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I work for a company that every christmas, they give out christmas bonus’s. Usually everyone gets something even if its just a few $$.

However, this year, everyone but myself got one. I called my manager on this and asked the reason why, and he informed me that I was lucky to even have a job as I had my resume posted on a site. I informed him that the resume was there way before I was hired for this company and I use it for contract work outside the company. He told me I was not getting a bonus this year.

Yet everything I’ve done for the company I’ve gone beyond my call of duty. They don’t do reviews or annuals at this place. But I’ve not gotten any bad feed back.

After my manager told me this, I proceeded to leave. I then called his supervisor and we set up a meeting for Monday to discuss the situation.

Unfortunately these two are brothers. So I don’t feel that I will get anywhere.

What are your suggestions?

Topic

Consult with a lawyer

In reply to Your Reaction

I would try to delay that meeting, and first consult with a lawyer who specializes in labor law. An annual bonus to all employees from a company may be part of total compensation and prevent selective application.

My guess is that your boss has a very strong need to feel employees are loyal to him personally, and that seeing your resume hurt his self image. Finding out that it was his error in interpretation further damaged it.

While a happy reconciliation is probably unlikely, you should at least make sure that it has the least amount of personal damage to you.

Check with legal aid or even a union like CWA or AFL-CIO to find a lawyer. There may be no cost to you, so at least check.

RUN!!!

In reply to Your Reaction

If nothing else, this situation should be a red flag about problems with how this company is run.

A small business that operates with informal policies can be either a good opportunity, or a disaster.

If they are so petty for such a minor issue, what may happen if something more substantial arises?

A bonus system that is not based on performance does not need to follow the same rules that apply to other pay issues.

That said, your reaction was rash.
It sounds like you did not stop to think about the repercussions of your action.

How will you explain why you left to a new employer?

In most areas of the US, you do NOT qualify for unemployment if you leave a job on a voluntary basis.

With any luck, you can come back to work.
However, it is time to look for a new job!!!

Chas

Run Away

In reply to RUN!!!

You do not want to go back to work for this company. If you are getting contract work on the side then you don’t have to put up with this garbage. If you stay at this company you will be tormented by these jerks every day. There is no going back now.

Monday they will probably ask you to stay for a couple of weeks and document a bunch of stuff for a smooth changeover from you to your replacement. My advice is to either tell them to ram it or hold them up for a big severence. Who knows, maybe if you really put the screws to them they won’t be so nasty to the next person in that position.

Call it a day

In reply to Your Reaction

It sounds like your boss got the wrong opinion from seeing your resume and acted instinctively and can obviously not admit a mistake and award you a bonus.

I worked for a company several years ago that handed out a few grand to everyone at Christmas time, based on your time with the company. Everyone got a Christmas card with a bonus amount written in it, you had a choice of a company RRSP or having payroll just addot to your check.

One girl was quite upset hwen she found out that it was too close to Christmas to have the bonus added BEFORE Christmas and it was on the first check of January. This was an oversight by the boss who had been on vacation. He wouldn’t admit they were INTENDED as Christmas bonuses and said it was just a year end thank you, not specifically a Christmas bonus.

She went on to complain to HR that this was a Christmas card and she would REALLY appreciate them adding it before the NewYeat.

Her bonus was revoked completely and she got nothing.

Bottom line, it was a bonus. Not part of a structured pay system, not a profit share but some additional money for each employee given from the good of the boss’s heart.

He was not obligated to pay the bonus, he was not obligated to provide a reason for NOT giving the bonus, or in this case, take it back.

Needless to say,it was only four weeks more before they found ‘just cause’ to terminate her employment after 8 years.

How does the saying go? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth?

I thnk YOU wer out of line for complaining. Whether or notthe boss midunderstood your resume post or not is irrelevant, he chose NOT to give you a bonus. Unless this is a contracted or structured bonus, profit share or year end payout of an agreed salary, you are wonrg in your complaint. I think the boss figured , If you don’t like it, leave and you have.

So go and work for the competition and become a star employee that takes them to the next level, your boss will defenitely feel your presence then as your old boss wallows in his haste.

Start looking for another job.

In reply to Your Reaction

If you are a consultant take your customers with you when you go.

Give him a big FU when you leave.

Yeah then get sued for that..

In reply to Start looking for another job.

First check that their are now contracts, policies, etc. regarding customers with the company. Ie. “If you leave our employ you can’t do business with any of our established client base for x amount of time”.

Else, yeah someone will give a big FU — the company to the employee.

Nopers

In reply to Yeah then get sued for that..

never seen anything or signed for anything as such, so it can’t be held against me.

Take the high road – but the road outta’ there

In reply to Your Reaction

Dear Boss,

I was disappointed, to say the least, to discover that I was the only one in the entire company to be overlooked for the annual Christmas bonus. Moreover, I was surprised to hear your reason for such an omission. The fact that an on-line service still has my resume on file doesn’t detract from the years of dedicated service I’ve given the company. I never did plan to leave the company, and if you were concerned about such a possible outcome, I would have been happy to discuss it with you and set your mind at ease. The resume remained with the service only to provide some leads for me to do a little bit of outside consulting. The consulting work I do does not conflict or interfere with my position here, nor is it in violation of the written company policy. And in today’s financially tough times, I think it’s certainly understandable for a person to seek a little extra income.

You suggested that I was lucky to have a job here and that I shouldn’t complain. Well, I feel that any employer-employee relationship should be equally beneficial to both, and your sentiment made it painfully obvious to me that you don’t feel the same way. Considering the fact that I’ve never had a performance review that indicated there was a problem with my work ethic, and further considering that many people recognize the “above and beyond” dedication I’ve given the company, I can’t help but feel that my efforts here are going unappreciated.

I’ve therefore decided that it would be best if my time with your company came to an end. I regret having to make such a decision, but I think it may be best for all people involved. Rest assured, I’ll give the appropriate two weeks notice, and I’ll do whatever is necessary to make the transition go as smoothly as possible. If you would like to discuss this with me further, I’ll certainly welcome such a discussion. In the absence of such a discussion, however, I’ll assume that you concur, in which case my last day with the company will be two weeks from the date on this notice.

Sincerely,

John Doe

———-

Of course, you’ll have to be ready, willing and able to say bye bye. If that is not the case, be prepared to feast on a little bit of humble pie.

No reason to stay

In reply to Your Reaction

It is my feeling that there is an issue of respect between employer and employee. As the employee, you need to respect your employer, do the things they ask of you, work your best, complete the assignments you are given, and follow the policies and procedures the company employs.
The employer needs to respect your needs as an employee, they need to not make demands that are absurd or beyond your abilities, and they need to compensate you accordingly.
I could understand the employer being concerned at seing your resume.
What gets me is that AFTER you explained that it was an old resume, one you didn’t maintain since you were happy as their employee, that the employer freaked out!
With-holding the resume AND saying you were “lucky” to still have a job are just childish things to do.
For that alone, I would leave.
Good luck.

Tough call

In reply to Your Reaction

In this situation it sucks to be left out. Many people plan on the upincoming bonus for their holidays and are shocked when it doesnt come. I’m not out to defend the “boss” so to speak but have you considered how well the company is doing? Times are tough for all and I know from experience when my parents were in business. Some months we were living large and others, weenies and beans for meals to make payroll. If you ran a business and had trouble giving a bonus, would you forget it or give a good one to many but not all and rotate each year so no one is forgotten? I admit it sucks, but do you think you were singled out or there wasnt enough to go around which bothers you? The you’re lucky crack could have been do to the frustration/embarrassment that they couldnt provide for all and gave alot away only to get spit on. It’s bad form to complain, but I completely understand that you were excluded and embarrassed. My roomate got passed up for this years bonus. He and another who did more work overall rather than the others who only worked on completing a project that needed help from my roomate and associate to finish on top of their nornal duties. Both were hurt and pissed, but the boss had exclude two and it came down to a hat of names, it was a corparate bonus. ONe person got the bonus only to get it witheld due to probation issues.

Personally I think you got the only satisfaction by confronting him about the failure to provide that will be a wedge between your working relationship. Move on or stay but talking to someone about a situation to make clear is better than quitting or submitting a letter of intent. If these brothers are truly “professional” they will understand your point of view as well as explain the how and the why they made their decision.

On bonuses

In reply to Tough call

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I think that these kinds of bonuses should be either paid to everybody or to nobody. The company has a pool of bonus money that should be divided equitably between all the employees, and no one should be left out.

It would be the “you’re lucky to have a job” comment that would tell me it’s time to consider my other options. No boss should ever say that to someone, especially in a context such as the one described.

Yeah…

In reply to On bonuses

I do agree that in a perfect world that all should get a bonus that is worth getting and not well this all we could do small amount. I would prefer if I would get a really good bonus that excluded a small amount knowing that everyone got a turn and next year exempt pending effort. It should also be determined by level of attempt to do better work but not all get the same opprotunity to make a difference in their position so there would have to be some criteria. I just dont think a person who calls in sick all the time deserves a bonus over the more dilegent employee.

I do agree that his/her days are numbered after that confrontation. It’s a schame that a conversation gets out of hand with ego’s flying but that’s life. Some people can let go and understand that it was only that day that instance and some take the grudge to their death. I experienced this with a store manager that wasnt professional when the critism came to him. He held grudges as a slap in the face rather than understand the frustration of his employees. He ruined many people’s careers in the company including mine. The only good was that he was never promoted to the next level, merely moved from store to store. He should have been let go but they just thought he would quit when he realized he was trapped like he did to others, but he still could make quite a living vs the others that got squashed under his boot heel.

Monday

In reply to Your Reaction

Ok, it’s Monday. I went in to work and sat in my office for 2 hours before either of the brothers came in.

When I was finally called into the main boss’s office, the main brother informed me that there was a misunderstanding of what was said and asked for the exact words.

I told him, he said “I was lucky to have a job”. My boss told him that he said “I was looking for a job”.

I proceeded to say that there’s no way that was what he had said, and the main boss proceeded to tell me that the bonus’s were at the Managers descrition.

Yes, the company is doing very well. Many of the sales associates gets over 10,000.00 bonus’s, and the other employees gets over 2,000.00 each.

I was told that others did not get their bonuses and that they didn’t react the way that I did. But when I checked the only one that didn’t get one was a new employee who had just started there.

The other employees who got bonus’s only did their day to day jobs.

I told the main boss that, and that I felt that I had gone above the call of duty and done more than what was expected of me. He said that was not the way my boss felt. I then informed them that it would have been nice had I gotten that feedback from him several months ago so that where I was not performing to expectations I could have corrected. But by him not telling me, I assumed everything was good.

I was also told that I couldn’t add their company to my resume on my web site as it was company confidentiality and was against their rules. When I explained to them that I signed nothing and have read nor seen any company manual or confidentialility paper, that that was null and void. And a bit un-called for to say that I could not put that on my resume.

They both just shut up at that point.

I was then told to go back to my office, and wait for their decision. About an hour later, my boss came in and said, your going on vacation soon right? I said yes, I was to start tomorrow. He said, no, your on vacation now. Come back from your vacation and we’ll discuss this further.

Your thoughts?

Well – look at the bright side

In reply to Monday

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At least you have your resume up to date. That’s more than many job seekers start out with.

By the way, your handle may be appropriate

In reply to Well – look at the bright side

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I’ve just closed my eyes again
Climbed aboard the dream weaver train
Driver take away my worries of today
And leave tomorrow behind

Fly me high through the starry skies
Maybe to an astral plane
Cross the highways of fantasy
Help me to forget today’s pain

Though the dawn may be coming soon
There still may be some time
Fly me away to the bright side of the moon
And meet me on the other side

-Gary Wright (Dream Weaver)

True True

In reply to By the way, your handle may be appropriate

Never even crossed my mind. I’ve had that handle for years and years. Guess I should pay more attention huh! GRIN!

Thanks and Happy Holidays to you all.

One thing to keep in mind!!

In reply to Your Reaction

When I was hired for this company, I was never given a manual nor did I ever sign for anything such as a company confidentiality, or anything saying that any program that I wrote belonged to this company.

Fortunately I was smart on my programs. Each programs source code is password protected. In the source code there is a small piece of code that expires the program at the end of a given date. If that date isn’t changed by me or someone who knows the source code password the program will open, then close and nothing more.

Now, I’ve taken that one step forward, and taken the source code and created an executable of the program which is what the company is using. I have the source code now archived in a winzip file that is also password protected.

Since I was the administrator and handled the backups of such programs, I never added them to the back up so they can not even rely on a back to restore anything.

So here’s the thing, come the end of my vacation, should they hack me, by the end of that month, their nice little programs that I’ve wrote for them, that they rely on company usage, will no longer work for them.

Not Good

In reply to One thing to keep in mind!!

I am not a lawyer, but it seems very likely that your employer owns any source code you write on their time, as opposed to code you write on your personal time. My advice is to give up the passwords when asked, but wait for them to ask. At least make them sweat a little bit.

I’ve got news for you…

In reply to One thing to keep in mind!!

THEY OWN YOUR SOURCE CODE dude.

Hate to break it to you but by default the employer owns the work produced on company time, using company resources by company employees. The only thing that changes this is if you have a contract with the company that states otherwise. The point is the company does not need to have you sign something saying “We own your code” — legally its automatic for them. All they’d have to do if this went to court is proof that you worked on said code for the company, on company time, using company resources — any sane judge in the world would rule in their favor.

Also if you have it set up for restricted access on the source code, should they get rid of you…just know they have full legal recourse to sue you for that and chances are (based on the little info you stated thus far) they’d win with ease.

Lost time/earnings

In reply to I’ve got news for you…

If they do take you to court over the source code they could ask for any lost earnings due to your actions. Give them the passwords before you leave, unless you have very deep pockets.

Response

In reply to Lost time/earnings

1) They have no idea that the code is protected.
2) They have no idea that I even programmed the code to shut the database down, as they can’t get into the code to see my code.

So, with that said, they have no proof that I did anything.

Ethics

In reply to Response

While I think you were shafted on the bonus issue, and that this does not sound like a place I would want to work, I don’t think you should sink to their level.

If you are sacked when you return, provide them the information they need to prevent any time bombs from going off.

Well said oldefar–I agree

In reply to Ethics

All things considered, regardless of all else — yes the employee was done wrong in my opinion. However personal ethics should not be tarnished, its about self-respect, moral integrity, professionalism, etc.

I’d be extremely upset don’t get me wrong — but I wouldn’t sabotage company owned property either.

Tom

Bailout code bombs

In reply to One thing to keep in mind!!

Over the years I’ve heard about people who put what might be called ‘bailout code bombs’ into their software.

In the most positive light, they are looked upon as unethical scum who give IT a bad name.

In some instances they are taken to court for what they do.

You may think that you have all your bases covered, but are you sure about that? The fact that you are mentioning this on a public forum could be used against you, especially if there is a cache trail left on your PC.

And even if you don’t get caught and prosecuted, the company could use the ‘crash’ of their programs as a way of giving you a very negative reference.

Think about it carefully.

Here’s one for ya

In reply to Your Reaction

A guy at my friend’s workplace is on workers comp for the third time this year, an American who seems to always hurt his back but won’t use a pallet jack because it’s not macho enough.

He’s a senior employee of 13 years and the top hand in his position.

Everyone at his company got over $1200.00+ in X-Mas bonus each depending on time with the company. Being the most senior, this particular employee gets around $3500.00.
The boss decided NOT to give him a bonus AT ALL this year for the first time. Now understanding this guys been off alsmost 90 days this year, he’s still the warehouse manager for the whole region, but nope no bonus.

He didn’t even bother mentioning it to his boss because he knows his boss would just say F*&K yourself, I don’t have to give you anything.

Apparently, he had already spent this money in expectation of it, guess that’s what you get when you count your chickens before they’re hatched.

Why would your manager be looking at job postings?

In reply to Your Reaction

He sounds pretty subversive. I’d check with a lawyer to see what my rights were. Someone like this probably goes through your desk too after you leave at night to see what he can find out.

Start looking for a new job. You don’t want to work for this idiot.

Already on top of that

In reply to Why would your manager be looking at job postings?

I don’t have anything personal at this place in the first place, and I don’t do anything person on the computers so I don’t have anything to worry about him going through my stuff, however, I know he does.

He also has a program that allows him to watch what everyone is doing, and he’s been watching me for the last 6 weeks. That’s ok, cause like I said, I don’t do anything that would get me into trouble.

Putting the most recent employer on resume

In reply to Your Reaction

I was told that I could not put this company on my resume as it’s against the company’s confidentiality policy.

I informed them, I’ve never seen nor have I ever signed such a form.

Some friendly advice: Do a little soul searching and do the right thing

In reply to Putting the most recent employer on resume

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Regardless of who said what, or did what, or signed what, or didn’t sign what, or wasn’t nice, or wasn’t fair, or whatever, if you take anything but the high road, it could come back to haunt you. I can’t help but think that there are attitude issues on both sides, yours and your boss’s, and if you leave with a “get-even-with-him” attitude, you’ll be leaving with nothing gained but potentially a lot to lose, not to mention a little bit of self-respect. The only way to feel like an honorable person is to do the honorable thing. Conversely, what kind of person would do a sleazy thing?

If someone doesn’t want me to put them on my resume, I’d be an idiot to do it anyway. What’s to gain? Absolutely nothing. What’s to lose? Well, some future employer might call him and get an earful of what you may not want him to hear, especially if you leave them hanging without a password for the code that they paid you to write for them.

Man oh man, take the high road outta’ there. Be cordial and professional, and give them everything they need to continue on without you. If you leave with an F.U. attitude toward them, you may be the one getting F’d in the long run.

How are things now?

In reply to Your Reaction

Been a few days, hope you got an attorney for this issue. You better know what to expect first before they do you a number.

I don’t blame you for getting upset, but at the same time they have certain rights under State law that over shadows regional law or your own personal judgements. Just like being a tech, you should know the enemy, right? Even the simple fact that something happened to the database that you worked on after you left is just cause for them to investigate you. I hope for the best for you on this endeavor, and hope your new year is a good one as well.

-E

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