Good luck. Happy job hunting.

I haven't seen one of those in 30 years.

although he has other reasons, he's already been interviewing. The lack of raises and bonuses are just another reason to look.

Best of luck to you- hope you find an awesome new job!

I have been here three years and I have never received a raise and I don't expect to ever receive one. I will also be working on Christmas eve and New Years eve. It would have helped the low morale at my company. Even a simple one in the office would have been nice.

I have been thinking of leaving this company for awhile now. Sorry to complain but I have had it.

that is that the bosses always bring things like soda and rolls and the rest of us bring main dishes. LOL

Instead of a Christmas bonus this year we are getting Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off.

Since so many aren't getting any kind of bonus it makes me wonder if we are starting to see a shift in the economy?

Socializing with people who make more in a month than I take home in a year, always fun.

Peace

our luncheon is to be a pot luck affair from my understanding.

I will be skipping it this year.

There had been some, shall we say, male reproductive organ moves in regards about the luncheon where I was working so I decided heck with it and left at noon that day to go to my sister's place in St. Louis. (She was getting married the following weekend). Felt kind of good to do that too.

I usually skip mine or do a quick in and out. My position really doesn't allow me to be away from my desk for more than a very few minutes. So it has always been grab a plate as fast as you can and run back to my desk. It really is never very enjoyable. This just makes it that much easier to do so. I will bring my lunch as usual.

Good luck IrishEyes.

Know what my company did for Christmas? They told us we are fired and they closed the plant for ever. Nice people. This was a few years back but the pain is still there.

There had been rumors about layoffs. Management denied any problems. Then a shake-up at the top and a month later
his entire section (help desk for an international software company) was escorted out the door one morning. Zero notice.
He got lucky and landed a job with a local Town IT dept and weathered the recession for 5 years before moving
on to another software company.

This was after not having any for the past couple years.

We don't generally have parties with my group because we're spread out all over the country and all work from home. Each member of our team lives at least 100 miles away from each other. There's some people in my company that work for another group up in Madison and they're having a party late January so I'm going to that if the weather cooperates.

We all got Christmas bonuses. That first year, I got $1,000. The second year at part-time, I got $2,000. By the third year, I got $5,000 as a bonus. The lady who owned the company would rather give her money to her employees rather than in taxes.

To bad, she sd the firm. I graduated college and found out that I had an exceptional employer.

He always gave generous Christmas bonuses. My only beef was that he was always the most generous with the people who made the most already. I knew because as the bookkeeper, I was the one that cut the checks.

I ended up working for the company full and part-time for 13 years. The new management ended up being a**holes so I left. I had risen up in duties and the new GM thought I was after his job. (The new owner was absentee and he kept calling me with questions instead of my boss.)

Never experienced Christmas bonuses in my 54 years. And the only Christmas gifts I received from an employer was a poinsettia when I was a part timer in high school and some cologne labeled "Not For Resale" in my first job out of college.

The people I have worked for have been incredibly frugal, Scroogy, or not Christian.

Now, the last couple of years, they add the same amount to the paycheck, so taxes get taken out, but the handwritten message inside the card still says, "A $XXXX bonus is being added to your next paycheck." Not quite the same.

Sorry

...puzzling when it was done differently. The first 2 years of the change, they calculated what the gross amount would have to be to give a net amount equal to the previous cash amount. So, the company was paying the taxes. Now, the employees take the bite.

FICA taxes are the same percentage for everybody, but having to backward calculate each persons bonus check so that he net is a nice round number is a pain. I do payroll for a living. If you only have a few employees it's time consuming but not that big a deal. More than 20 or so though is a pain on the ass.

I work 2 days a week, as the one pediatric nurse practitioner in a practice with 9 docs. 8 of the 9 pediatricians are legal partners in the practice. The other doc and I are employees - no health insurance and no cut of the profits, even though we are revenue producers, not overhead expense. I am on salary, and paid every 2 weeks. My usual net pay is about 70% of my gross. For the one paycheck to which the bonus is added, fully 40% of the bonus disappears in taxes. That seems like an awfully big bite.

Math was never my friend.

When the bonus is added to a regular paycheck, the tax bite is really high. The way the payroll programs work is that they withhold from each check as if all your paychecks are that big. Say your check is normally $2K. If you get a $2K bonus added to your regular check, it's probably going to put you in a higher tax bracket.

If you think your withholding is too much, you can run your numbers through the IRS withholding calculator. It's here:

https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/IRS-Withholding-Calculator

If it looks like the withholding is too much, fill out a new W4 and claim an additional exemption. If it looks like they withheld too little, reduce your exemptions by one OR make a deposit into a traditional IRA. You have until 4/30 to make IRA contributions for 2015.

I thought it was the higher tax bracket explanation, but when I tried to explain that to my boss, she said there was no way that could possibly be happening. She's a doctor, not an accountant, so definitely not her area of expertise. Does it benefit a business financially to NOT cut bonus checks separately, or is it just less "paperwork"?

I will save your reply to bolster my claim that a higher tax is being paid. I knew I wasn't crazy.

FWIW, keep in mind that it's just withholding. You won't actually be paying that tax unless you owe it. If it turns out you've over withheld, just get your tax return done as quickly as you can to get that money back. You could also fill out a new W4 and bump up your exemptions for a couple of paychecks to put a but more money in your bank account.

skipped our company's Christmas party this year. Less than a month ago we were all informed that we were all done within 6 months. Why in hell would we go?

I'd start looking elsewhere if I were you, before it gets ugly.

Our main office is in Dallas, though we have small representations around the USA, Europe and Asia. At the Christmas party in Dallas, there must have been 700 people or more, including family members. We are close to 500 employees worldwide. I was even recognized for having been there 40 years (and 4 months!), though I wasn't there. I saw a brief video. I got applause from people who couldn't ever have met me or been born when I started. I remember a guy who started 20 years ago as a receptionist/gofer. He is now in charge of some logistics, and gets sent to New York, Hong Kong, and other places for jobs. He is a happy camper (also really smart and works long hours).

We gave every employee not in the top echelons (we took none) $150 if they had been there on Jan. 1 of this year, and for the newbies, the percentage of $150 that represented the percentage of the year they had been with us. We have close to 500 people worldwide, and very little turnover.

every year it's the same $100.00 bonus. No complaint about that. First year I asked where the Christmas party was and when and was told there was no Christmas party, next year I asked the same thing, got the same reply. Third year didn't ask but one of the co workers told me "you should have been at the christmas party. It was open bar and whatever you wanted to eat". I figured, "fick em" I'll take the hundred and won't have to put up with posers.