Getting Screwed Out of My 12 Month Bonus

I work for a (what used to be) very reputable trading and market making firm and I'm stuck in a wierd situation. According to what was told to me in the course of my interviews and other employees, we are suppose to recieve a 12 month and 18 month bonus for our preformance, although in the contract it is set up to be a discrentionary bonus. Pretty much the whole firm knows that 20% of NTP is the standard for a junior trader running his own account, and while working under someone else, you would get a small cut. I am going on 15 months at the firm and have still not recieved a bonus and all of management is just dragging out the process. I'll bug the owner of the firm about it every other week since I should of gotten it, but he just keeps putting me off. He's the one that actually authorizes the bonus. I'll go to someone else and all of management puts the blame on someone else.

Other individuals are in the same spot as me about having difficultly recieving their bonus and it's definitely not a personal issue toward me. It's starting to effect me negatively toward my trading and I'm starting to just not care about my results or putting full effort into it. The morale at the firm is incredibily low because of various bs moves regarding bonuses and other things. Base salary is enough to live off of, but obviously as a trader, I didn't come into this business to just get that. I could make a lot more money playing poker and all of management knows this. I"m thinking about having a serious chat with the CEO next week and kind of go on strike till this gets resovled. Being the most profitable trader in my division, I think I could get away with this. If I do it though, they'll probably short change my bonus. So BFI, what's my best play?

 

Dude, have some self-respect.

Talk to the guy responsible for your bonus and ask when it's coming. When he doesn't give you a definitive answer, say that you'd like to take a seven week vacation and see how he responds. When he asks what's going on here, say that it's been six months since you were supposed to get your bonus, so maybe you deserve some "interest" in the form of time off. He will keep pressing you, and ultimately, the conversation may have to get all the way to "Pay me or fire me and pray I don't sue."

You have to be willing to risk the job a little to make sure you get paid, but if you know you can make more money elsewhere, you've got all the aces.

 

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