Bonuses hit Friday. ~20% cash plus another ~8% retirement match. Happy holidays!

Mind if I ask why fiscal year ends in March? Im assuming its for alignment with April tax season, but it strikes me as odd for fiscal years to be march-to-march. Just curious.

To align with tax season. You got it.

" Since the firm compensates for OT every payroll, they typically offer a token amount (+\- 1000 loonies) to regular staff."

What do you mean by this, is your bonus typically tied to unpaid OT?

^sorry, should clarify. From my experience, and that of my colleagues in the area, the Xmas bonus is often claimed to be a catch-up for unpaid OT for salaried staff throughout the year. Since our office pays OT by-weekly to everyone who is not management, the xmas $ is really a bonus chunk of cash instead of compensation for unpaid time.

I know of a few offices here that justify the xmas bonus as compensation for all the unpaid OT throughout the year.  I don't agree with that POV since it very well could be 0$ for your OT hours depending on how profits are squirreled away.

Thanks for clarifying, I've worked in the same office since I started so my experiences are limited to how our office works. Our bonuses are purely viewed as a chunk of cash / additional compensation. We're a 40ish hour a week office, so OT is frowned upon / would have to be approved in advance for non-salary employees anyways. At least they pay OT bi-weekly, that's how it should be in the first place.

Agreed on your POV that it could be 0 depending on the year, it's hard to plan for. My wife & I plan our finances as if the bonus is never coming, but it makes a significant difference when the number is high.

@non - like you say, your situation sounds much better. I worked at a firm that claimed to use it as "make-up". Got a $10k bonus after working over 1000 hours of overtime in a year. I was like "oh, so my time is worth $10/hr, got it." I can make more than that living in my van down by the river.

Where did you park your van? Are you looking for freelance work?

I've been doing a bit of freelance but more is always better, especially if it is interesting. Currently I'm next to Rio Mapocho - I'll let you have a bit of fun googling where that is. Christmas in summertime!

Ooh Chile! Still there?

Jelly of the month club?

Oh that would have been nice. No.

Shove it into your 401k to avoid the tax man.

One of the few negatives about our office is we don't have an employee match. So I tend to direct funds to my Roth IRA first. I actually used a good chunk of the bonus to buy a car over the weekend, so the Tax man got some additional sales tax on top of the income tax I paid & the payroll tax my employer paid. 

 I feel taxed.

I got similar, 3k raise + 1k holiday bonus. I'm 6 months out of school so idk if that' s any good

That's very nice! You're firm clearly values what you can do. Good job!

You sound like an amazing boss, Whistler. Are you hiring lol?

This is in line with what our office typically does as well. We had a particularly good year this year, so they were a higher than normal. I don't expect next year to be as significant as this one.

I have considered both but at the end of the day we are a small firm and cash flow has always been important to control the average base salaries are reasonable but the bonus allow me to bump up individuals salary. This year is a bit unique but the goal is always 15-20 % bonus

I totally understand that. We're a 12 person firm.

Mind if we ask what market sector that is ?

Could be just about any of them. Have you seen the latest ABI?

we're in SFR/small commercial - tiny 3 person office...probably unfair of me to comment in a thread that likely is directed to folks at more corporate sized offices

The new ABI is published next week right? Think there will be better news?

what is the marketing effort consisting of?

I thought you were getting a wig and new tinder profile?

I've heard your boss makes you post on archinect.

Not even a publishers' bonus ?!

Chad, actually I get in trouble when I post here but we all need an occasional break!

Bench, although it appears to be Taunton's best-selling book since Not So Big House, splitting proceeds among four authors and the realities of working with a publisher mean that we haven't seen a penny since our initial, modest advance. But with any luck we'll be getting a check at the end of the month or early in January. We didn't expect to make much money and were weren't wrong! But it's still fun to have a book out in the world.

It's a good book! I've been skimming it lately to get my head around retrofitting/renovating our house.

Thanks! Not to self-promote but for anyone interested, this is the book: https://www.amazon.com/Pretty-Good-House-Michael-Maines/dp/1641551658.

Time for a new firm . . .

Is that because they gave it to you accidentally in metric units then did a hard conversion?

Shhhh. Don't tell them!

Is it weighted, so to speak?

If only.

Has your office been slow or unprofitable this year? That seems pretty low. But better than nothing. My last employer didn't do holiday bonuses, but the previous one usually gave around 5% of salary, except for 2008-2009 when we got more like 1-2%, which I saw (and appreciated) as a token gesture.

they absolutely rocked it this year... i currently have my feelers out...

We got 4% (one paycheck) and I am livid about it. 1% sucks way more, leave them and dont look back!

Both (org and personal performance bonus) are generally a few % of salary, though over last few years they've also thrown in a couple of extra 1 time increases for all staff, based on market analysis/comparison. Benefits of working for a larger employer I guess...?

How's your total compensation? Including health and retirement benefits, holidays, training opportunities, paying for licensing, etc.? The % of bonus is meaningless if you're making double what your peers are. I'm just saying, maybe take a step back to make sure you're making an informed decision rather than one out of frustration

^This. also, what were you expecting after only working there half a year? Sounds like you're a problem employee.

I'll restate what BB and NS have said. 

My yearly bonus is typically 1.5-2.0% However, I am paid a very good salary, have employer matching retirement, and other perks.

These additional items make the bonus EXTREAMLY generous.

In addition, what type of tax structure dose your firm have?  This can impact your bonus.  This is especially true if you've been at a firm for less than a year.  

My $0.02 as well ... in my experience the most prominent firms give the worst bonuses (on top of typically lower base pay) unless you're a rainmaker for the firm.

I usually don't entertain trolls. But NS, curious why the negative judgement? I was being objective and trying to ask a question? Is the purpose of forums like this not to be open, support each other so we can be clearer about our positions in this murky profession? I don't think beating each other down does much for us as a community.

When you have less than 12 months tenure at a firm, you should not expect to get much of a bonus. You are disadvantaged in two predominant metrics of a) length of employment (self-explanatory) and b) perceived value (you haven't been there long enough to make an impression). If you are inclined, you could ask how bonuses are calculated at your next employee review and perhaps get some clarity on how your bonus was determined by management.

Slev, we're far from trolls here, quite the opposite. It's called constructive criticism and your "kick rocks" comments is enough to justify my comment. You got something after only half a year tenure in the firm. That's good but the fact you feel owned more is speaks of bad/entitled employee.

Slev, this forum has a history of unprofessional communication. The 'kick rocks' comment led to a projection of unprofessional communication. If you left that out, it would come off more professional. When it comes to professional communication (which this kind of falls into), leave out negative emotive comments (the huff and puff stuff.... just don't state those things.... invoke the inner Vulcan in you. Star Trek reference, about professional communication involves exercising control, restraint, and suppression of emotion. Emotions are what get you into unprofessional.) Remember the trope of McDonald's or the generic fast food restaurant employees always have to speak to the customers WITH A SMILE. 

Rule 1, never talk to strangers who you don't know about personal or professional job career issues. So, NO to using the internet to discuss such things with anonymous strangers. You are NEVER safe even with anonymous names and not naming the firm. You can inadvertently, expose who you are to your employer or someone at your firm. A little perusal of this forum and you'll realize this forum is not the place to discuss your gripe about your job... although I haven't picked up your griping in your original post. I think you hinted that the lots of cast-in-place concrete stuff is uninspiring to you... maybe against your professional goal of sustainable design practice. That is my read. 

N.S. probably jumped the gun to assume you were a trouble employee with JUST the "kick rocks" comment. 

N.S., that is INSUFFICIENT basis. It might be a little too informal or even a slightly unprofessional comment by such 'emotive expressions' used. I think you were just a little bit jumping at calling the OP a troll too quickly and prejudging at the moment. This is not to say your gut feeling is right or wrong. It is that you don't have sufficient facts to support the argument. This is why you should exercise restraint and have enough facts to support it. You must have been on that other thread too long today.

It is hard to compare or determine if the bonus is good or bad or if it is lower because you have other benefits. The whole compensation and benefits package has to be taken into account. A high bonus may sound good but if you are poorly paid and have minimal benefits package, then it isn't overall that good when all is considered.