The Christmas Bonus

Bonuses have been in the news recently: the debate over the Bankers bonuses, the BAA chief deferring his and Carlos Tevez being offered, or so we are led to believe, a performance related bonus to stop him moving to that well known Argentine island Tenerife.

Our Christmas bonuses are modest by comparison but nevertheless appreciated by the staff as recognition of our individual and combined efforts during the year. I know that there are people who think that all bonuses should be scrapped, that they should be incorporated into higher salaries, but I think that they actually foster a sense of goodwill between employer and employee.

Of course there is always somebody who feels that whatever bonus they get it’s not enough and sure enough this year was no exception. It wasn’t even a case of somebody deliberately saying what they had received, simply the reaction of a member of staff when she opened the envelope with her bonus cheque in it. An excited, “Bloody hell,” was all it took to upset two other members of staff whose reaction when opening their envelopes was a downbeat, “It’s the same as last year.”

The usual, “It would be nice to be appreciated,” line was trotted out which to be honest pissed me off as we have bent over backwards this year to accommodate the wishes of the two people concerned with regards to their private lives.

It’s been an interesting, to say the least, year at work. The year started at an all-time low in terms of morale but recovered and despite the doom and gloom of the economy we’ve gained more new clients than we’ve lost. The redundancy news in the summer cast a cloud over everything and the fall out from that will be felt a lot further down the line as the legal “niceties” begin.

2011 will continue to be a challenge, will the ‘double dip’ arrive, what pressure will there be on jobs from tax rises, will the inevitable increase in interest rates affect job prospects.

We shall just have to wait and see.