I was watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation the other day and it got me thinking about this. You may remember the scene where Clark goes apeshit over getting a jelly of the month membership in place of a real Christmas bonus.
Anyway it’s kind of funny to think back on a time when rescinding a Christmas bonus was considered a faux-pas beneath even the stingiest of bosses.
In recent years, though, it’s something that a lot of businesses, mine included, have cut out. The closest thing I’ve received to a bonus the past few years was a $50 grocery card my company gave me last Christmas.
So do you receive a Christmas bonus? Have you received one in the past, but had the company cut it out altogether?
We usually get a Christmas present but due to bad economy (the government has placed a lot of new things to do on our shoulders, but refrained from funding us properly) there will be none this year. On the other hand, the presents we have got the last years have been so crappy anyway, so it’s no big loss).
They will fund us with beer and wine for a little office party, though, but no food.
Nope. Everyone here gets the shaft, a la NewsRadio.
Jimmy James: Everybody gets an equal bonus of $400.
Dave Nelson: That sounds good, sir.
Jimmy: Except for one lucky person who gets a bonus of $3000, or as I like to call it, “The Big Bonus”.
Dave: That’s very generous of you, sir.
Jimmy: And also, one employee gets a bonus of $0, or as I like to call it “The Shaft”.
Yep, we’ve gotten holiday bonuses every year that I’ve been here. I should get mine tonight at the holiday party, actually, so we shall see if it continues to be the generous cash gift it has been in the past or if it has been replaced by a jelly of the month club type thing due to the economy.
No. I am however provided with three floating holidays which I can use whenever I want. The presumption is that most people will use them between Christmas and New Years, but you don’t have to.
This is the first company I’ve worked for that gives bonuses. The first year I was here we got a $100 gift card for any one of maybe 20 places. Good thing I like to cook, because Kitchen Etc. was the only one that even remotely interested me.
Since then we just get a traveller’s check from American Express. Much more useful.
Long-time fed employee - never received an x-mas bonus.
In fact, in my new position I am expected to contribute to paying for the entire office’s holiday party! :rolleyes:
I’ve only worked one place which gave bonuses, and they were end-of-the-year performance bonuses. If your section had done well, everyone in the section recieved a portion of the bonus. The manager could give you more out of his share if he wanted to (happened to me once). Some years nobody got one, due to poor performance of the company as a whole.
Now I am self employed, so, no, I don’t get a Christmas bonus. But I can take off whichever days I want to.
Typically we get a very small Christmas/holiday bonus in my department. It gets bigger the longer you’ve been here, but is still tiny - probably mid-three digits for the workers who’ve been here the longest, if I had to guess. I started at $25, I think.
There are rumors of no year-end bonus this year, but who knows. We got our performance bonus during the summer.
Typically I also get a nice gift card to a department store from the doctors I work with.
Our department also hosts a catered-in party with an open bar and cheesy, voluntary quizzes and contests.
I used to, but not this year. I used to work for an Affiliate of a large organization, but this year my department was transferred, so we now work for Corporate. The Affiliate gives Christmas bonuses, but Corporate does not.
Corporate gives a longevity bonus in the summer, but it’s not as big as the Christmas bonus I was getting. Oh well…
I get a performance bonus in March but I’ve never gotten a Christmas bonus. My current company gives out a Christmas present to all employees, this year is was three Hickory Farms sausages the last two years it was 2 lb chocolate bars.
