I’m really confused. I received my annual bonus today and it is 10 percent lower than last year. Here’s the problem. I was hired a year ago as a secretary at my company. But, attending school part time, I received a degree in public relations and six months ago was promoted to a higher grade as a staff member in the Communications Department. I have met my targets, received letters of commendation, and have a heavier workload than before. Still – less bonus! What should I do?
Your letter leaves out two critical pieces of information when it comes to making sense of bonuses – how did the overall company do this year, and how did your department perform? If the answer to either of those questions is “worse than last year,” than the reason for your 10 percent decrease could be right under your nose.
Another possibility could be a good, old-fashioned bureaucratic screw-up. Your old boss and your new boss might not have exchanged notes about your pay, or the HR department may have missed a beat when you changed positions. It happens.
But there is a third possibility, and definitely one to think hard about if your company and department did well over the past year. The facts are, you may have hit your targets, but your performance is a relative thing. It can be (and probably is) measured relative to what was expected of you and to the performance of other members of the team. It is possible you’ve done well enough to receive positive feedback, but not as well as hoped, or not as well as a number of your co-workers.
There is, of course, only one way to find out what’s going on, and that is with a candid conversation with your boss. Make an appointment, and calmly ask her to explain your bonus. Your main goal with this talk is to learn. So listen more than talk, and by all means, do it soon. Don’t ever let confusion fester. In time, it will only grow in anger.
One last point here, and it is a broader one for anyone who has gotten a degree while working at a company. In our experience, once you’ve “bettered yourself” with education at night or part time, you’re much better off moving on to another organization. People tend to have what we call an “embedded reputation” at their companies. A degree just never seems to change that, even if your work improves. If you want real bang for your education’s buck, take your new credential elsewhere, where it stands a much better chance of making you look as good as you intended it to.
This question and answer originally appeared in Business Week magazine on January 02, 2006.
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