-No bonus
-No raises for past 3 years
-1.5 budget cuts for next 3 years, so no raises
-I bought a poinsettia for the office, and it’s the only decoration
-Work on the 24th - might get a call at 3:00 telling us we can go (although last year the person who was supposed to do this left at 12:00 noon and forgot, leaving the rest of us stuck until 5:00)
-Christmas “party” will be the same as last year; go to a free luncheon, disguised as a long-term planning meeting. We will start at 9:00, and work until 5:00 doing strategic planning exercises, with a short break for a crappy buffet. Yay!
My company usually gives $50 gift cards at a grocery store or WalMart. Every other year, they usually have a holiday party at the Delta Ballroom of Opryland Hotel for employees and one guest.*
Other than that, we get quarterly bonuses based upon coporate profit and performance.
My department management generally takes us somewhere like Bonefish or a similarly priced restaurant to celebrate.
*Because of the flood this year, it was uncertain that the hotel would be open for business in December, so the company hosted a casino night in September in lieu of a holiday party. The years between holiday parties, they rent a water park for a company picnic.
No bonus, but I am a public school teacher so a bonus does not go with the job. I do get time off at Christmas! Unpaid, of course. We get no paid holidays.
We get $50 and a gift certificate for a free massage. I work for a massage salon, so it’s not quite as generous as it sounds. Still appreciated, though. By some of us.
How do you all decide which employee gets to bring the guest?
We get a Christmas bonus of approximately one month’s pay. Yes, my employer is generous. We also get a summer vacation bonus of about 1/3 of a month’s pay.
At the company Christmas party, we also get a $125 Visa gift card and a free ham.
…I work for an awesome company.
No X-Mas bonus. However, I was invited to the company party, but it costs 25 dollars to go. Hooray.
In past years, my current employer has generally given everyone an extra paycheck in mid-December - last year was financially worse than I think this year has been, and they still did it, which was pretty cool. My main immediate boss usually also gives something like a Macy’s gift card to the paralegals who work directly for him, and I think one of the other partners gave me a Starbucks gift card as well. All much appreciated, and a number of us give small gifts to the other team members (I generally make cookies or candy and give little bags to everyone). We also have a holiday party to which spouses/significant others and children are also invited, and it’s held at a decent restaurant, with a live band.
All in all, my firm is pretty cool. I do get less paid vacation time and sick leave than any job I’ve had since college, and the pay scale is lower than other for-profit places I’ve worked, but on the whole it balances out.
Right, this is standard for me too, and we get one bonus per year. The good part is that it can be pretty substantial, so it really feels like part of the salary rather than a bonus. My wife works for the government and they get a bonus of about 1.5% of salary at the end of the year. In the financial world it is anywhere from 0-100% or more of salary.
We don’t get Christmas bonuses, but we do get a fairly amazing holiday party- this year it’s being held at the Mayflower, a few blocks away from the White House. They also tend to give out pretty nice raffle prizes at these shindigs.
We do get a fairly sizeable profit-based bonus every year in March- generally a couple of thousand bucks.
Oh, and they also bake us cookies once a week, but my diet won’t let me join in on that festivity anymore.
No I only had one job that gave out a Christmas bonus, and that was $25.00 gift certificate to Marshall Fields. And they only did that ONE year.
I’ve been temping the last three years and no where I worked in December gave out bonuses. People looked at me like “Gee you can afford to hire a temp but you can’t give out a bonus” 
My first job (in the early 70s) was the only job where I and other employees got a Christmas bonus. It was a fixed amount for each year based on longevity. I don’t remember the top figure, but it was something like $5k for 25+ years. The low end was for 1 year or less: $10. Less withholding.
Not exactly. Everyone gets a $5 gift card and we have a nice holiday luncheon that we cram into our gullets between phone calls. It’s not glamorous, but at least we don’t have to work on Christmas like I had to when I worked in retail! Going from that to getting paid time off on all major holidays is, in itself, a holiday bonus.
yay!
I am hourly though, and don’t work in a sales function. It’s more customer service. We do get annual bonuses based on our performance rating, however those don’t come out until February. I suspect that the execs and managerial types still get a holiday bonus, though. Our business is one that does well no matter how poor the economy (insurance).
No I do not, not a monetary one. I’m a city/government employee. I work for a public library. We get paid fairly well and the benefits are very nice. We also work hard for our income. We deal with every type of personality and diversity you can think of. Some days are wonderful, others disappointing, but the work itself is usually always interesting. Budget cuts have made things difficult, but our city has done a decent job at figuring things out with minimal impact. My bonus is working with a smart, interesting and funny group of people, and one person in particular, who is my very best friend and makes my job a joy to go to every day…not to mention that he’s pretty easy on the eyes, too.
A thirteenth cheque is still fairly standard in South Africa - at least in Education circles, I haven’t worked corporate here ever. The bonus is paid in your birthday month to make it a non-religious thing, but since my birthday is Christmas Eve, its all the same to me…
Self-employed, so no bonus. My husband gets one, but it’s actually part of the pay scale here, with the yearly salary being divided into 18 parts, 12 of which are paid monthly and the other 6 months are paid twice a year in June and December. They used to be part of base pay, and people here buy houses and cars and take out educational loans for their kids calculated on paying large chunks of cash twice a year. A few years ago they decreed that bonuses were no longer base pay, and thus could be cut. If they cut my husband’s much more, we are not going to be able to make our mortgage payments… It stinks.
I don’t think I’ve ever received a Christmas Bonus. Except when I was my own boss and splurged on myself one year.
I get furloughed! If you HAVE vacation time you can use it to get paid, if you don’t, your Christmas holiday is unpaid. Its spun as nice since you get to take time off to be with your family (and most people would take it off anyway) - unless your family is my family - husband is an eRetailer and pretty much works 60 hour weeks through the holidays (the website doesn’t close down), sister and her husband are nurses in small rural hospital.
We will have our stability pay on this check. You must have sold your soul at least five years prior. It starts with 2.5% of your gross salary, and increases 1/2 of 1% every year, capping off at 5% after 10 years. It also caps off at a gross of $24k, so if you earn more or have worked here for 15 years, it’s the same as the person who has been here 10 years and makes 24k. We will also have deferred holiday pay on this check, if we worked last Xmas Eve.
Considering I am now making less than I did 5 years ago (no raises, increased cost of insurance), any extra money is welcome.
I work for a regulated company. We get a bonus of four figures (low, LOW four figures) which usually works out to about an extra paycheck’s worth after taxes. It’s not huge like some people get (a friend’s hubby is getting $15k grumblegrumble*) but way more than I’ve gotten at any other job.