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Op got robbed. Not only did he work way more hours to meet a milestone but in the end he got the bonus because it was structured in such a way that he did not h

by rdtwo 6y ago

Op got robbed. Not only did he work way more hours to meet a milestone but in the end he got the bonus because it was structured in such a way that he did not have sufficient control of the outcome. It always surprises me how genius level folks can’t do simple math to realize that salaried employees get compensated on the compensation/hours worked formula and if compensation is fixed and hours increase you are getting a screwed. The manufacturing folks got the better deal because they worked at fixed hourly rate and got and equally sad bonus

JohnBooty 6y ago
structured in such a way that he did not have sufficient control of the outcome Yeah, I worked at a job once that tried an incentive program that failed miserably for this reason. We were supposed to hit X number of billable hours per month. For the first few months I worked my ass off and achieved this. However I wound up with almost zero bonus. It turned out that the actual bonus was based on what the clients actually paid, and when they paid it. We had clients fail to pay, or they paid late, or had been given discounts. So most of my hours didn't count, or were shifted to subsequent months... which also happened to be months were sales wasn't able to provide enough billable hours to us for us to reach our bonus. Total BS. As you say... and similar to the linked article... I worked my butt off for the bonuses, and fulfilled my part of the bargain. But was then denied, for reasons 100% out of my control. I quit. Even as a 23 year old that was obviously crap.
tveita 6y ago
Right, as I read it they worked themselves to exhaustion and relations between teams were breaking down. It sounds miserable, and even if the full bonus had been actually achievable it wouldn't have worth the risk of burnout. And presumably this was the intention, tricking people into working unreasonably hard for an uncertain reward. I was surprised the ending was a note about gratitude and not about leaving the company and its abusive management.
- rdtwo 6y ago
  Yeah I didn’t expect that either. I expected the author to realize he got cheated and leave for a better spot. It surprised me that he wrote that whole thing and never realized how badly he got cheated

by rdtwo 6y ago

JohnBooty 6y ago

structured in such a way that he did not have sufficient control of the outcome Yeah, I worked at a job once that tried an incentive program that failed miserably for this reason. We were supposed to hit X number of billable hours per month. For the first few months I worked my ass off and achieved this. However I wound up with almost zero bonus. It turned out that the actual bonus was based on what the clients actually paid, and when they paid it. We had clients fail to pay, or they paid late, or had been given discounts. So most of my hours didn't count, or were shifted to subsequent months... which also happened to be months were sales wasn't able to provide enough billable hours to us for us to reach our bonus. Total BS. As you say... and similar to the linked article... I worked my butt off for the bonuses, and fulfilled my part of the bargain. But was then denied, for reasons 100% out of my control. I quit. Even as a 23 year old that was obviously crap.

tveita 6y ago

Right, as I read it they worked themselves to exhaustion and relations between teams were breaking down. It sounds miserable, and even if the full bonus had been actually achievable it wouldn't have worth the risk of burnout. And presumably this was the intention, tricking people into working unreasonably hard for an uncertain reward. I was surprised the ending was a note about gratitude and not about leaving the company and its abusive management.

rdtwo 6y ago
Yeah I didn’t expect that either. I expected the author to realize he got cheated and leave for a better spot. It surprised me that he wrote that whole thing and never realized how badly he got cheated