Rational Behind End of Year Bonuses

I've always wondered how end of year bonuses are decided? Are they quantified in any way or do the senior guys just meet up and pick an arbitrary number they think is fair based on your performance?

Also any stories of people disagreeing with their bonuses? How did you guys go about confronting the issue or were you just passive about?

5 Comments
 

Disagreeing with your bonus is like the kid at the orphanage complaining about the clothes he got for Christmas.

You either shut up and take what they give you, or you leave for greener pastures. There really is no inbetween, at least not in my experience.

 

For Analysts and Associates bonuses are awarded in buckets. I.E. first year analyst buckets may be 60k, 50k, 40k, and 30k. Associates and above sit down and discuss the analysts before bonus season. Based on that meeting you get placed in a bucket. This can be somewhat arbitrary (I.E. one outspoken VP starts the conversation about you negatively and even if all the associates love you they will likely not waste the political capital disagreeing with the VP and will keep their mouths shut).

 

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