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Do some soul searching and try to understand if it was truly the firm screwing you over or if you under-performed in some areas you did not previously recognize. If you are happy with your tea and your long term prospects with the firm, then I would bite the bullet and try to improve performance and reassess after the next bonus. If you're not happy with your team or do not see a pathway to long term growth with this firm, I would start looking ASAP and crafting my story, as next few months are going to ripe for recruitment - otherwise you will likely have to stay another year at your current role.
Very fair points. I assumed that based upon my very good performance review (back in December) that I would be in a solid position for the comp discussion. We had significant senior mgmt turnover above my direct manager, which I sense has something to do with the poor result.
Appreciate the candid feedback. Any tips for a discussion with the manager who (effectively) made the dollar decision? (e.g. "Based up on my strong performance review, can you help me understand why there seems to be a disconnect with the resulting compensation?")
I've never been in a situation where I've had to have a comp discussion with a direct superior so I can't comment on that, but I can say intuitively that speaking about comp 99% of the time accomplishes nothing for you money wise (you're probably not going to convince them of anything and they're obviously not going to just cut you a check). Only time comp ever gets discussed is negotiating the job offer and probably at the very senior / partner levels. Discussing it as a mid level or junior employee will probably tarnish any goodwill you have built up and probably paint you as a "non-team player" or selfish person.
Short version: You have to decide whether the bonus was egregious enough to warrant you looking for a new job. If it was that bad, that's nothing a conversation is going to help with. If it was just below expectations and you like your job, bite the bullet and see if it doesn't improve the next go-around.
Best to discuss with senior / supervisor before deciding to jump.
Completely agreed and I intend to do so. Given that the manager is new to the position (although senior, but seemingly new to having these types of comp conversations), thoughts on having that discussion and then further attempting to cement a "career growth trajectory" with their direct boss and HR?
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