if you rely on the bonus to cover essentials, but most people don't ever get one. Even when I worked for a big company, the Christmas 'bonus' was a bottle of prosecco - not even real champagne.

It kind of is. It’s not guaranteed as a salary is.

It’s not free money.

You’re not entitled to a bonus. Stop complaining.

I would be disappointed because who doesn’t want more money, right? But at the end of the day bonuses are typically based on several things but not necessarily all of them:

1. financial target
2. individual targets
3. corporate non financial targets (safety, training, eco, etc.)
4. Department targets

Being in IT it makes sense if you aren’t plugged into your company’s financials, so no judgement from me for not knowing.

This year I expect a really crappy bonus, sadly I do know more than my fair share about the financials. I’ve already warned my DH to expect nothing and be grateful for anything, because it really is a shitshow at the moment (our global CEO was fired, we’re hemorrhaging executives, and the sale of our EMEA region is firmly on the table).

On the flip side, the last several years have been great bonuses…

you have to mentally categorize a bonus as what it is… extra and unreliable. The worst thing you can do is to start counting it as income. For example my bonus each year usually pays for our vacation but most of the year it sits contently in a savings account as an extra emergency fund… if no emergencies then it’s converted to travel. . So if it is crappy that just means we have to save more out of salary if we want to travel.

Hope some of this helps… it really does suck not to get as much as you were expecting.