Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

Re:Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit by matwood on Sunday April 18, 2021 @09:00AM (#26852047)

I think bonuses can work as long as they are an actual bonus. The base salary needs to be correct first. I worked at one place where the base salary was lower, but the bonus made up for it and it was super stressful. I ended up negotiating for a higher base.

One upside I've seen with company performance bonuses is that it can (not always) force even a private company to share more information with employees. This is useful for knowing the general health of the company. Even if the company shares nothing, if bonuses drop significantly or go away that's a clear signal of problems. All too often I see stories of people getting laid off and having no clue it was coming.

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Re:Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit by Viliam1234 on Sunday April 18, 2021 @06:19PM (#26857033)

My approach is to think about the base salary as the "real salary" and the bonus as "lottery".

I negotiate the base salary as high as I need to make. When discussing bonuses, I politely pretend to be interested, but what I actually think is "this is just some imaginary number, that maybe I could get if I win a lottery, which probably is not going to happen".

My family budget is calculated on the base salary. If I get a bonus, I will probably immediately move it to a savings account, or maybe use it as an extra payment on mortgage, to get it out of sight.

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