For those still employed, are your firms doing end-of-year bonuses this year?
I know the CEO of HKS mentioned on another thread that his firm would be distributing bonuses to all employees this year, which I am guessing is an anomaly in the industry right now. Just wondering what the general outlook was in regards to this, and if firms would be doing any kind of profit-sharing (what little profit there is...) or performance award.
a lot of small firms that run on cash try to '0' out at the end of the year so that there is no money in savings to count as an asset when taxes roll around. they often give bonuses in order to make that happen. weird, but true.
dude, i would love an umbrella. instead of a bonus, we are getting a mandatory "winter break" (i.e. no pay) between christmas and new years....happy 2010....
We receive our bonuses at the beginning of the year...february...after all the clients have paid their bills for the previous year. Somehow we're still doing very well and received bonuses last Feb, and as of now will still get one in 2010.
My firm is actually large but operates on a zero-out cash basis like the smaller firms you mentioned- so they are giving out bonuses this year. fractions of what they used to be for sure, but no ones complaining! Just greatful to have work...
I got one, but it was pretty pathetic (even compared to last year's bonus), despite the fact that the firm was very busy all year and I had a pretty major role on two important projects. Salaries are also apparently frozen for the second year in a row. I'm pretty disappointed, as I had thought we were doing reasonably well (all things considered) and I was counting on this money to pay for some upcoming major expenses.
For those of you who did get a bonus, even a small one, give a personal thanks to your boss. I am pretty bummed because I handed out pretty hefty bonuses to 30 some employees, each with a personal note of thanks, and 5 days later, only one person bothered to say thank you to me. I guess after 10 or so years of getting bonuses, they were expected.
Yes, people "earned" the bonuses, but this was the most exhausting year I have ever had in my life, and the stress of bringing in work to keep people employed has been unbelievable. I think I took 10 years off my life this last year. It would have been nice for someone to write ME a thank you note, or at least acknowledge what I had to do to keep them employed, with health care, with bonuses, with pension plan, etc.
Archie:
Good for you - I can apprecaite how difficult it is to provide bonuses during tough economic times. We just went thru our process which resutled in bonuses at roughly half of last year's values - still generous, but not as spectactular as the last few years.
just got a $100 gift certificate to Nordstrom, with a "this is not a bonus" speech but a gift for all your hard work.....I'll take it...beats getting layed off again.
I mentioned this on Thread Central, but this year I received the biggest bonus in my career. Basically I was given a paycut last year and this year with the freeze on raises, I effectively got a two year paycut. But apparently it turns out our firm did well, and I personally took an unproportional hit with my paycuts. We got a large steady project and we see opportunities for more, due to my skill set. And so they made up for it with a nice bonus, and was told middle of next year I'd receive a raise to compensate for the paycuts that I apparently unfairly received. And yes, I did let them know I was grateful, pleasantly surprised, impressed, etc. There is hope for us yet.
thanks for posting the tip on thank yous for the bonus. i've been doing this the last few years... the office cards to the bosses are nice, but a quick note on the bonus really seems to be appreciated.
the problem with quitting in november is that I won't be getting a bonus (if the old office even has the $$$ to make them this year). But I'd rather not be around those folks anymore and that more then makes up for a $25 gift card (last years bonus).
I had a client give me a $100.00 gift card. I did his project something like eight years ago. Every year he sends me a
gift, because I helped him set up his pizza business and did
the design work. I always tell him it is not necessary but he
does it anyway.
Sameolddoctor: Hope you had a good holiday. Just got back from a few days with family. Thought maybe I would find a thank you note or two on my desk- no such luck!
Anyway, I am located in Pittsburgh. Things are still really bad here in the burgh- most firms have laid off a large part of staff, at least two bankruptcies including one of the best known firms, 75 years old. I think it is a little better here than most cities, though, just because we never had a big swing up in work, so less of a pendulum swing back.
We are busy because our whole practice has been focused on existing, repeat clients. In a typical year, we only have maybe 5 new clients: 99.8 percent of our work is for clients we have been working with for many years. The work is sometimes boring- we do lots of tenant fit outs, handicapped ramps and other minor renovations, repetitive branded retail stores, etc.. We do some fun stuff too, but most of our work is pretty normal: projects for health care, affordable housing, office tenants, retail, etc. One thing that is interesting is that our staff sometimes complains about the fact that we are not chasing high profile projects. Of course, the firms that normally do that are hurting pretty bad right now. Yet my staff, especially the younger people, don't seem to get the connection between keeping a client happy and keeping a job. I had to reprimand two employees in the last month, one for writing a whiny email to a client when the client asked for changes (we are being paid hourly, for gods sake!), and the other because a client asked us to add three things to a drawing before we sent it out to bid, and the employee "forgot" two of them, and the client was pissed we had to send out addendums and delay the bid due date. If employees truly realized how hard it is go GET a client, and how easy it is to piss them off, and how that is related to HAVING A JOB, they would act in a different way.
Bonuses?
For those still employed, are your firms doing end-of-year bonuses this year?
I know the CEO of HKS mentioned on another thread that his firm would be distributing bonuses to all employees this year, which I am guessing is an anomaly in the industry right now. Just wondering what the general outlook was in regards to this, and if firms would be doing any kind of profit-sharing (what little profit there is...) or performance award.
a lot of small firms that run on cash try to '0' out at the end of the year so that there is no money in savings to count as an asset when taxes roll around. they often give bonuses in order to make that happen. weird, but true.
a lot of small firms this year will be kicking in money to get to 0 this year if they haven't gone bust.
Nope...!
Bwahahahahahahahah!
surprisingly, yes.
Looks like the trend this year in the broader economy is to give holiday gifts to clients/customers, rather than bonuses/gifts for employees:
Business Owners' Holiday Giving Plans
I wish.
my employed friend said he got an umbrella with a company logo this year instead of the bonus...
The zero out bonuses implies that these smaller firms aren't already living on a line of credit from their bank.
I know of no firms giving bonuses this year.
dude, i would love an umbrella. instead of a bonus, we are getting a mandatory "winter break" (i.e. no pay) between christmas and new years....happy 2010....
We receive our bonuses at the beginning of the year...february...after all the clients have paid their bills for the previous year. Somehow we're still doing very well and received bonuses last Feb, and as of now will still get one in 2010.
Highly doubt it...no bonuses or raises last year, & my guess is this year will be the same.
Sure hope so...my first year with the firm but I've heard good things!
I just signed a bunch of bonus checks for every employee. Average of 12% of salaries. People worked really hard this year, and it paid off.
Hahahahaha!
My firm is actually large but operates on a zero-out cash basis like the smaller firms you mentioned- so they are giving out bonuses this year. fractions of what they used to be for sure, but no ones complaining! Just greatful to have work...
I got one, but it was pretty pathetic (even compared to last year's bonus), despite the fact that the firm was very busy all year and I had a pretty major role on two important projects. Salaries are also apparently frozen for the second year in a row. I'm pretty disappointed, as I had thought we were doing reasonably well (all things considered) and I was counting on this money to pay for some upcoming major expenses.
They paid for my plane ticket from SF to NY for Thanksgiving and this past Friday morning I had a phat check sitting on my desk!
Good for you, archie!
Not this year, but it wasn't much of a surprise due to the salary freeze that is in place.
I did get some, but definitely less than last year.
Bought myself a bottle of Bourbon, does that count?
bonus!
wait, just one?
One for tonight...
ok, that's acceptable
I had my unemployment run out today! wait....
you're not fired...how's that for a bonus?
Bosses don't get bonuses..bummer! Playing forward gifts clients and contractors give us...cause it has been a rough year...
hahaha......it just came...a $25 gift card and a scratch off lottery ticket....
For those of you who did get a bonus, even a small one, give a personal thanks to your boss. I am pretty bummed because I handed out pretty hefty bonuses to 30 some employees, each with a personal note of thanks, and 5 days later, only one person bothered to say thank you to me. I guess after 10 or so years of getting bonuses, they were expected.
Yes, people "earned" the bonuses, but this was the most exhausting year I have ever had in my life, and the stress of bringing in work to keep people employed has been unbelievable. I think I took 10 years off my life this last year. It would have been nice for someone to write ME a thank you note, or at least acknowledge what I had to do to keep them employed, with health care, with bonuses, with pension plan, etc.
archie - i'm right there with you...
$25 sbux gift card this year....
Archie:
Good for you - I can apprecaite how difficult it is to provide bonuses during tough economic times. We just went thru our process which resutled in bonuses at roughly half of last year's values - still generous, but not as spectactular as the last few years.
just got a $100 gift certificate to Nordstrom, with a "this is not a bonus" speech but a gift for all your hard work.....I'll take it...beats getting layed off again.
Archie, where do you work to be really busy this year? First time i heard that this year!
$500 for us at the office...
I mentioned this on Thread Central, but this year I received the biggest bonus in my career. Basically I was given a paycut last year and this year with the freeze on raises, I effectively got a two year paycut. But apparently it turns out our firm did well, and I personally took an unproportional hit with my paycuts. We got a large steady project and we see opportunities for more, due to my skill set. And so they made up for it with a nice bonus, and was told middle of next year I'd receive a raise to compensate for the paycuts that I apparently unfairly received. And yes, I did let them know I was grateful, pleasantly surprised, impressed, etc. There is hope for us yet.
archie,
thanks for posting the tip on thank yous for the bonus. i've been doing this the last few years... the office cards to the bosses are nice, but a quick note on the bonus really seems to be appreciated.
the problem with quitting in november is that I won't be getting a bonus (if the old office even has the $$$ to make them this year). But I'd rather not be around those folks anymore and that more then makes up for a $25 gift card (last years bonus).
We went from announced bonuses to likely layoffs with one phone call a couple days ago. F---!
Our bonus was keeping our jobs.
Atsama: I think perhaps we work for the same firm... =)
I had a client give me a $100.00 gift card. I did his project something like eight years ago. Every year he sends me a
gift, because I helped him set up his pizza business and did
the design work. I always tell him it is not necessary but he
does it anyway.
clients... the gift that keeps on giving?
In march they handed out bonuses/raises only to lay off 50% of the firms!
i received a decent bonus (6% of salary) last week at our party...made the holiday a little more bearable
yes!
Sameolddoctor: Hope you had a good holiday. Just got back from a few days with family. Thought maybe I would find a thank you note or two on my desk- no such luck!
Anyway, I am located in Pittsburgh. Things are still really bad here in the burgh- most firms have laid off a large part of staff, at least two bankruptcies including one of the best known firms, 75 years old. I think it is a little better here than most cities, though, just because we never had a big swing up in work, so less of a pendulum swing back.
We are busy because our whole practice has been focused on existing, repeat clients. In a typical year, we only have maybe 5 new clients: 99.8 percent of our work is for clients we have been working with for many years. The work is sometimes boring- we do lots of tenant fit outs, handicapped ramps and other minor renovations, repetitive branded retail stores, etc.. We do some fun stuff too, but most of our work is pretty normal: projects for health care, affordable housing, office tenants, retail, etc. One thing that is interesting is that our staff sometimes complains about the fact that we are not chasing high profile projects. Of course, the firms that normally do that are hurting pretty bad right now. Yet my staff, especially the younger people, don't seem to get the connection between keeping a client happy and keeping a job. I had to reprimand two employees in the last month, one for writing a whiny email to a client when the client asked for changes (we are being paid hourly, for gods sake!), and the other because a client asked us to add three things to a drawing before we sent it out to bid, and the employee "forgot" two of them, and the client was pissed we had to send out addendums and delay the bid due date. If employees truly realized how hard it is go GET a client, and how easy it is to piss them off, and how that is related to HAVING A JOB, they would act in a different way.
tomorrow i'll find out if it's a bonus or the jelly of the month club!
but once again, this year i'm just satisfied to still be employed, and full-time at that! happy new year!
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