Managers discretion with Bonus

[trampoline123]

Hi - need advice.

I'm due to serve my notice as I've been offered another role. Been with my current company over 12 years. Our financial year ends end of March with an objective based bonus being paid in June.

HR said it's my managers discretion to see if I still get paid it. My notice is 3 months so I'll still be here come bonus pay day.

Now, how and what can I say to best go about me still getting paid my bonus. Was thinking to put something in my notice letter initially but not sure how to word it.

Either a) ask your manager or b) see if the company you're going to can wait until after June.

It’s very unlikely your manager will choose to pay you a bonus when you’re leaving - did you not get the new company to buy it out?

Chances are extremely slim they’ll pay it. If you really wanted it paid you should have put in notice the day after it was paid in this situation. Too late now.

Most places don’t pay a bonus if you’re serving your notice.

I left a company I'd been working for for nearly 19 years a week before our annual bonus and they never paid it. I doubt it unfortunately.

This happened to me and I was due about £10k.

I did cost them more than that by being relaxed during my notice period as they'd already made their position clear.

Very doubtful you'll receive it. I work for a large construction company and the bonus is immediately stopped as soon as you hand your notice in.

If you were the manager would you spend your bonus budget on someone who was leaving or others who are staying?

What benefit is there to them to pay you this bonus?

I waited until my bonus was paid before resigning.

Best to think of the bonus as an incentive for sticking around.

No chance will you get paid it. You’ve already resigned so they have absolutely no incentive. Everywhere I’ve worked doesn’t pay bonuses if you’ve handed in notice. Next time definitely wait until you’ve got it to hand in your notice!!

Too late now - you either should have waited or asked your new employer to give you a signing bonus to compensate when negotiating your start date.

Check the terms of the bonus. If it is a discretionary bonus (most are), they can withhold it and there is nothing you can do to ensure it is paid. If it is contractual, they must pay it even though you are leaving unless the terms specifically exclude people who have handed in their notice.

Read the small print of your contract and see if it says eg 'bonus will be calculated on performance to year ending (date) and paid in June'
I would imagine your bonus is either calculated to the end of the financial year or the end of the month. If it's completely discretionary then unfortunately you're not going to get it.

If you hand your notice in before the end of the calculation period then I'm pretty sure you will find you will not get paid bonus. You need to announce after the calculation period and leaving date to not be before the end of the next pay period. When I advised (and this was just on being pregnant, back in the day) I waited till after the end of the financial period to announce, and hung on till after the last date for advising payroll, and I knew no 'head office adjustments' could be made as I had the printouts to prove the profit we'd made (and got paid £8k).