Does anyone else remember getting fabulous christmas bonuses from employers?

[NotSuchASmugMarriedNow1]

I remember 30 odd years ago regularly getting bonuses of £800 at Christmas which was about a months wages.

Always got taken out to fabulous restaurants for no expense spared dinners too.

It doesn't happen anymore does it?

Does anyone know why it stopped? Or does anyone still get one?

It's not a moan, I just wondered why it had stopped when we are supposed to be better off now than we were 30 years ago.

I'll be getting a gift of about £10 from my employer plus a buffett lunch.

What will you be getting?

Never had one. Never heard of anyone getting one either

These were all my DHs employers not mine but in the past he’s had a wonderful hamper from a posh butcher with beef, a turkey, gammon etc. Another year every single staff member from the office junior to the CEO got a £750 Harrods voucher and Harrods opened early on a Sunday morning so the company staff had a couple of hours private shopping with free breakfast in the Georgian restaurant. Another year everyone got £1000 British Airways vouchers. His company also used to put in a family party every year. Normal business was abandoned for the afternoon and one floor was turned over to a full petting zoo, there was face painting, crafts, hair braiding, entertainers etc plus a lavish catered buffet with much champagne and other alcohol for the parents. Santa’s grotto had a professional photographer so we all were given a wonderful family portrait to take home as well as the kids being given absolutely incredible gifts (like proper boxes of Lego or a Barbie set with many accessories). We were skint young parents at the time and this taste of luxury and extravagance made our year.

Not a Christmas bonus, but I used to work for Vodafone and every year they staged a massive ‘ball’ that was more like a very upmarket festival. It was all entirely free to staff and their plus ones including flights to the venues and hotel rooms for people from Scotland/NI etc. One year there were full sized fairground rides available. All food and drink was included and there would be bands and music for every age range. Musical guests included Boyzone, The Pretenders, The Corrs, Robbie Williams (just after he left Take That). Oh the glory days of Telecomms. I miss it.

Not me but my dd worked for a family run computer business.
They got a Christmas meal at a lovely local restaurant.
There was an evening do at a big hotel , all expenses paid and partners were welcome.
On Christmas Eve they left early with a bottle of their choosing.
Her boss loved a good party and appreciated good staff

Wow flying under the radar
Sounds amazing
I’d posited love Christmas if that was me

Yes!

Years ago, I got a £500 voucher to spend in store the shop I worked at

Never had anything like it since

positively

I work in Pharma, our bonus is linked to the company performance and we get it in the summer, it's usually about 2.5 %. There's mini-bonuses throughout the year for one off things which are nice but always less than £100. Oh, and we have a week that can either be taken as holiday or as a bonus which prechildren I always took as money in December, that would be about 2%. And we have an all expenses paid big Christmas party at a local country pile hotel.

DH worked in telecoms around the time of the bubble 20 years ago. He use to get about 10-15 % at Christmas, it was great, we never needed to worry about the cost of Christmas.

Years ago dh worked for a company who had amazing all expenses paid christmas dos.

The wage was shit though.

I get about a month's salary as bonus each November. Annual party is a fabulous lunch in a London guilds hall with drinks in the pub afterwards. I get two nights in a hotel and my train fare paid to attend, its the absolute highlight of my year!

This year because of how the calendar falls we're all getting 27th December as a holiday.

There's plenty of bitching and politics in the office, as in most offices I guess, but at Christmas it feels like working for old Fezziwig himself.

We get between 2% and 5% of our annual salary in our December paycheque. Apparently this is based on your performance throughout the year but that’s bullshit, it’s based on whether the directors like you or not. I probably won’t get one because, despite working there nearly the whole year, I leave my job on the 13th December, and we normally get paid the week after.
We also get no end of bottles, biscuits, chocolates and other consumables from our lovely customers and our suppliers via their reps. Some customers also put some cash in a card for our Christmas do, varying from £100 to £600 each, dependant on how well we’ve looked after them and how grateful for that they are
I work in a builders merchants.

I’ve never gotten a bonus in my 20+ years of working. I do get the days between Christmas and New Years off though (paid closure days on top of my annual leave allowance), so that’s pretty much the same thing.

My stepdad has worked in a City sort of job (abroad, not in London) and it’s a bad year if the bonus is less than six figures. So it’s clearly still a thing for people who don’t live like the rest of us mortal souls.

Civil service....not a chance!

Fuck all. Some years they randomly put on a party with food (but we buy our own drinks). This year that’s not happening.

I get 2 weeks off, though, so I’m happy with that.

When I was young I had some more generous employers. One place gave all staff a £500 bonus and a lavish party in a nightclub with celebrity DJs and free booze. That was fun .

I used to work company that did the profit sharing scheme. Was the best! Two sizeable bonuses a year. Then we would have huge office parties for christmas and a nice team lunch just before everybody started disappearing for annual leave. Good times.

Oh but we still still get 3 privilege days at Christmas (non departmental) so I manage to take 2 weeks off for 4 days of leave which is quite nice. And we pay for our own Christmas lunch which will take a few hours but we won't have to work the time back.

We used to get wine and chocolates or meals out, that all stopped due to the bribery and corruption laws iirc. We could go out for a meal but it would have to be 'reasonable' any gifts had to be handed in or you paid half the retail price for it to the company.

No I've never been in a job that paid Christmas bonuses, but we used to be taken out for a big fancy Christmas lunch at about 2pm, free drinks for the rest of the day etc, now we're lucky if we get a few finger foods at 6pm (after working a full day), and one free drink with it. I'm not really sure what has changed though, as we're working harder than ever, and our company is making massive profits YOY.

I've never had a bonus but was always envious of those who did.
I now run my own company and we do give out bonuses based on how well we've done, were only a team of 6 which makes it easier and more hands on with what people are doing. Thanks to everyone's hard work this year we're doubling the bonus from last year and managed to give a pay rise as well.
I hope staff realise that we think long and hard about how much we pay, how we balance other benefits as well as ensuring we have enough cash flow to cover wages. We could stop work tomorrow and not do anything for 3 months and still pay everyone. Paying people well is important but so to is giving people sufficient notice if things start going tits up. When you read about people going into work one day and being sent home with no job, no warning makes me feel quite queasy. I'd rather pay a smidge less and promise security.

We used to get a £30 Debenhams/Love to Shop voucher about 15 years ago. Last year we got a gift bag with sweets/novelty headwear and socks.

Best one ever was when I was 17 working on a market stall and got double pay (in cash) for working Christmas Eve. We finished early and went to the pub.

Public Sector here, what's a bonus?

Public sector here - get an paid Christmas party and a bonus of up to 10% wages

My dh gets a very large Christmas bonus , he works for an American Company and it's worked out on how well it's doing . He has worked there for many years and is a director now , I can only recall one year they didn't give one as the company hadn't done that well.

Fuck all here -civil service (restructuring threat)

I've been teaching over 20 years and never really got anything until current head. We have cakes in the staffroom 👍 he's also subsidising the xmas do so we pay around £5 less each.
When i was a teen with a paper round i used to make around £30 extra in xmas tips and when i worked in a local cafe we got £20 in our xmas card.

In over 40 years of work, never ever had a bonus, Christmas or otherwise!