Basically, any money I would be making from these side projects ends up going toward studio materials, printers, plasma cut steel, and extruded aluminum pieces custom milled and installed in someone’s space (still waiting to get paid for that, don't see it happening). Many times, we invest our own money (gas, hardware, tools) when the office is out of funds.
That .52% in my 'job with benefits' is no exaggerations, btw.
Mid-sized firm - for staff who have been with us for at least a full year, this year bonuses will range from 4% to 40% of pre-tax base salary, depending on contribution. Each member of the firm will receive at least $600, regardless of time in service (even if it's a few weeks.) Our philosophy is to share the rewards of practice with everybody, but to push the really significant money to those who make the really significant contributions. These can be hard judgments sometimes, but they must be made.
I forgot about that. I got dinner too, right after I hung a giant wreath off of our building in a freezing rainstorm and decorated the trees on the street with crappy x-mas lights.
So do most people get their bonuses as a separate check, say at the office holiday party, or is it a drawn out process where the boss sits you down and tells you how great, or not, you are?
Get a separate check in my holiday card. Last year I got a brief chat about how they loved the 'unique energy' I brought to the office, but the amount was not discosed until I had my card alone to open.
I'm an intern in my first year of schoolm and I work at a firm for free...However I was blown away to find a 12 Volume set of 'Domus' printed by Taschen. I'm really amped, I thought I might get a six pack or a pat on the back. Instead I got 83 pounds worth of architecture. Now if I can just figure out how to drag this thing home on the R Train...
so an update:
got a book as part of my "bonus" so I chose the latest monogram from Morphosis. Not bad, typical morphosis, but since I didnt own it, it was a cool gift. But as I grabbed it I was told "don't you wanna wait till the boss hands the books out with the checks?" I was like "what checks?" which leads me to think.....maybe we will get a little cash incentive this year! Well see!!
Large Firm 200+ staff | 5 years experience
8% raise, 8% bonus and employer jumped 401k matching to 200% from 100% this year.
I also got a partial bonus one year after only working here for a month. Bonuses are sized based on hourly vs. salary employess and merit. I'm still hourly so mine was less but the OT this year is in the $4k area. Work minimal OT, only at deadline and while traveling.
That said I work on corporate architecture. The design freedoms are very little. Most of the work is project management. It's bread and butter work but most archinecters would probably scoff at such work.
Those of you that are getting no bonus might want to consider what you do at work each day. If you love the work you are doing you shouldn't complain so much. If you are only working for the $$$ then you can always jump ship to a firm like the one I'm at.
im getting no bonus that i know of... hopefully a raise but im not even sure about that... perhaps a review of my work... if i ask nicely... and i believe ill get a book... of the work that our firm does......
on the subject though... if i started full time in june, do i have grounds for asking for a raise after new year? i believe ive earned one, but thats just me. Is it stupid to think i should get a end of year raise though ive not worked a year?
depending on the firm and your position, it's not unreasonable to ask for a 6 month performance review. if the performance review goes well then you can have grounds to ask for a raise. also, sometimes it's kind of understood that if you are asking for a performance review, then you think you deserve a raise and want a chance to prove it to them.
depends on how strict your office is about such procedures, of course. but it's worth asking at least for a review, even if nothing comes from it it's a great opportunity to remind your principle of who you are and what you do. not to mention that you're a go-getter!
sweet good idea myriam, that was my thought as well
possible note to my boss requesting a perfomance review... if i were actually going to give him a note requesting a performance review.
Dear Mr. Boss,
As reigning Most Ok Employee, i know what it takes to be good at stuff. Im sure you will find by reviewing my performance over these past 6 months that i am, in fact, really good at doing stuff; and i feel i have risen from the level of Most Ok Employee to at least, lets say, Way Better than Bad Employee which in America, means raise.
i want 10%
So we had a pretty good year too but we just got our bonuses and mine was way less than last year's. I think it's because we went from like 30 people to about 48, what do you think?!? I mean it has to be, right?
My wife just got her holiday bonus, a $25 Target Gift Card. She works in a large corporate environment where the top level management and executives get $100k+ cash bonuses.
So don't feel so bad for your smaller than expected bonus. It's not only architects getting screwed by the man .
I heard on NPR the other day that the average holiday bonus this year at Goldman Sachs, the investment firm in NYC, was $600,000. Ricockulous. Can you imagine working there? Surely even the receptionist is given a huge bonus there.....if they weren't and they heard that report on the radio, you might have a "reception mutiny"....
hahaha.....wait actually come to think of it, CD has a good idea. I just wanna be the janitor there, cause I am sure he/she gets a good bonus for picking up their trash.
I'm all over it!
we get quarterly bonuses of $500. its supposed to depend on how well the firm did each quarter, but I have been here for over 2 years and its always $500.
i WORKED FOR MY BONUS LAST WEEKEND.....STORY OF SELF EMPLOYMENT. IT WAS A FLUKY JOB, WHICH I KNEW I WOULD HAVE TO SACRIFICE THE WEEKEND. I CAN SAY IT WENT OUT ON MONDAY AND I'M AWAITING A NICE CHECK FOR SERVICES PERFORMED. THINK I WILL THROW A THOUSAND TOWARD TICKETS TO BRAZIL.
the contractor i'm working w/ gave me an american express gift card worth a couple hundred. but the boss said b/c she didn't get one also i must return it. actually, she said SHE must return it. seems a bit fishy to me.
i'd like to! i hid it and figure i'll give her a couple of days to re-consider or get her own ;) but the amount of the card DOES make me a bit uncomfortable. i've talked to a number of professionals who say they haven't ever received a gift of this size from a contractor.
as for a holiday bonus? my boss can't even remember to give us our paychecks, i seriously doubt there'll be any holiday love flowing from her wallet!
ChAOS, maybe you should go work for the contractor.
And honestly, what kind of normal paychecks are these people pulling in that they get a $600 grand bonus? And aren't profits like that just completely unheard of?
My bonus was probably about 3%. Last year it was about 10%. Funny story though, we all got our bonuses at work yesterday, and that was fine, but then at our holiday party last night, the founder of the firm and the guy who is retiring said, "we're going to play a game. I'm going to give you an envelope with the name of another employee on it and you have to give it to them." Turns out we got ANOTHER bonus - supposedly a late payment came in from a client - and our boss just didn't know everyone's names. Ha.
the nytimes reported that they are paying $16.4b in salary/bonus this year on a profit of $8.7b... this is sort of fishy that they are paying twice the amount of profit in those bonuses... If i were a stockholder, I'd be really pissed about not getting my vic.
hey WonK....
screw it, who cares if the boss(es) dont know everyones names. The point of the story is that you got yet ANOTHER bonus which is always nice. Im still with my book and nothing more! :\
I suppose at Goldmans you have a lot of fairly intelligent, experienced people spending long hours (whole careers!) thinking of nothing but how to maximise the amount of cash there is across the globe into their own pockets. Meanwhile, we think about construction details so it sort of figures. Of course, maybe the idea is to do 5 years at Goldman Sachs before studying architecture. Then when it comes to architecture bonus time you could just say 'ta' with a chuckle, via your secretary, from your yacht.
fyi, mine's about 3.5%, commercial office of around 70, but this is pretty meaningless really: it's the overall package that counts. Which would be something to ponder in the long, quiet hours aboard the yacht if you thought you'd sold your soul and started to take such things seriously...
Holiday Bonus Time!
Approx. 20 people pretax bonus equals 7% of pretax income.
Not too bad I guess!
I am licensed (1 yr.) with about 10 years experience.
We are supposed to get reviews, but they seem not to happen!
Day Gig-
26 people
.52% Bonus and a leather notebook with our logo on it. HOT!
Evening Gig-
4 people
neg 20% Bonus and an EPSON R1800
A really great frind of mine works for an investment group. She's been there 3 weeks and she got 500 cash.
Thrifty- care to elaborate how that negative 20% bonus works???
5 Principals, 7 underlings, 3 front office.
I have a BS Architecture, M. Arch, 2.5 years post graduate work experience.
10% bonus, 5% raise, and 3 % retirement deposit (SAR-SEP IRA).
Christened Project Manager (from Job Captain)
They do bonuses every 6 months.
It doesn't really work, does it?
Basically, any money I would be making from these side projects ends up going toward studio materials, printers, plasma cut steel, and extruded aluminum pieces custom milled and installed in someone’s space (still waiting to get paid for that, don't see it happening). Many times, we invest our own money (gas, hardware, tools) when the office is out of funds.
That .52% in my 'job with benefits' is no exaggerations, btw.
Mid-sized firm - for staff who have been with us for at least a full year, this year bonuses will range from 4% to 40% of pre-tax base salary, depending on contribution. Each member of the firm will receive at least $600, regardless of time in service (even if it's a few weeks.) Our philosophy is to share the rewards of practice with everybody, but to push the really significant money to those who make the really significant contributions. These can be hard judgments sometimes, but they must be made.
I got dinner last week.
I forgot about that. I got dinner too, right after I hung a giant wreath off of our building in a freezing rainstorm and decorated the trees on the street with crappy x-mas lights.
So do most people get their bonuses as a separate check, say at the office holiday party, or is it a drawn out process where the boss sits you down and tells you how great, or not, you are?
Get a separate check in my holiday card. Last year I got a brief chat about how they loved the 'unique energy' I brought to the office, but the amount was not discosed until I had my card alone to open.
I'm an intern in my first year of schoolm and I work at a firm for free...However I was blown away to find a 12 Volume set of 'Domus' printed by Taschen. I'm really amped, I thought I might get a six pack or a pat on the back. Instead I got 83 pounds worth of architecture. Now if I can just figure out how to drag this thing home on the R Train...
Cumbersome reading material, always a welcome gift. But no more working for free after this year.
so an update:
got a book as part of my "bonus" so I chose the latest monogram from Morphosis. Not bad, typical morphosis, but since I didnt own it, it was a cool gift. But as I grabbed it I was told "don't you wanna wait till the boss hands the books out with the checks?" I was like "what checks?" which leads me to think.....maybe we will get a little cash incentive this year! Well see!!
20 person office. zero bonus.
just got one of these!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
she's not wearing the right shirt.
now this is more fashionable:
14 person firm
2.7% bonus
7% raise
+ enrollement into 401K w/10% match
this year?...hopefully:
5-8% bonus
8-10% raise
3-5 more days of vacation
I can dream can't I? We had an awesome year...
Large Firm 200+ staff | 5 years experience
8% raise, 8% bonus and employer jumped 401k matching to 200% from 100% this year.
I also got a partial bonus one year after only working here for a month. Bonuses are sized based on hourly vs. salary employess and merit. I'm still hourly so mine was less but the OT this year is in the $4k area. Work minimal OT, only at deadline and while traveling.
That said I work on corporate architecture. The design freedoms are very little. Most of the work is project management. It's bread and butter work but most archinecters would probably scoff at such work.
Those of you that are getting no bonus might want to consider what you do at work each day. If you love the work you are doing you shouldn't complain so much. If you are only working for the $$$ then you can always jump ship to a firm like the one I'm at.
im getting no bonus that i know of... hopefully a raise but im not even sure about that... perhaps a review of my work... if i ask nicely... and i believe ill get a book... of the work that our firm does......
on the subject though... if i started full time in june, do i have grounds for asking for a raise after new year? i believe ive earned one, but thats just me. Is it stupid to think i should get a end of year raise though ive not worked a year?
depending on the firm and your position, it's not unreasonable to ask for a 6 month performance review. if the performance review goes well then you can have grounds to ask for a raise. also, sometimes it's kind of understood that if you are asking for a performance review, then you think you deserve a raise and want a chance to prove it to them.
depends on how strict your office is about such procedures, of course. but it's worth asking at least for a review, even if nothing comes from it it's a great opportunity to remind your principle of who you are and what you do. not to mention that you're a go-getter!
Im getting a new career!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
^ my Xmas present to myself
one less person in the game...that's good...
sweet good idea myriam, that was my thought as well
possible note to my boss requesting a perfomance review... if i were actually going to give him a note requesting a performance review.
Dear Mr. Boss,
As reigning Most Ok Employee, i know what it takes to be good at stuff. Im sure you will find by reviewing my performance over these past 6 months that i am, in fact, really good at doing stuff; and i feel i have risen from the level of Most Ok Employee to at least, lets say, Way Better than Bad Employee which in America, means raise.
i want 10%
Love,
lletdownl
So we had a pretty good year too but we just got our bonuses and mine was way less than last year's. I think it's because we went from like 30 people to about 48, what do you think?!? I mean it has to be, right?
In any case it will get used.....
My wife just got her holiday bonus, a $25 Target Gift Card. She works in a large corporate environment where the top level management and executives get $100k+ cash bonuses.
So don't feel so bad for your smaller than expected bonus. It's not only architects getting screwed by the man .
my prorated quarterly profit sharing bonus works out to be about $30/week- I'll happy enough... there will also be a yearly perfomance bonus later.
this is at an 80 person arch/interior/facility managment firm
I heard on NPR the other day that the average holiday bonus this year at Goldman Sachs, the investment firm in NYC, was $600,000. Ricockulous. Can you imagine working there? Surely even the receptionist is given a huge bonus there.....if they weren't and they heard that report on the radio, you might have a "reception mutiny"....
WK, do you know an address where I can forward a resume?
hahaha.....wait actually come to think of it, CD has a good idea. I just wanna be the janitor there, cause I am sure he/she gets a good bonus for picking up their trash.
I'm all over it!
our firm (large national corporate) does not give holiday bonuses.
we get quarterly bonuses of $500. its supposed to depend on how well the firm did each quarter, but I have been here for over 2 years and its always $500.
I was watching that same program, DubK. I can't imagine making that much over ten years, much less all in one paycheck!
$600,000 bonus? no thanks...wouldn't want to have to pay the taxes.
what did you get wonder K?
Everybody in the firm just got a personalized etched 30gb black ipod to listen to podcasts on sustainability and innovation- yeah!!!!!
Gettin a big pack o' chipboard
treekiller, you kidding? You got the ipod on top of that $30/week? Not bad.
That's a sweet gift just by itself! I mean imagine the whole office getting them! Nice bosses, treekiller!
i WORKED FOR MY BONUS LAST WEEKEND.....STORY OF SELF EMPLOYMENT. IT WAS A FLUKY JOB, WHICH I KNEW I WOULD HAVE TO SACRIFICE THE WEEKEND. I CAN SAY IT WENT OUT ON MONDAY AND I'M AWAITING A NICE CHECK FOR SERVICES PERFORMED. THINK I WILL THROW A THOUSAND TOWARD TICKETS TO BRAZIL.
the contractor i'm working w/ gave me an american express gift card worth a couple hundred. but the boss said b/c she didn't get one also i must return it. actually, she said SHE must return it. seems a bit fishy to me.
That's so wrong, chAOS. Tell you boss "No. Get your own. Mine"
i'd like to! i hid it and figure i'll give her a couple of days to re-consider or get her own ;) but the amount of the card DOES make me a bit uncomfortable. i've talked to a number of professionals who say they haven't ever received a gift of this size from a contractor.
as for a holiday bonus? my boss can't even remember to give us our paychecks, i seriously doubt there'll be any holiday love flowing from her wallet!
WonderK, if I got $600k as a bonus, I wouldn't have to work for a while. Though they probably expect you to not quit after that.
ChAOS, maybe you should go work for the contractor.
And honestly, what kind of normal paychecks are these people pulling in that they get a $600 grand bonus? And aren't profits like that just completely unheard of?
My bonus was probably about 3%. Last year it was about 10%. Funny story though, we all got our bonuses at work yesterday, and that was fine, but then at our holiday party last night, the founder of the firm and the guy who is retiring said, "we're going to play a game. I'm going to give you an envelope with the name of another employee on it and you have to give it to them." Turns out we got ANOTHER bonus - supposedly a late payment came in from a client - and our boss just didn't know everyone's names. Ha.
re: goldman-
the nytimes reported that they are paying $16.4b in salary/bonus this year on a profit of $8.7b... this is sort of fishy that they are paying twice the amount of profit in those bonuses... If i were a stockholder, I'd be really pissed about not getting my vic.
hey WonK....
screw it, who cares if the boss(es) dont know everyones names. The point of the story is that you got yet ANOTHER bonus which is always nice. Im still with my book and nothing more! :\
I suppose at Goldmans you have a lot of fairly intelligent, experienced people spending long hours (whole careers!) thinking of nothing but how to maximise the amount of cash there is across the globe into their own pockets. Meanwhile, we think about construction details so it sort of figures. Of course, maybe the idea is to do 5 years at Goldman Sachs before studying architecture. Then when it comes to architecture bonus time you could just say 'ta' with a chuckle, via your secretary, from your yacht.
fyi, mine's about 3.5%, commercial office of around 70, but this is pretty meaningless really: it's the overall package that counts. Which would be something to ponder in the long, quiet hours aboard the yacht if you thought you'd sold your soul and started to take such things seriously...
we got a jump drive for our christmas 'bonus'. not even a fancy, schmancy big 2 gb storage one. it's 128 mb.
sad, i know.
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