Company hands out $10 million in bonuses - is anyone annoyed by this headline?

[Daisyedwards800]

It is an average bonus of $50,000 with some employees receiving $250,000 +

I would be annoyed if someone announced they were giving out $10 million dollars to employees and then the actual amount was like $10,000-20,000.  Which isn't exactly headline worthy although it is a nice bonus.

[scottish]

That's a big bonus budget for a company with only 200 employees...

[Travis]

Context is everything. If it was a Fortune 500 I might think that is a small number.  I'd want to know the company size, revenue, profit margin, and C-level salaries before making a judgement.

[fattest_foot]

$10 million sounds like a lot to most people who only deal with their own personal finances.

For anyone who's managed other people's salaries, you realize that "millions" doesn't actually buy the services of that many of your employees.

[Wrenchturner]

Depends on how much of your wage is comprised of bonuses.

I can increase my hourly wage by 60%+ by topping out my bonus structure.

The salespeople in my company are ONLY paid bonuses--when they close deals.

[Chris Pascale]

Read this and thought it was nice. Would have been even better if everyone got the $50k.

Working for the federal government, the bonuses are very small. Managers, I think, top out at $10k, but make more than that in a month, so what's the big deal?

[By the River]

Read this and thought it was nice. Would have been even better if everyone got the $50k.

If the bonus was an annual bonus, I would agree with you.  But it was in recognition of a long-term goal (first time ever for the company) so I think that based on years of service division was more appropriate.   

[iris lily]

Read this and thought it was nice. Would have been even better if everyone got the $50k.

Working for the federal government, the bonuses are very small. Managers, I think, top out at $10k, but make more than that in a month, so what's the big deal?

Federal employees get bonuses? What is the criteria for that? It’s not like the company had a profitable year, so what is the measure that drives bonuses?

[Cassie]

I didn’t realize federal employees got bonuses.

[Travis]

Read this and thought it was nice. Would have been even better if everyone got the $50k.

Working for the federal government, the bonuses are very small. Managers, I think, top out at $10k, but make more than that in a month, so what's the big deal?

Federal employees get bonuses? What is the criteria for that? It’s not like the company had a profitable year, so what is the measure that drives bonuses?

The organization receives a budget for bonuses each year based on a percentage of total payroll and is awarded/justified based on their annual evaluations.  Additional paid leave and Step increases are awarded at the same time.

[John Galt incarnate!]

It is an average bonus of $50,000 with some employees receiving $250,000 +

I would be annoyed if someone announced they were giving out $10 million dollars to employees and then the actual amount was like $10,000-20,000.  Which isn't exactly headline worthy although it is a nice bonus.

I have a neutral immediate  reaction to your posting of the headline.

If I saw that it was published  in the Wall Street Journal  my first-blush reaction would differ from seeing  it was published in The Nation.

[Fomerly known as something]

Read this and thought it was nice. Would have been even better if everyone got the $50k.

Working for the federal government, the bonuses are very small. Managers, I think, top out at $10k, but make more than that in a month, so what's the big deal?

Federal employees get bonuses? What is the criteria for that? It’s not like the company had a profitable year, so what is the measure that drives bonuses?

It depends on the job.  Managers may get them for "spending less,"  Law enforcement types may get them for a big case, others for working on a huge project, some are more for skills, such as a language bonus.

[Peachtea]

Read this and thought it was nice. Would have been even better if everyone got the $50k.

Working for the federal government, the bonuses are very small. Managers, I think, top out at $10k, but make more than that in a month, so what's the big deal?

Federal employees get bonuses? What is the criteria for that? It’s not like the company had a profitable year, so what is the measure that drives bonuses?

They are tiny bonuses, usually tied to your performance rating for non-executive (most) employees. Although you can also get special act or service awards, typically small, like $250, for doing special projects well or finding a way to make something more efficient/ save the gov money.

OPM/OMB caps agencies budgets for its non-executive employees awards at 1.5% of its employees salaries, which are then be divided out to departments, types of awards etc. So if an agency has 100 employees whose salaries average out to 100k a year, the agency can max budget $150,000 for awards or $1,500 per person average. 1.5% is the highest, but many agencies award budgets are lower than that. Sequestration? No awards. Congress passes COL raise for employees but didn’t adjust agencies budgets up for that increase? No or less award money. Congress passes some new security, tech, or other requirements without providing funds to do so? No or less award money so the agency can hire the specialists or buy the equipment to meet that new requirement.

Many agencies then have awards programs that cap the % of salary any given employee can get. Mine caps a 5 rating at 3% salary, 4 rating at 2%, and 3 rating at 1%. Gov-ride rules require any non-executive bonus over 10k to approved by OPM (which would be like HBO’s CEO having to go to AT&T to get a non-executive HBO employee that award). But if you look at the percentage caps, that’s not going to happen anyways.

You would be surprised how much of the gov is quantitatively rated. Because Congress loves measuring things and so agencies make measurements even if they don’t make a whole lot of sense or create perverse incentives. (I.e. the VA wait time scandal.) I’m an attorney. I don’t have billable hours and don’t track my time in 7 min increments, but 40% of my standards are still quantitative. My bosses are 50% quantitative.

[SavinMaven]

It is an average bonus of $50,000 with some employees receiving $250,000 +

I would be annoyed if someone announced they were giving out $10 million dollars to employees and then the actual amount was like $10,000-20,000.  Which isn't exactly headline worthy although it is a nice bonus.

I'm not annoyed. It's a factual headline. There's nothing in it that implies it was 10 mil to each and every employee.

[Dicey]

It is an average bonus of $50,000 with some employees receiving $250,000 +

I would be annoyed if someone announced they were giving out $10 million dollars to employees and then the actual amount was like $10,000-20,000.  Which isn't exactly headline worthy although it is a nice bonus.

I'm not annoyed. It's a factual headline. There's nothing in it that implies it was 10 mil to each and every employee.

Totally agree. In fact, I'm not sure what the OP's gripe is. Did you think for even a moment that it was implying that everyone got $10 mil?

Read this and thought it was nice. Would have been even better if everyone got the $50k.

If the bonus was an annual bonus, I would agree with you.  But it was in recognition of a long-term goal (first time ever for the company) so I think that based on years of service division was more appropriate.   

Yup. I love that they gave the person with one week's tenure $100. But what about the person who got the most? IIRC it was $270k for 40+ years service? Time to retire!!

[BTDretire]

Read this and thought it was nice. Would have been even better if everyone got the $50k.

Working for the federal government, the bonuses are very small. Managers, I think, top out at $10k, but make more than that in a month, so what's the big deal?

Federal employees get bonuses? What is the criteria for that? It’s not like the company had a profitable year, so what is the measure that drives bonuses?

 Bonus is based on how many taxpayers dollars you can find a need for. /s/

[Daisyedwards800]

It is an average bonus of $50,000 with some employees receiving $250,000 +

I would be annoyed if someone announced they were giving out $10 million dollars to employees and then the actual amount was like $10,000-20,000.  Which isn't exactly headline worthy although it is a nice bonus.

I'm not annoyed. It's a factual headline. There's nothing in it that implies it was 10 mil to each and every employee.

True but many, many companies give bonuses well in excess of $10 million.  I think they were trying to get good PR or something?

[FIRE@50]

I don't mind the headline, but I don't understand why the story is newsworthy.

[BudgetSlasher]

It is an average bonus of $50,000 with some employees receiving $250,000 +

I would be annoyed if someone announced they were giving out $10 million dollars to employees and then the actual amount was like $10,000-20,000.  Which isn't exactly headline worthy although it is a nice bonus.

If you are asking if I am annoyed because that headline is misleading;

Going off only the headline and your summary of the article (not factoring in what the actual text an article might have been or any video that might exist announcing the bonus)

How I read the headline: A Company is giving out bonuses to its employees, meaning multiple bonuses to multiple employees, that came to a total of 10 million dollars. Finding out that the each individual bonus is significantly than 10 million dollar is not surprising.

Now out of the hypothetical: I googled that headline and came with with multiple articles with that headline or similar all talking about a real estate firm issuing bonuses at the Christmas party. There is even a video of the announcement; which mentions that the bonuses are based on number of year (presumably of service) before announcing the total amount.

Still, without reading the body, I didn't think they were issuing multiple 10 million dollar bonuses.

If you question is am I annoyed because this is not headline worthy and by extension newsworthy (after all every news story has a headline);

I think a real estate firm that with billions of dollar in property under management giving bonuses to its employees based on amount of time they have been with the company is supposed to be a feel good story. An example (whether good or not) of a for profit company giving at least some (what amount of profits that is not being reinvested into the company is unclear) of their success back to their employees.

If I were to find this new article annoying because I felt the article was not worthy of headline/news coverage, then I should never log onto another website that provides any kind of news article every again. (As there is plenty of equally, or less, newsworthy stories pasted everywhere).