Please define “longevity bonus.” I have worked for 26 years and have never once heard this term. I have only ever received pay increases based on merit, and in the last year, as part of a collective bargaining agreement.
Normally in good years we get performance bonuses but the last two years we didn’t do well overall so there weren’t any. This year there were a very few and they pretty much sent out a memo saying don’t expect one but that there would be a few.
Imagine my surprise when I actually got one! Now it was nowhere near my typical bonuses, about 10% of the normal but still a nice bonus. Nothing to sneeze at, but I really enjoyed my old bonuses in years past. Let’s just say my old bonuses made for some good Christmases! Hopefully this is all a good sign of things to come in upcoming years.
We also typically get a small gift at our Christmas party, but the parties have been toned down from past years and will be again this year. This year it is emplyees only where in the past you could bring your partner.
Christmas Party. Technically. Potluck, semi-mandatory, or a $15 donation. Also, semi-mandatory $25 secret santa. Isn’t that pleasant? We get to gather in the conference room for it.
No raises. No bonuses. We do get the 24th off, this year, it being Friday and all. No nothing else.
Do people really get raises anymore? Sometimes there’s a cost of living increase in the neighborhood of one or two percent. About it.
We get performance bonuses twice a year: most people here think of the second one as a Christmas bonus, even though it isn’t. We didn’t get one this time, though. The company does, however, give us turkeys - that don’t fly. As God is my witness.
Sounds like you are being given a bonus to congratulate you on survival. Rough/dangerous job?
Where I work, once you’ve been here five years, every July 1st you get “longevity pay”, which means they give you a certain percent of your salary as a bonus. (2%, I think?) Anyway, the percentage goes up after ten years and then fifteen and twenty. You keep your longevity years if you switch jobs here or even if you leave for a while and then come back - it accumulates. They want to keep you so they don’t have to get somebody else.
So, you get a raise just for being there huh? That’s a novelty.
Do you also get increased vacation time? That’s how it works here, bonus-wise.
The company I’m at right now is the only company I’ve ever worked for that gives out Christmas bonuses, which is one of the reasons it consistently ranks in the top 50 best companies to work for. The bonuses have been smaller the last couple years, due to the economy, but they’re still happening, at least. I was actually very pleased with my bonus this year – it was better than I expected, but my expctations are generally pretty modest.
Of course not. And today, we just received word that we’re closed the week between Christmas and New Years, as well as the 24th. There’s three company holidays in there already, but you’re expected to either use PTO or take the other three days unpaid if you’re not required to be in (some shift workers might be here).
My husband worked for a company that had much the same policy. Also, I have a bunch of PTO already that I was mostly saving up for next year (there’s a lot of family stuff going on next year that I’ll need the time for) ,so I’m not too upset about it. However, it was just sprung on us this morning, and a lot of people are.
Not really. The first couple years I worked here we got a yearly bonus much like our quarterly gain shares (the quarterly ones are based on performance in several areas… Sales, production, health and safety and are based on a percentage of that quarters salary). The yearly is overall company iirc and were a percentage of that year’s salary. They always came just before Christmas so people thought of them as the Christmas bonus. In addition we’d get a $50 gift card to a grocery store.
The last two years we got nothing but the pleasure of having a potluck dinner in the boardroom. Would sure be nice to have even the gift card though!
I’ve worked for several financial services firms, and none of them paid a Christmas bonus. Performance bonus time for all of them has been March – just before tax time.
I work for the guvmint. They usually let us go home early Dec 24th. Sometimes in the past the budget has allowed them to spring for pizza or something, and then we have a mini-potluck, where “the company” pays for the entree, plates, etc, and each of us brings a minor contribution, like say cookies. One year, the guvmint had enough to pay for the whole deal. This year, it’s said that the managers are paying for the pizza out of their own pockets.
In the past, working for Private Industry, we got a turkey or the equivilant like Flutterby sez, say maybe $50. One year, in retail, we got a super-duper discount on one set of purchases, basically cost, so you could buy all your Christmas presents there at one swell foop. That actually could save a bundle.
I receive a performance award around Veterans Day if I’ve done well enough since New Year’s to merit one and there’s enough money in the budget.
No Christmas bonus, but there are special sales incentive contests in December that can account for some nice extra cash.
I switched jobs about six weeks ago, so I’m not really sure. The new place is a non-profit, though, so I’d expect not. Instead, our director is making us all dinner one night next week and giving us small presents, which I think is very nice of her.
We get our annual bonus in the fortnightly pay just before Christmas (23 December this year). It’s not officially a ‘Christmas’ bonus, but it certainly feels like one.
We get a Christmas bonus that varies wildly. One year I got $60 which was nice, it’s a bonus after all but I was a bit bummed as I’d gotten $1300 the previous year.
We also get a Christmas party, a small gift like a company shirt/jacket/hat, and a little bit of vacation time to make up for the week or so that the office is closed over Christmas and New Year.
This year the boss said we don’t get vacation because we’re so busy but they are giving us a larger bonus. I’m not paid very much per hour but it’s still a pretty damned good gig.
Starting with our 10th year of service at my employer, we get “longevity pay,” which comes in our second November paycheck, so the effect is of getting a bonus right before Christmas.
I’m only at 12 years of service, so mine is equal to one half of a regular paycheck.
If you also get:
no health insurance
no sick pay
no vacation pay
we might work for the same company. Non-profits are grand. I’ve never in my life gotten a bonus from any of the ones I’ve worked for. So, people still get bonuses somewhere, then. Huh.
The only bonus we get is self made. We get a bonus on paid sales over $XXXX amount, if you want a bonus, just go out and work harder and sell more!
No Xmas party, we have a sales meeting the first week of Jan where we get a free dinner but I have to take a day off work to get to it so I lose out on a days’ paid sales.