if i'm the boss, i would be teaming up with the admin here to start tracking who's spend most of time here during office hour and start cutting salary in pro-rata basis.
i stepped up and had my office assistant (coffee maker) make me anything she wanted to as long as it had expresso in it. i got to my office (local coffee shop) at 7:10pm tonight.........
so my bonus was the extra love she put into my beverage.....
2007 produced some reasonably strong results at our firm. non-owner staff bonuses distributed last week ranged from about 5% of base salary (for some recently hired staff) to a high of about 25% of base salary for several top performers - about 1/4 of our non-owner staff received bonuses in excess of 15% of base pay.
As a fresh out of school, starting work in january, I am curious to what is more typical; a raise, a bonus, or nothing.... And how much is the avg. raise/bonus?
- your new employer couldn't wait 2 weeks? Hope he made up your loss.
MJDMS - Varies quite a lot from firm to firm. Not sure there's a definite pattern. Our firm gives annual raises to employees - % varies with performance but is at least a cost of living raise. When we can - which is most years - we also provide holiday bonuses, which vary widely and absolutely reflect contribution over the year. However, I know of firms that never pay bonuses and only give raises (begrudgingly) when asked to do so.
Generally, it's a good idea to know what your firm does about such matters before accepting the position. Most firms will explain if asked.
Re: bonus
there is literally nothing that might be described as "typical" or standard. it varies by firm and is really at the discretion of management/ownership. in a small firm, it might literally be determined by the whims of the owner. at some larger firms there may be policies in place determing a system for profit sharing.
having said that, the one absolute thing to remember about bonus money is that it's a gift and you should be grateful if you receive one. and under no circumstances should you expect anything or feel bitter if nothing is offered. in fact, with that in mind, it's probably better to just forget about it altogether...until you actually get something.
puddles - Not sure I would go so far as to describe bonuses as a "gift" - at least not in our firm.
We work hard to connect "effort and contribution" to "earnings" - while it's true that we have no contractual obligation with respect to bonuses, there is a strong bond of trust that builds over the years -- we cannot expect extra effort and performance unless we uphold our end of that bargain.
Nevertheless, it's nice when the staff says "thank you" when we do distribute bonuses.
Instead of a bonus, we all spent our own money on buying gifts for less well off people, in the company's name of course. My bonus = negative $70, but some little girl got some really nice stuff out of the deal!
Sometimes no bonus is better than a slap in the face meager bonus.
Got a crappy 2% raise one summer and was promised a whopping 15% or more bonus at year end for all the unpaid OT that I banked up. Opened the envelope and saw $400 ~ more like $300 after taxes. Sweet, 500 hours of overtime and all I got was enough for a new ipod.
I quit soon after that....actually a week after the president bought a brand new Lexus with his bonus and crowed to everyone about what a great year we had.
nothing: wait! our party we get to volunteer at the community food bank on our new extra vacation day, I'm hoping to receive some mac n cheese for my hard work.
As a full time student, I live off of grants, so bonuses for me, but my wife got a pretty sizable bonus (20% base) and a sizable raise. Not bad considering she's a first year ID intern at a flooring store in a small to mid sized town.
I'll be writing checks later this week, staff gets next week off and a bottle of wine. Happy staff = Happy life ( its a rip off of happy wife=happy life which is s-s-o-o-o-o-o true!)
actually, i'll hopefully buy my existing 1 year old workstation from the firm on the cheap and bring it home, and get a brand spanking new 24" iMac for the office. count your blessings indeed, if you have them.
well dinner will be out somewhere. here are a couple of considerations campagne rover's kappo
right now we are trying to figure out what the meal on christmas day will be. maybe starting with a crab bisque. maybe some pig or cow. hmm, maybe osso bucco. some many choices right now.
not big, but good. not sure how matt's has changed since its expansion.
as for bonuses, i've finished 6 years with 3 different offices ranging from 13-55 people and never gotten a bonus...unless you consider that cheese basket a bonus. i did once get a "bonus" check for pulling an all nighter to complete a model that a yale intern started and didn't know how to finish for a competition due the next day... but that was in march or something.
holz, canlis is a bit too blue blood for me. harvest vine was a recent visit and crazy good. I highly recommend it. i like sitka & spruce. i just wish they had a different location. once you're inside, it's fine.
e28, thanks for the kappo review. that place sounds horrible. i had just heard about what it was supposed to be, and it sounded like it had potential.
matt's is a great lunch spot, but not for dinner. i've read some pretty bad reviews about their dinners since they expanded including cold seared tuna. seared tuna should not be cold. kingfish is yummy, but i'm looking for something else than soul food.
i own one suit so i guess i could eat at canlis. it just doesn't appeal to me. glad you were joking. didn't someone say salumi? gawd, i love salumi. i could eat cured meats every day.
I strongly feel that bonuses should reflect first, how good the firm did the past year and second, how much each individual employee contributed to its success.
The automatic bonus based on a percentage of salary is just bad business.
one of the common problems with bonus schemes is the difficulty of motivating a combination of effort directed at the success of the individual and effort directed at the success of the broader firm.
i tend to favor distribution schemes that recognize both the overall success of the firm and the contribution of the individual to that success.
in my experience, schemes that don't address both of these conditions will, over time, tend to motivate behavior that is overly focused in one direction or the other. these imbalances tend to become destructive.
individuals need to know that their personal success is tied, in part,
to the success of the broader firm. firms need to understand that strong achievers must be compensated in a manner that reflects fairly that achievement.
Woohoo ... it's almost bonus time!
So ... what's everybody expecting to find in their bonus envelope this year?
nothing
well ... that sucks !
yep...
that is why Im taking an xtra long vacation this holiday...
nothing.
nothing.
3000
oh, plus 10% tot sal in 401k
if i'm the boss, i would be teaming up with the admin here to start tracking who's spend most of time here during office hour and start cutting salary in pro-rata basis.
Woohoo...
aspect - you guys getting ready to have lay-offs?
get laid only.
... for bonus.
I got a fairly decent bonus today, along with a modest pay raise for 2008. Not bad, considering I've been with my firm for less than six months.
i stepped up and had my office assistant (coffee maker) make me anything she wanted to as long as it had expresso in it. i got to my office (local coffee shop) at 7:10pm tonight.........
so my bonus was the extra love she put into my beverage.....
b
2007 produced some reasonably strong results at our firm. non-owner staff bonuses distributed last week ranged from about 5% of base salary (for some recently hired staff) to a high of about 25% of base salary for several top performers - about 1/4 of our non-owner staff received bonuses in excess of 15% of base pay.
I was going to get my bonus, but not anymore since I just quit LOL. I am the rare example of how one CAN get hired over X-Mas. :)
As a fresh out of school, starting work in january, I am curious to what is more typical; a raise, a bonus, or nothing.... And how much is the avg. raise/bonus?
- your new employer couldn't wait 2 weeks? Hope he made up your loss.
MJDMS - Varies quite a lot from firm to firm. Not sure there's a definite pattern. Our firm gives annual raises to employees - % varies with performance but is at least a cost of living raise. When we can - which is most years - we also provide holiday bonuses, which vary widely and absolutely reflect contribution over the year. However, I know of firms that never pay bonuses and only give raises (begrudgingly) when asked to do so.
Generally, it's a good idea to know what your firm does about such matters before accepting the position. Most firms will explain if asked.
Re: bonus
there is literally nothing that might be described as "typical" or standard. it varies by firm and is really at the discretion of management/ownership. in a small firm, it might literally be determined by the whims of the owner. at some larger firms there may be policies in place determing a system for profit sharing.
having said that, the one absolute thing to remember about bonus money is that it's a gift and you should be grateful if you receive one. and under no circumstances should you expect anything or feel bitter if nothing is offered. in fact, with that in mind, it's probably better to just forget about it altogether...until you actually get something.
puddles - Not sure I would go so far as to describe bonuses as a "gift" - at least not in our firm.
We work hard to connect "effort and contribution" to "earnings" - while it's true that we have no contractual obligation with respect to bonuses, there is a strong bond of trust that builds over the years -- we cannot expect extra effort and performance unless we uphold our end of that bargain.
Nevertheless, it's nice when the staff says "thank you" when we do distribute bonuses.
Instead of a bonus, we all spent our own money on buying gifts for less well off people, in the company's name of course. My bonus = negative $70, but some little girl got some really nice stuff out of the deal!
I got a one year membership in the jelly of the month club.
Bonus? We're lucky enough to get off early (~2pm) to meet up at Rock Bottom.
"This will be a 'No Host' event so please bring cash for your part."
I hate my company.
Count your blessings.... I guess....
Sometimes no bonus is better than a slap in the face meager bonus.
Got a crappy 2% raise one summer and was promised a whopping 15% or more bonus at year end for all the unpaid OT that I banked up. Opened the envelope and saw $400 ~ more like $300 after taxes. Sweet, 500 hours of overtime and all I got was enough for a new ipod.
I quit soon after that....actually a week after the president bought a brand new Lexus with his bonus and crowed to everyone about what a great year we had.
*crosses fingers *
aquapura and i must have worked for the same stellar employer, unless he's got a twin
twin? more like octocentuplets.
you guys get bonuses? we're catching flak for taking the week between xmas and new years off...awesome.
nothing: wait! our party we get to volunteer at the community food bank on our new extra vacation day, I'm hoping to receive some mac n cheese for my hard work.
As a full time student, I live off of grants, so bonuses for me, but my wife got a pretty sizable bonus (20% base) and a sizable raise. Not bad considering she's a first year ID intern at a flooring store in a small to mid sized town.
I'll be writing checks later this week, staff gets next week off and a bottle of wine. Happy staff = Happy life ( its a rip off of happy wife=happy life which is s-s-o-o-o-o-o true!)
whistler, are you hiring?
;)
Don't be silly I'm taking time off too!
jewish boss = no xmas bonus
Yep, I'll be cutting the checks next week too. A nice dinner is in the works too.
how about a little hanukkah hand-out then mdler?
i got 5% and the likelihood of a new computer.
actually, i'll hopefully buy my existing 1 year old workstation from the firm on the cheap and bring it home, and get a brand spanking new 24" iMac for the office. count your blessings indeed, if you have them.
e - what are you planning for the big dinner?
well dinner will be out somewhere. here are a couple of considerations
campagne
rover's
kappo
right now we are trying to figure out what the meal on christmas day will be. maybe starting with a crab bisque. maybe some pig or cow. hmm, maybe osso bucco. some many choices right now.
you?
no big plans...due to some recent changes on the home front, we're taking a well-deserved mulligan on the whole holiday season.
we did order in from the local jewish deli on thanksgiving though...worked out great.
given your options, i'd vote for rover's.
e-
what, no canlis?
harvest vine?
fare start seems popular this year.
We did the office dinner last week too with a secret santa exchange that was pretty humorous.
e
You should check out Sitka & Spruce on Eastlake the website is lacking partly because the menu is changing based on what is in season
sitka&spruce
Also check out the review of Kappo in the Stranger
theStranger
Out of the three choices you list I would have to agree with mighty on rover's
sitka & spruce is good, but not office dinner good...
what about matt's in the market?
http://www.mattsinthemarket.com/
or kingfish cafe?
http://www.thekingfishcafe.com/
not big, but good. not sure how matt's has changed since its expansion.
as for bonuses, i've finished 6 years with 3 different offices ranging from 13-55 people and never gotten a bonus...unless you consider that cheese basket a bonus. i did once get a "bonus" check for pulling an all nighter to complete a model that a yale intern started and didn't know how to finish for a competition due the next day... but that was in march or something.
...but my annual review is in 2.5 hrs.
holz, canlis is a bit too blue blood for me. harvest vine was a recent visit and crazy good. I highly recommend it. i like sitka & spruce. i just wish they had a different location. once you're inside, it's fine.
e28, thanks for the kappo review. that place sounds horrible. i had just heard about what it was supposed to be, and it sounded like it had potential.
matt's is a great lunch spot, but not for dinner. i've read some pretty bad reviews about their dinners since they expanded including cold seared tuna. seared tuna should not be cold. kingfish is yummy, but i'm looking for something else than soul food.
i was kidding on canlis.
i don't think i have any clothes that are nice enough to even be a valet (i've heard the pay is really good and no one leaves unless they die)
and yeah, i really like harvest vine.
via tribunali? mmmm, salumi speziale.
i own one suit so i guess i could eat at canlis. it just doesn't appeal to me. glad you were joking. didn't someone say salumi? gawd, i love salumi. i could eat cured meats every day.
Just cut checks today (plus a nice dinner party).
I strongly feel that bonuses should reflect first, how good the firm did the past year and second, how much each individual employee contributed to its success.
The automatic bonus based on a percentage of salary is just bad business.
Tyvek .... I completely agreed!
one of the common problems with bonus schemes is the difficulty of motivating a combination of effort directed at the success of the individual and effort directed at the success of the broader firm.
i tend to favor distribution schemes that recognize both the overall success of the firm and the contribution of the individual to that success.
in my experience, schemes that don't address both of these conditions will, over time, tend to motivate behavior that is overly focused in one direction or the other. these imbalances tend to become destructive.
individuals need to know that their personal success is tied, in part,
to the success of the broader firm. firms need to understand that strong achievers must be compensated in a manner that reflects fairly that achievement.
I got a bonus after all! Yay!
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