one year, after my office was caught stealing software (which they had done on 10 pc's for about 10 years) they gave us nothing...because the 'bonus money' went towards buying new CAD licences.
fucking assholes! it's not like i was stealing the software!!!

what's a bonus?

seriously people...its ok to vent and all, but at least you got something for your trouble. we've gone 3 years without raises or bonuses and this year nothing was even said about a Holiday Party. Its the thought that counts.

being self-employed i can't afford to give myself a bonus. my wife was supposed to get a $2000-2500 bonus. so we went out and bought a new bed. i had a goal to be futon free by the time i hit 40. i got rid of one we were using as a couch a couple of years ago, and with 3 years to go and big bonus coming in, we figured a bed would be a good present to ourselves. well, we just found out the other day that there will be no bonuses. i am clark.

and yes, i still feel very lucky, fortunate, and happy as we all should. it can always be worse.

I went out Friday night with 3 friends (advertising guy, investment guy and general banker guy)...all with less education and real world training than I. And would you believe that out of the 3 of them, the smallest Xmas bonus was 12 THOUSAND DOLLARS?!?!?!?! And these fucko's actually complained. lol. i made them pick up the bill.

$12,000? that's sick man.

wow...12G's? i guess the old motto of 'follow the money' should have been given to us before we chose this profession, eh?

Oh well. As E points out, we should feel lucky to have what we have.

And remember, they may be rich...but they have no souls...

Yea my office not only doesn't give a bonus, but the big guy cancelled the Christmas Party because "...it sounds like veveryone is leaving town anyway."

Never mind that he asked those who don't celebrate to come in on the 24th and 25th. or that New Year's Eve is a work day.

sounds like you are leaving town, eh archetecton? wink wink.

seriously, it sounds as though our bosses should get together...they have quite a bit in common. try to enjoy your holiday!

*wink wink is right, iOf. waaaaaay right. Happy Holidays to you all.

i have no soul AND no 12 THOUSAND DOLLARS...looks liek i'm the sucker!!!!
fucking architecture!

I'd much rather just be making an extra $12k than take a bonus of $12k.

no bonus here either. what gives? i worked my ass off on a $55 mil. project all summer. i can't even fathom how much money that is (but I think it's a lot). wheres my cut?

setsquareboy - i don't believe you - $12K?

seriously, I'd be overjoyed with $100!!! And then I'd work that much harder and be that much happier and it would show at work and make it an even better place to be. I don't believe the company is that broke, actually I know they aren't - they are using "the reason for the season" excuse. But Jesus wants me to have a bonus... doesn't he?

obviously employers don't understand employee moral and how it relates to production and office chemistry.

strawbeary, you're right about employers not understanding the value of their employees. i've seen it again and again. employee rentention is probably the most important thing employers can do in creating a healthy and productive work force. keep your peeps happy. show them that they are worthy and valued. challenge them. respect them. don't take them for granted.

Does any office have the opportunity to vote whether they got an xmas party or a xmas bonus?

The first month is raspberry jam...this jelly of the month thing is way better then a cash bonus...<-----insert sarcasm here

a friends office said they could have a holiday party sans sigificant others so that they could offer employee reviews every 18 months. and we all know review does not equal raise. wtf.

a card... does that count as bonus ...??!@@!@~#@146

i thought jesus was practically an architect. i'm sure he'll come through for everyone.

god bless us, everyone

i am greatful for my bonus, actually i am just happy i have a job.

My sister used to work for a large corporate rent-a-car company and one year they had a huge christmas party, with the Commodores playing. She was expecting a nice bonus, but instead got a cooler! Atleast you could roll it though...

I was laid off twice during November, two years in a row... Working for myself now and my husband and I just figured out we have made 1/3 of what we made last year - now if that's not a "bonus" i don't know what is! oh wait, we're working through the holidays for clients who love to complain we charge them too much money :-)

I once worked in a shop that temporarily laid me off at Christmas and “invited” me to apply for unemployment (in hopes that I’d still be hanging out when work picked back up after the holidays). Then, feeling bad and wanting to help me out, they instead arranged to “loan” me and the other junior kid to another shop that just happened to have a broken heating system (so now no grounds to apply for unemployment). So I spent a January in Brooklyn in an unheated, windowless cinderblock box busting my ass. Thank god for grad school.

Damn, if I’d known I could have gotten twelve grand for my soul…..

NSLM...i don't know where you think you can get 12G's for your soul. let a brother know, would you?...i'll see if my purchaser accepts competitor's coupons...

Does design ever give out signing bonuses?

I just graduated, and my friend who did about the 1/4 of work i did (both in time and effort): he was an econ major, which he decided on second semester of junior year.

he gets 5 k signing bonus
starting salary: 65 k
bonus at end of first year: 5% of salary. rises every year.


ouch. and meanwhile i have no job yet.

my boss just informed me about a 5% salary raise that i would be receiving for the new year, and i've only been working at this office for 4 months...

god bless us, everyone!

you are all invited to my house for a big end of the year party!

i know it wasnt appropriate to submit the above in this forum, but the party is still on

alfredo, signing bonus? hahahaha. mevsyou, live in the northwest? i'm always up for some free noshing.

at my firm they don't give us hourly employees bonuses. they consider the fact that we have the opportunity to make overtime pay bonus enough.

it's not just architects: my wife has worked at the same place for 11 yrs. used to be a family company but has since been bought twice and is now owned by one of the largest media companies around.

she oversees a lot of people and is responsible for their reviews. she's the one that gets to tell them, after a stellar review, that there will be no performance based raises this year and that, for the second or third year in a row, there will only be 3% raises, i.e., less than inflation over the last few years.

this year the company also reduced health care benefits across the board, made employees responsible for more of the new premium, and lowered their own responsibility by 10%.

she found out (inadvertently) about six months ago that she makes less than a guy she oversees, a guy with a lot less responsibility who has been with the company about 4 yrs. understandably upset she went to her boss and asked about this. her boss's answer: don't worry, you come out ahead after bonuses.

today it was announced that there will be no bonuses this year.

it's everywhere. blame mr. bush and his buddies (who will probably get very nice bonuses this year, thank you very much).

the other day, i read about how the gap between the haves [who the bushies look out for] and the have nots is widening and playing out in insane consumerism of the holiday season. walmart and other big box retailers are doing rather poorly this year while the high end shops like tiffanys are doing about 15% better than last year. can't say it's gonna get better any time soon as we are a country of debt running on fumes.

where did you read that at? i'd be interested to read it also

12 thousand dollars...not in architecture!!!
one sells television advertising, one worked as an investment analyst and the other worked in a major bank peddeling investment advice. all make solid coin, all put in less time at school, and the lowest bonus (besides my weeks pay and 3 paid days off at xmas) was 12k. i shit you not!
however, when we went out for drinks after diner, guess who got the most play? hehehhe. if it's one thing i learnt at archi-school, it's how to dress and work the mojo with that ladies. everyone else had the social skills of a grade sixer. lol.
now what i got that night was a bonus!

holla

I've been at my firm for about 4 months and I received a $700 check for my Xmas bonus. And they threw a lavish Holiday party for us and gave everyone pricey gifts on top of the checks. On top of that we were paid for our time at the party. Not too shabby...

well, a few years ago my buddy told me that he got crabs from his office party. it's been our inside joke for a while as the 'worste present'. lol. you can't blame the boss though, as he didn't tell the staff to sleep with other patrons at the lounge. hehehehe

On Holiday Office Parties:

My office holiday party is held midday on a Thursday, which is a little annoying, because it means that most of the office goes back to work afterward. But within the past few years, most of the younger staff has taken the afternoon off to go to bars and hangout together, which is rare for my office. This year, however, I had to attend a public meeting that night for a client located about two hours away... needless to say, I didn't have anything to drink at the party and couldn't attend the afterparty. Granted, this isn't as bad as getting stiffed on the holiday bonus, but it still sucked.

But to make up for not being able to have fun at my own office holiday party, last Monday night several friends and I walked into the corporate holiday party for a major insurance company at a swank downtown hotel. (Courtsey of my friend who told the bouncer that we were there to meet 'Jane Shmoe' or some other made up name. The bouncer waved us through.) It's was a huge party, with several thousand guests, so a few strangers didn't seem out of place. I must say, going to someone else's holiday party was quite fun. Particularly when they serve top shelf liquor and offer very nice appetizers. Though it is a bit like attending someone else's Prom. Fun, yes... but a bit out of place.

at my old job I got 250 dollars. I'm part time interning at another firm and I while i didn't get a bonus (though everyone else did) they were nice enough to give me a 100 dollar gift certificate to a nice restaurant in town. I didn't expect anything- so I was real happy.

On another note one of my friends told me that when once his boss got mad because a key player quit and spent their bonuses on a nice trip for himself.

when i worked for this industrial desgin firm, they had their holiday party in austin. they flew all of their u.s. employees in for the weekend from new york, califormia, and michigan. they paid airfare, lodging in some fancy schmancy hotel, and threw a big ass party complete with a mechanical bull. nice you think? well, no bonuses and some folks got laid off at the first of the year.

yee-haw!!!

my office collectively (all 7 of us) bought a 4 digit gift for my boss recently, meaning we each chipped in a couple hundred. why you ask? i don't know. it's an unspoken, mandatory rule. and to make matters worse, there's no word on a bonus yet. so in essence, our boss is getting a bonus from his workers. now THAT'S messed up!

self employed.
2004
total design fees> 37K

studio rent and utilities> 12K
office expenses> 1.5K
living> 25K (helping with mortgage, food, cigarettes, gas, pair of boots and pants etc.)

-1.5K

bonus
3 projects under construction
clients' friends have been calling
was able to take off and see my mom for a mounth
no boss types for last 7 years
i am OK

ditto here abra. sounds just like my life.

me three.

a few years back i got a hundred dollar check and and a free lunch with one beer for christmas

a few months later i quit

but this christmas i got a bunch of stuff in addition to my yearly bonus so i am happy

Well, I have worked as a Land Development Consultant, Project Manager (for IT and Construction) and the best bonus I got was working as an IT project manager. Unfortunately, there is not much handed out for architecture. Even as a construction project manager working on contract for some architecture firms I was treated better over the holidays then the designers. I think it is because I ended up dealing with the money side of things more which made the clients happy (if I saved them money that is).

The poorest bonus was a Star Bucks card after working two months worth of weekends. That experience convinced me to go out of my own. Bosses suck.

Morgan

I know a guy who got fired at the chistmas party.
Merry Fucking Chisrtmas!