I’ll make this short. My small company pays employees a quarterly profit sharing bonus. It’s not huge, but it’s always welcome. There used to be at least three of us that received this bonus, as we were the whole of the company pretty much.
Now, it’s just me. Owner, his accountant, and me running the whole thing.
IMO I should get the whole sum of what was being distributed between the three of us in the office (accountant not included, she gets whatever she gets). I figure if I’m replacing two people, I get their share of the profit sharing since I’m doing their work, and contributing the same as they would towards the company profit.
I don’t want to ask about a potential increase, because that leaves things open to my boss saying they won’t change and I wouldn’t put it past him. I’d kind of like to make a statement that assumes that I will be getting a large increase in profit sharing pay, just to confirm it.
If the bonus is fairly small, wouldn’t you be better off asking for your salary to be tripled? That is, assuming your suggestion that you’re “replacing two people” is correct?
I would also ask for a raise in pay over any kind of change to the profit sharing. I don’t think your request for a larger percentage of the profit will be viewed favorably, especially since the boss likely thinks that by having you take on more responsibilities without additional employees that you are helping to increase the profits, which already increases your take home pay.
The other thing is, ‘profit’ is a relative term, and not something you can control, whereas your salary is. If the boss gets pissed off about the payout you’re getting, the ‘cost of goods sold’ could suddenly increase because of additional investments made in new office furniture, computers, ‘management retreats’ or other perks he gives himself or that don’t benefit you.
When the profit sharing used to equal let’s say $1000 spread over three people, why would it now not be that same $1000 spread amongst the sole employee?
I’m kind of surprised I didn’t mention the raise involved, it’s minimal, but it’s there. I was asking only about the distribution of the profit sharing pool in relation to what percentage of it I am allotted.
There used to be three people doing all the work, now it’s just me doing all that same work. How am I not replacing two people? Tripling my pay would be nice, but I make/made more per hour than at least one of them. A better share of the profit makes more sense to me.
Maybe you’re saying that without the wage expense of the other two, that profit would increase, hence a bigger increase in my share of said profits. This seems to be true, but I’m talking about the pool of money being paid to the entire staff being split up, not just my percentage of the percentage I used to get. Does that make sense?
Anyway, I brought the issue up today, and he seemed to be on the same page with me. I would love to get all of the sharing bonus, and I may, but at least I’m promised a decent increase.