No even a token bonus

[Christmasishere2025]

I started a new job a month ago. Everyone got a bonus, even people who have been there 3 months got 5%, others more. Am I unreasonable to think I should have got something ? Perhaps just a token 1%of my salary. I am also one the lowest person paid in the company despite my experience.

I am really trying to focus on the positives but this is really getting me down.

Usually bonuses only kick in after you have been employed for a full year. I’m very surprised people who have only been there 3 months have received anything. At one month you have barely got your feet under the desk!

Yes you are being unreasonable - at most places you'd still be in a probation period. They must have a bonus policy, and you clearly fall outside it, as you should.

As a secondary school teacher (so no gifts from parents unlike my primary teacher friends), my Christmas bonuses this year have been:

1. Some lovely cards from my students
2. A homemade brownie from another student
3. A mince pie and a glass of mulled wine from the boss

and I REALLY consider myself blessed!! I love my job, my colleagues and my students.

Perspective is all OP!

Putting a bonus through payroll has to be done well in advance. It was probably actioned when you had barely started.

It can be if you maximise the potential of the Blue Light offers. Morrisons are offering 10% at the moment.

A month in and you are wanting to take this up? Definitely the wrong way to start. A bit arrogant of you as well. You have been there 5 min and would not have made a big impression as yet. And the bonus budget would have more likely been decided 3 months ago. Surely as a ‘finance’ person you would know that?

I’ve never worked anywhere where there’s any sort of bonus - private sector. YABU. You have only been there a month, and then you said you’d have liked something small, “a few hundreds”! I honestly dropped my coffee reading that. That is not something small! Your expectations are very unreasonable.

Employees can and should talk about bonuses too
If there's a reason someone didn't get or did get a bonus it should be fairly explained and applied

They probably did the calculations for bonus the day you walked in the door for the first time.

Bonus decisions would have been made before you started. You’ll get a full 12 month bonus next year.

I think expecting a bonus after one month's employment is perhaps a bit optimistic. Even receiving one after three months surprises me.

I have had only two bonuses throughout my 45 years of working life, and, as some have mentioned, if you work for public services you get no bonuses at all, and the few times when I worked as a temp for the local council and the local hospital, people had to even pay for their hot drinks.

OFGS. Why don't you just leave and claim Unfair Dismissal because they've hurt your feelings? Poor little snowflake. Grow up.

38 years in teaching, no bonuses there

I’m clearly indoctrinated in local gov. We get nothing. Sweet FA. Every single year and I am not upset by this . I’m expected to buy my team something though. From my own money. Unbelievable that you think you should get a few hundreds

Yes, 3 months is 3 x 1 month. Not the same. What's the cut off in your head do people get one after 1 week? 1 day?

Iv been at mine 2 yrs i got a advent calender as my bonus so no you shouldn't get anything after a month talk about entitled

My workplace hires year round and does a christmas bonus but you have to have been in employment from 1st August to receive in November. It's just a timescale thing and a lot of places do it and there usually is a line drawn somewhere.

Try not to take it personally, it would have been nice yes but realistically you didn't qualify and next year you will, while next year some more people won't qualify either, they will think it's unfair, and the cycle continues. It's not because it's you specifically, you or anyone else starting after a required date will not get it and that's just how it is.

There are plenty of workers who never get a bonus, I've worked for local authority for 25yrs, never had so much as a card. Puts things in perspective.

To be fair in my company we're paid monthly so you might not even have any pay check yet. Looking for a bonus after a month is a bit hilarious really. Your bum is barely on the seat.

A few hundred????? Are you being serious? Try working a whole year in a dementia care home where you are battered and getting £10 in a Xmas card. Your expectations are ridiculous, I'd never expect anything after only a month in the company

You are being wildly unrealistic

Not at Christmas but I once worked solo on a project where the PM awarded herself £500 bonus and "awarded" me £25. She populated the spreadsheet and I executed the whole delivery. I told them to stick it. Management "had a word..." and a rather more equitable solution was forthcoming!

I have been at my POE for two years. We all got a pair of socks with the company logo on. I wanted to throw them out of the car window on the way back from the horrendous christmas 'do' but I donated them instead (don't like waste).