To be annoyed about lack of Christmas bonus?

[Vexed22]

I work in retail, small business with a handful of branches, and last year's Christmas bonus was a £20 voucher, which I was slightly miffed about as previous years had been a lot more.

This year however I have had no bonus at all. I imagine their reasoning is along the lines of belt tightening, recession etc etc BUT I know for the fact that it has been a good year saleswise, especially at the branch I work at - 100% up from the previous year, and also last week saw the boss giving an expensive Christmas gift to one of our suppliers reps.

AIBU to feel upset about this?

I work in retail and got a £40 Tesco giftcard and £25 towards a Xmas meal or night out.

I'd change jobs in the New Year, op, ideally out of retail. It pays badly in comparison to other sectors. Now is a good time to change

Yanbu to be upset, especially if someone else got a bonus but you feel you put the same work in. On your wages, a bonus is great. Ignore those on high wages and great pensions, with six months full pay sick leave if needed, who complain they don't get a bonus (I say that as one of them ... our jobs are just not comparable). There are lots of jobs in the public sector though if you fancy a change?

@converseandjeans without going into too much detail, the work we do is directly through the people we employ, so your money is to employ us to do the work we do. I’d hope anyone giving to a charity would want the work to be effective and do what it says it’ll do - and we have excellent data to prove this, unlike a surprisingly large number of charities - but also that you’d want that charity to be well run (also not always the case sadly) and that involves having good people working there and performing well. Valuing staff hopefully happens across all sectors. But to be fair, we all generally earn MUCH less salary wise than we would elsewhere. I’m in a functional support role and I’d earn at least £10k more for the same job in a private sector business. Too many people seem to want charities to be run by volunteers and never paid a penny, but we need good people with good business sense to be paid and valued to be able to steward your money well and make genuine change.

@ThisGirlNever sadly not the case for me! Only benefit is hybrid working now, and a bit of extra maternity pay. Never heard of a charity with a years full pay, that sounds quite worrying tbh. Definitely no jobs for life (though we do try and look after our people) and a lot of stress sadly, all for much less money than the private sector. We have very high people standards too, our staff do amazing work.

I work in the NHS (nurse). Last year we got a £25 gift voucher from presumably trust management for our hard work during covid.
A few years ago our ward managers bought us all a little something out of ward donation funds.

I’ve never received a Christmas bonus - huge global company. Nor at any other company I’ve worked for, in 30-plus years.

I imagine it is the pay and conditions…

Private sector for several big successful names for 32 years. Great pay and conditions - and performance bonus paid in June. Never had a Christmas bonus. It just isn’t a thing everywhere.

There are plenty of opportunities for you to retrain.

£20 voucher
Tubs of chocolates to share

Used to get a "plate of sandwiches" Christmas lunch but even that got stopped

🎵 Last Christmas I never got a bonus
But the very next year someone dug up my zombie thread
To say the lack of sandwiches causes them tears
Sorry your work don't make you feel special 🎵

I’ve just treated my staff to a top notch meal at an exclusive restaurant with drinks plus hotel overnight for them all and given them £750 bonus each. They’ve worked so hard this year and I decided they should be treated and have a decent Xmas bonus.

I'd rather have the money spent on the meal than the meal thanks 😄

I hate Christmas bonuses really, it's just a waving in your face if how much money you could have been paid , because the company can clearly afford an additional X amount per employee... instead of someone deciding to generously offer it as a "well done for doing your job" as a 'bonus'

They loved it. We are 6 employees and partners. They had a lovely meal. Wine cocktails and dancing in a bar followed by more drinks at the hotel. I left them to it with a bar tab - don’t want to be the boss hanging around. We are like ships that pass in the night at work as site based so nice to get together and all tax free. Their cash bonus is sadly taxed and national insurance so they really appreciate the meal and hotel.

Ah see we pay very well too plus they get all of Xmas off without having to use annual leave. So getting this year an extra 5 days paid leave as well. Next year even better because of where Xmas falls. People stay with our company so I must be doing something right ! Length of service is 7 years right up to 20 years.

Nice - maybe I'll apply for a job at your company 😉

If we had an opening for sure ! Doctors appt? Yeah go for it. Early lunch because meeting a friend? Yep no problem. Kids nativity play? Yes will rearrange your diary. Happy staff is happy company. So long as we make £1 profit after giving the staff pay rises bonuses and treats I’m happy

Even if performing well the operating costs of the business will have gone up a lot. The running costs are less obvious to you.

Again you don't know what's going on with the suppliers. They may be trying desperately hard to keep them sweet rather than wanting to throw money at them.

It's not Christmas yet, so how do you know you won't receive a bonus?

I have two jobs. One private sector, one public. Public sector has better pay/ pension overall, no bonus.
Private sector is essentially minimum wage but we are all having a meal somewhere nice that is paid for. Last year we also got a fancy hamper of goodies so 🤞

I think lower paid jobs often do a nice Christmas bonus to encourage staff loyalty. Looking back all the low paid jobs were the ones who gave Christmas bonuses.

Then you have to pay tax/ NI/ pension/ student loan payments. It’s a bit depressing. I quite like getting a non cash treat/ gift

My dh had a really crap paying job about ten years ago when he wanted to change sector and skill up.

the staff do’s were amazing. No cash bonuses but serious money was spent on these events. All so the company could put the photos on their websites…

I've never received a cash bonus. Actually I have! One company paid me for the Christmas shutdown when I was a temp, so 2 weeks money. Other than that, it's always been presents. Perfume or wine.

But bonuses should be a nice gift, not an expectation.

I guess it's a shame but a bonus is exactly that - a bonus. A nice gesture but not something to be assumed.
I work in construction and we don't get a Christmas bonus, although we do get a small performance based summer bonus dependant on company finances. DH is in retail and they don't get a bonus. Sometimes they get a recognition award at random times during the year, for which they get a £20 gift. Paid into their wages. Which they then get taxed on..... 🙄