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Sure but because that’s true they’re a way for the company to possibly pay quite a bit more. As someone on the other side of the table who has to make comp dec

by CPLX 5y ago

Sure but because that’s true they’re a way for the company to possibly pay quite a bit more. As someone on the other side of the table who has to make comp decisions, I honestly want to pay the team as much as we can afford while being careful to maintain the financial health of the company. I really do, the more I pay people the more likely they are to feel rewarded and go the extra mile and not quit. But that can be scary, since you can’t lower comp as a manager, that’s not really possible. If you’re overconfident you can end up in a genuine crisis. So I pay as much as I know I can afford, and then as a period closes I can look back and pay the extra that I can now be sure I can afford since the results are in. It’s a mechanism to help me pay the maximum the business can afford. It’s in place to help the team make the most money possible. Clearly not every situation will be like this. Clearly somehere there’s someone dangling bonuses as a cynical way to exploit people. But it’s unfair to dismiss the concept out of hand. Especially in volatile lines of business or very fast growing companies.

lr4444lr 5y ago
I can't say I outright dislike anything you're saying, and I do understand your position. My key issue however is that I need to risk assess and budget my life just as you need to do your business. I simply can't do that on the basis of a bonus. It might give me the chance to take a more luxurious vacation or pay down a debt a little faster than I had anticipated, which is wonderful, really, but it's like an inheritance: I have next to no control over it and can't plan my life that way. Lesser comp. that I can plan for gives me control of my life that I'd rather have instead. Stock options are where I'd rather take the risk, because that's a longer haul that I can plan and adjust for with well worn investor metrics, and more importantly, I don't lose and can exercise when it works for me.

by CPLX 5y ago

lr4444lr 5y ago

I can't say I outright dislike anything you're saying, and I do understand your position. My key issue however is that I need to risk assess and budget my life just as you need to do your business. I simply can't do that on the basis of a bonus. It might give me the chance to take a more luxurious vacation or pay down a debt a little faster than I had anticipated, which is wonderful, really, but it's like an inheritance: I have next to no control over it and can't plan my life that way. Lesser comp. that I can plan for gives me control of my life that I'd rather have instead. Stock options are where I'd rather take the risk, because that's a longer haul that I can plan and adjust for with well worn investor metrics, and more importantly, I don't lose and can exercise when it works for me.