Okay Folks,
Just curious about the fun filled bonus time that is approaching.
Please provide how many employees are in the firm you work for, and the % of salary bonus you got. For example, if you got a $2,000 bonus and your salary was 40k, you would have gotten 5%.
No actual dollar amounts need to be posted. Thanks
hmmm, lets see, last year at my 15 person firm I got a 1.19% bonus. And this year, I think we're getting a new server instead of bonuses. My hopes are not high.
Last year my bonus was about 30% of my salary. I've been led to believe that this year will be just about exactly the same. But this is because my base salary is low for my level of experience and geographical region, and my total annual compensation is based heavily on a large bonus that represents a pre-set percentage of profits (with a guaranteed minimum of about 12% of my base salary.)
This has been a good arrangement for me over the past three years, but is obviously risky and unpredictable. I think this is the last year that this will be the arrangement.
Forgot to mention this is a 6-person firm. I am number three in the pecking order. The three below me are all interns, who I believe get year-end bonuses in the range of $1000 to $2000.
when i saw this thread title i couldn't help but be reminded of the slot machine that kept yelping out BONUS TIME!!! whenever noí rigged it to let him win beer money
just doing the math...
7 person firm 12.5%
recently got a raise of 9%
same month the insurance for an 18 month old went up 54% wiping out all but a few pennies of the raise.
also did some research and found out that my family was living at 72% AMI...
20 person firm
bonuses usually between 25 and 30% but depends on jobs we recently got paid for.... this year, i am expecting lower 15-20, hopefully i will be surprised.
15% raise yesterday (after 2mo of me asking about it...) and no expectation of bonus this year, though talk was raised about profit-sharing type opportunities and/or performance based incentives for next year. we'll see.
though my primary employer is ALWAYS picking up tabs for dinner/coffee/drinks whenever we're out on site or meeting clients. it's a nice perk, but 10% year-end bonus it ain't.
is 2007 my year?!?! god i hope so.
this reminds me of my need to ask the 'nect for some advice on incentives, but i'll avoid hijacking this thread...
i received a year end bonus each of my first three years...
in the last seven i have not..one employer gave out champagne,
the next i was a consultant..the next i was still a consultant, but
i got gifts worth about $500. i don't believe my current employer
gave a bonus last year...
the quotes of 10-20% type bonuses makes me sad...don't know
if i've seen one of those ever...and definitely haven't seen a raise
in a while either...i'm startin to get restless.
I would give up every penny of whatever bonus I might get this year if I never had to endure another conversation about why I (we) can't get in at 8:30 and leave at 5:30, or better yet, 9-6 (instead of the 8-5 bullshit they keep hitting us over the head with).
<--- this guy.....1st yr at this firm
don't know what the bonus is;
needless to say my former offices all stiffed me cause we got BIG OLE nothings for christmas.
therefore don't expect much. I hear all of you "complaining" about your 10-20 percent, and whilst I feel your pain....I also think "boy anything is better than what I've gotten before, which is nothing!"
Review coming up (don't wanna hijack...sorry) but thinking need to be up at 15-18% to bring me up to "market value" cause otherwise Im getting stiffed......YET AGAIN!!!!!!
lars, i feel your pain
7:30-6:30
for times without deadlines
i usually go home work on side projects after that, which is far more rewarding, i am counting the days until cln1 studio
squirrelly, I have found that firms that give the larger bonuses tend to pay slightly less for weekly salary, in the end it all just about averages out (based on your level of experience)
one firm i worked for in the past gave HUGE bonuses - well over 30% but the hourly pay was much lower, they always made it seem as if they were doing you a favor by giving you such a good bonus. now those people are the ones who should be given the name 'squirrelly'
Just to toss some more gas on the fire, I've been reading up on overtime, salaried vs. hourly employees, etc. and came across a little factoid that a salaried employee working a 50 hour week (instead of a standard 40) is essentially working three months a year for free. However, the employer is billing the client and getting paid for all your hours (sometimes time and a half for OT).
Just keep that in mind when your boss tells you that he and the family are going to Mexico for a week!
I worked in a firm where everybody was begging for flex time. When it finally got implemented most people started coming in very early (some as early as 6am) so that they could leave really early. Nobody started coming in later than before, though the flex time rules said we could come in as late as 10am.
For raises: a raise of 3% to 4% will just cover the average cost of living increase each year. Keep that in mind if you're in a firm that gives 10% or 15% raises every three years or so - you're mostly just keeping up with rising costs in that scenario.
10% every year is nice and certainly not a bad thing to shoot for, though if you calculate that out (multiplying each successive year by 1.1) you'll see that's probably only sustainable for 8 to 10 years at best - assuming you started at an average entry-level salary for your region and you stay in the same region or one with a similar range - before your salary would start to outstrip norms for that experience level. That was my goal in my intern years - to always make at least 10% more than the year before or else jump to a new firm. That worked for a long time, but at about the 10-year mark it started to get to the point where that would be an unusually high amount for someone who is not an owner of a firm.
bloo- apprectiate your input. I guess I knew letdown wasn't over the 10 year mark yet. i think 10% is a good starting point if you HAVE to bring a number up and work from there. Don't ask for 5% when they would have given you 8%, you know. The first three years I got 10% every year, and no it wasn't much cause I started really really low. I'm going to ask for 10% again this year, which is significant, but I think I deserve it and if get 5% then I get 5%.
a 10% raise doesn't keep up with your professional development or the additional value you provide to your firm as you move beyond cad monkey into running projects. instead of asking for a % above what you currently make, analyze your skills/abilities/stregnths/weaknesses, and price what you are worth to another firm doing similar work if you jumped ship. That is how you negociate for an appropriate raise.
bonus???
I got a 17" Dell labtop last year. But he did this more as a "I'm sorry" for not getting you health insurance when he promised. (finally got insurance 1 year after he officially hired me).
More importantly
How bout I got my review 1-1/2 months ago and still don't know how much my raise is that he promised.
Why? cause I've only been paid once since then and it was all back pay. He currently owe's me about 7-8 weeks of back pay.
Holy shit... I hope you really like that job. If my bosses owed me 7-8 weeks of back pay, I would have walked out, well, about 6-7 weeks ago and started calling lawyers.
As for my own "holiday bonus", I've been expecting a raise for about 8 months now, and apparently the office hasn't had a holiday bonus in 6 years. (Keep in mind the bosses own a Jaguar, a Porche, a nice house on the North Shore, and a large sailboat. And they can't figure out why staff turnover is so high.) If I weren't planning to start grad school next fall, I would have found another job months ago.
before i started working for the man (municipal government) i usually got between a 3-5% bonus... basically one paycheck...
last year, my first as a bureaucrat, i got a $25 gift card to a grocery store... i'm expecting the same this year, if anything... but that's OK 'cause i'm making about $20K more than i did in the private world...
as far as raises go i've been getting 3% at the end of the fiscal year for cost of living/inflation and 5-10% on the anniversary of my hiring for merit increase...
now for a short rant about other professions... last year my dad, who was training director for a fabric and fibers company, got a 50% bonus... the company that his company bought last year got 150% bonuses... unreal!
oh yeah, the firm that i was getting the 3-5% bonus at was 7 people when i started and about 12 people when i left... at least that's how many people were in our office... the main corporate office had about 50 and the other office had about 30 people, for a total of about 100 in all of the offices...
my 1.19% was when I'd been with the firm just about 6 months. I'm really, really hoping that was a partial and not a full bonus and that I'll get more this year. I'm hoping, but I really have no idea.
My job is eh!
Pros - Because my boss is barely around I get a lot of design control. I've also been learning how do build on his dime(something I didn't learn in school; interior design background)
Cons - Because my boss is never around he doesn't get things done; like billing, which means .
I'm in the same boat as you Living in Gin. If I wasn't planning on Grad school I would of definitely left by now as well.
Have my performance review next wed. Question for you guys since I've never had one before (only worked summers between school semester previously) what should I expect? I am working part-time while going to grad school right now so I dont' expect much of a raise/bonus but I'm just wondering what the typical review is like.
My PM is really laid back and made it seem like no big deal but should I prepare for this at all? Go by the book and bring my IDP docs to show what areas I need to get exp. in? Just say the hell with it since my final review in studio is the day before?
Depends on what you want to get out of it. I have been on both sides and they are harmless in my experience. In my reviews everything was positive. I never really prepared for one, basically just showed up.
But, looking back on it from my perspective now, I would have tried to use the time more constructively. Basically you have your superiors giving you time to talk about your career or whatever else you want feedback on. I would go into the review with that mindset.
Does your firm have a standard review form, or even an informal list of questions that will be discussed in the review? Many of your co-workers will probably just read the questions and prepare to talk about them in the review. You can be one step ahead of them AND impress your reviewers if you email your draft responses to them BEFORE your review. (This strategy scored me big-time points with my reviewer once a few years ago.)
This is also a good idea if you will be springing something new on the reviewer, like, "I don't want to design those blue buildings anymore. Give me some red buildings to design."
If you do, in fact, discuss groundbreaking topics, try to document them for yourself afterwards. If your reviewer tells you, "Sure, we can let you design some red buildings," your personal document will tell you when you had that conversation. If you're still designing blue buildings in 6 months, a polite reminder to your reviewer may be in order.
Also, in past reviews, I've found my reviewers to be rather candid about my other co-workers. This is a very fine line to tread, because it could quickly turn into gossip. But, if you have a serious working conflict with a co-worker, this COULD be the opportunity to discuss it. However, use your best judgement; a separate conversation may be in order.
One final thought (to bring this back to topic of this thread): by the time of your review, your firm will probably have decided what your bonus will be. At one firm for me, the reviewer already had a printed document that stated my bonus amount. I've never asked for a higher amount than what was given to me (I view a bonus as an unexpected gift), but I'm curious if anyone has "negotiated" their bonus after the firm offered it to them.
Holiday Bonus Time!
Okay Folks,
Just curious about the fun filled bonus time that is approaching.
Please provide how many employees are in the firm you work for, and the % of salary bonus you got. For example, if you got a $2,000 bonus and your salary was 40k, you would have gotten 5%.
No actual dollar amounts need to be posted. Thanks
(I'm actually curious about past year %, since its not holiday time yet)
What are those again?
hmmm, lets see, last year at my 15 person firm I got a 1.19% bonus. And this year, I think we're getting a new server instead of bonuses. My hopes are not high.
40 ppl, last yr - 1month bonus. lets see about this yr.
I don't think I get one. Is July to December 6 months or 5 months? This finger counting is not very realiable.
Last year my bonus was about 30% of my salary. I've been led to believe that this year will be just about exactly the same. But this is because my base salary is low for my level of experience and geographical region, and my total annual compensation is based heavily on a large bonus that represents a pre-set percentage of profits (with a guaranteed minimum of about 12% of my base salary.)
This has been a good arrangement for me over the past three years, but is obviously risky and unpredictable. I think this is the last year that this will be the arrangement.
Forgot to mention this is a 6-person firm. I am number three in the pecking order. The three below me are all interns, who I believe get year-end bonuses in the range of $1000 to $2000.
my bonus would to land some more work over the next few months.....
one man army here........
2:37am
9 people, 1.7%
Actually, I've been here for about 6 months. I'm expecting a 5% bonus, a 10% raise, and a promotion. Is that too much to ask?
don't forget a couple more weeks vaycay
No bonus... nothing, nada, zip. Famous architect, hovering around 50 people.
Been here over twenty years and never got one... just a christmas party.
I think I get a Jelly of the Month Club membership.
jelly's good.
not sure how it works here...I started this past January...
4 people.
last year, my bonus was less than 1%.
pretty much sealed the deal on my early exit, especially since he couldn't run his business.
i got a $25 giftcard once, but now am hoping for more.
when i saw this thread title i couldn't help but be reminded of the slot machine that kept yelping out BONUS TIME!!! whenever noí rigged it to let him win beer money
i like that wallpaper too
Bonus? What is that again?
A few years ago the boss handed out "Price is Right" tickets as the "bonus."
Not quite sure what the reaction was.
just doing the math...
7 person firm 12.5%
recently got a raise of 9%
same month the insurance for an 18 month old went up 54% wiping out all but a few pennies of the raise.
also did some research and found out that my family was living at 72% AMI...
20 person firm
bonuses usually between 25 and 30% but depends on jobs we recently got paid for.... this year, i am expecting lower 15-20, hopefully i will be surprised.
whats a typical raise? or if there is no such thing... what is considered a fair yearly increase based on good performance?
15% raise yesterday (after 2mo of me asking about it...) and no expectation of bonus this year, though talk was raised about profit-sharing type opportunities and/or performance based incentives for next year. we'll see.
though my primary employer is ALWAYS picking up tabs for dinner/coffee/drinks whenever we're out on site or meeting clients. it's a nice perk, but 10% year-end bonus it ain't.
is 2007 my year?!?! god i hope so.
this reminds me of my need to ask the 'nect for some advice on incentives, but i'll avoid hijacking this thread...
i received a year end bonus each of my first three years...
in the last seven i have not..one employer gave out champagne,
the next i was a consultant..the next i was still a consultant, but
i got gifts worth about $500. i don't believe my current employer
gave a bonus last year...
the quotes of 10-20% type bonuses makes me sad...don't know
if i've seen one of those ever...and definitely haven't seen a raise
in a while either...i'm startin to get restless.
around 450 person firm
5% bonus every quarter( +or- a few dollars based on performance)
I would give up every penny of whatever bonus I might get this year if I never had to endure another conversation about why I (we) can't get in at 8:30 and leave at 5:30, or better yet, 9-6 (instead of the 8-5 bullshit they keep hitting us over the head with).
Nevertheless, it will probably be about 10-20%.
Seriously, EVERY PENNY.
try 9 to 7:30ish 8ish.
my firms day is 9-8....been doing it for a year. needless
to say it's gettin old and i'm a bit burnt out.
<--- this guy.....1st yr at this firm
don't know what the bonus is;
needless to say my former offices all stiffed me cause we got BIG OLE nothings for christmas.
therefore don't expect much. I hear all of you "complaining" about your 10-20 percent, and whilst I feel your pain....I also think "boy anything is better than what I've gotten before, which is nothing!"
Review coming up (don't wanna hijack...sorry) but thinking need to be up at 15-18% to bring me up to "market value" cause otherwise Im getting stiffed......YET AGAIN!!!!!!
mightylittle......
maybe we should start up that thread
Im just bad a negotiations...need to get some tips!
i don't know anything about bonuses
but we do 9-6
I give my boss a big bonus every year, and bless him in my Christmas dinner grace.
lars, i feel your pain
7:30-6:30
for times without deadlines
i usually go home work on side projects after that, which is far more rewarding, i am counting the days until cln1 studio
squirrelly, I have found that firms that give the larger bonuses tend to pay slightly less for weekly salary, in the end it all just about averages out (based on your level of experience)
one firm i worked for in the past gave HUGE bonuses - well over 30% but the hourly pay was much lower, they always made it seem as if they were doing you a favor by giving you such a good bonus. now those people are the ones who should be given the name 'squirrelly'
Just to toss some more gas on the fire, I've been reading up on overtime, salaried vs. hourly employees, etc. and came across a little factoid that a salaried employee working a 50 hour week (instead of a standard 40) is essentially working three months a year for free. However, the employer is billing the client and getting paid for all your hours (sometimes time and a half for OT).
Just keep that in mind when your boss tells you that he and the family are going to Mexico for a week!
letdown, ask for 10%
I worked in a firm where everybody was begging for flex time. When it finally got implemented most people started coming in very early (some as early as 6am) so that they could leave really early. Nobody started coming in later than before, though the flex time rules said we could come in as late as 10am.
For raises: a raise of 3% to 4% will just cover the average cost of living increase each year. Keep that in mind if you're in a firm that gives 10% or 15% raises every three years or so - you're mostly just keeping up with rising costs in that scenario.
10% every year is what I mean
10% every year is nice and certainly not a bad thing to shoot for, though if you calculate that out (multiplying each successive year by 1.1) you'll see that's probably only sustainable for 8 to 10 years at best - assuming you started at an average entry-level salary for your region and you stay in the same region or one with a similar range - before your salary would start to outstrip norms for that experience level. That was my goal in my intern years - to always make at least 10% more than the year before or else jump to a new firm. That worked for a long time, but at about the 10-year mark it started to get to the point where that would be an unusually high amount for someone who is not an owner of a firm.
bloo- apprectiate your input. I guess I knew letdown wasn't over the 10 year mark yet. i think 10% is a good starting point if you HAVE to bring a number up and work from there. Don't ask for 5% when they would have given you 8%, you know. The first three years I got 10% every year, and no it wasn't much cause I started really really low. I'm going to ask for 10% again this year, which is significant, but I think I deserve it and if get 5% then I get 5%.
a 10% raise doesn't keep up with your professional development or the additional value you provide to your firm as you move beyond cad monkey into running projects. instead of asking for a % above what you currently make, analyze your skills/abilities/stregnths/weaknesses, and price what you are worth to another firm doing similar work if you jumped ship. That is how you negociate for an appropriate raise.
bonus???
I got a 17" Dell labtop last year. But he did this more as a "I'm sorry" for not getting you health insurance when he promised. (finally got insurance 1 year after he officially hired me).
More importantly
How bout I got my review 1-1/2 months ago and still don't know how much my raise is that he promised.
Why? cause I've only been paid once since then and it was all back pay. He currently owe's me about 7-8 weeks of back pay.
Holy shit... I hope you really like that job. If my bosses owed me 7-8 weeks of back pay, I would have walked out, well, about 6-7 weeks ago and started calling lawyers.
As for my own "holiday bonus", I've been expecting a raise for about 8 months now, and apparently the office hasn't had a holiday bonus in 6 years. (Keep in mind the bosses own a Jaguar, a Porche, a nice house on the North Shore, and a large sailboat. And they can't figure out why staff turnover is so high.) If I weren't planning to start grad school next fall, I would have found another job months ago.
we sent some of our team to the Barefoot College in India or an extra week off.
before i started working for the man (municipal government) i usually got between a 3-5% bonus... basically one paycheck...
last year, my first as a bureaucrat, i got a $25 gift card to a grocery store... i'm expecting the same this year, if anything... but that's OK 'cause i'm making about $20K more than i did in the private world...
as far as raises go i've been getting 3% at the end of the fiscal year for cost of living/inflation and 5-10% on the anniversary of my hiring for merit increase...
now for a short rant about other professions... last year my dad, who was training director for a fabric and fibers company, got a 50% bonus... the company that his company bought last year got 150% bonuses... unreal!
oh yeah, the firm that i was getting the 3-5% bonus at was 7 people when i started and about 12 people when i left... at least that's how many people were in our office... the main corporate office had about 50 and the other office had about 30 people, for a total of about 100 in all of the offices...
Has anyone gotten a "partial bonus" since you had been with that office for less than a year?
my 1.19% was when I'd been with the firm just about 6 months. I'm really, really hoping that was a partial and not a full bonus and that I'll get more this year. I'm hoping, but I really have no idea.
My job is eh!
Pros - Because my boss is barely around I get a lot of design control. I've also been learning how do build on his dime(something I didn't learn in school; interior design background)
Cons - Because my boss is never around he doesn't get things done; like billing, which means .
I'm in the same boat as you Living in Gin. If I wasn't planning on Grad school I would of definitely left by now as well.
Have my performance review next wed. Question for you guys since I've never had one before (only worked summers between school semester previously) what should I expect? I am working part-time while going to grad school right now so I dont' expect much of a raise/bonus but I'm just wondering what the typical review is like.
My PM is really laid back and made it seem like no big deal but should I prepare for this at all? Go by the book and bring my IDP docs to show what areas I need to get exp. in? Just say the hell with it since my final review in studio is the day before?
cvankle.
Depends on what you want to get out of it. I have been on both sides and they are harmless in my experience. In my reviews everything was positive. I never really prepared for one, basically just showed up.
But, looking back on it from my perspective now, I would have tried to use the time more constructively. Basically you have your superiors giving you time to talk about your career or whatever else you want feedback on. I would go into the review with that mindset.
Good luck.
cvankle,
Does your firm have a standard review form, or even an informal list of questions that will be discussed in the review? Many of your co-workers will probably just read the questions and prepare to talk about them in the review. You can be one step ahead of them AND impress your reviewers if you email your draft responses to them BEFORE your review. (This strategy scored me big-time points with my reviewer once a few years ago.)
This is also a good idea if you will be springing something new on the reviewer, like, "I don't want to design those blue buildings anymore. Give me some red buildings to design."
If you do, in fact, discuss groundbreaking topics, try to document them for yourself afterwards. If your reviewer tells you, "Sure, we can let you design some red buildings," your personal document will tell you when you had that conversation. If you're still designing blue buildings in 6 months, a polite reminder to your reviewer may be in order.
Also, in past reviews, I've found my reviewers to be rather candid about my other co-workers. This is a very fine line to tread, because it could quickly turn into gossip. But, if you have a serious working conflict with a co-worker, this COULD be the opportunity to discuss it. However, use your best judgement; a separate conversation may be in order.
One final thought (to bring this back to topic of this thread): by the time of your review, your firm will probably have decided what your bonus will be. At one firm for me, the reviewer already had a printed document that stated my bonus amount. I've never asked for a higher amount than what was given to me (I view a bonus as an unexpected gift), but I'm curious if anyone has "negotiated" their bonus after the firm offered it to them.
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