Bonuses

[JessieMcJessie]

I think that my employer and I have a fundamental mismatch in expectations. I get paid a basic salary for doing a defined number of hours of work a year. It's a pretty good basic salary. Bringing in new business is also part of my job description but there is no defined minimum fee income or new business that I must generate. The reward for that comes in the form of a bonus, the amount of which is completely discretionary and depends on my employer's overall yearly profits. (i.e if overall we we make a loss, even those who brought in lots of business would get nothing. If we do well and make a profit, those who contributed most to that success, in management's opinion, get the biggest bonuses)

I had a hard year this year, my Mum became terminally ill and died and my heart really wasn't in it. I did my defined hours but brought in about 50% less new business than they were hoping I would have done (a figure that was only disclosed to me at the END of the year).

In my view I just take the hit by not getting the bonus, since I don't deserve it. Apparently however this is not acceptable, displays the wrong attitude and I don't have the choice to work less hard than someone who is gunning to maximise their bonus. If that's how they feel, why define the job in terms of core plus bonus? Shouldn't a bonus be exactly what it says on the tin?

Jessie- sorry to hear about your Mum and Dad I would hope that your employer would cut you some slack in the circumstances.

I work in a similar sounding environment though and repeated failure to generate the required new business would result in being asked to leave even if the core work (servicing current clients) was happening. This is because the firm needs the new clients to meet its objectives so if everyone opted out of doing it (not saying you have, on the circumstances it sounds like simply holding it together is a major achievement) then more people would need to be employed to then do the new business work. This would cost more than the marginal cost of simply paying bonus to current employees which is why they have structured their business model in the way they have.

I'm not sure the legalities of enforcing it. I believe many employers use compromise agreements.

Agree with PP, any job I have been in/managed where new business was the main purpose of the job, being 50% of target would be a sackable offence.

Did you get any say in how your traders were set?

• targets, sorry, and I've just noticed that you didn't have a defined target. That's odd, did you have any idea of their expectations?

RTM your explanation makes sense. I just think they should be clearer about what is expected and how it will be measured, rather than just doling out pats on the back after the event. Financial pats on the back/the fear of not getting one don't motivate me.

My Dad didn't die this year, only my Mum, but I did lose him 10 years ago (and my stepfather died 2 years ago) so Mum's death was particularly hard.

The "retrospective" target was by reference to what some others had achieved.

When I used to work in sales all targets were revealed at the beginning of the year and were monitored on a monthly basis and we had a discussion about it monthly so you knew exactly whereyou stood. The difference is we were paid a commission on each sale so didn't have to wait until the eoy before we got some kind of bonus.

Although I am not in as sales now I do get a bonus but this is reliant on the company I work for making it's overall figures - if this happens we get a bonus but if it's doesn't we don't. There is a small part of our bonus made up of personal objectives which we should have met throughout the year, they are defined at the beginning of the year and are discussed on a monthly basis so we know where we stand with them. You can opt out of doing your personal objectives if you want to forgo part of your bonus though and no one gets arsey about it if you decide to do this.