Bonus De-Anticipation

So much has been made about these crazy bonus payouts for bank execs which have remained unchanged or not significantly deflated in these crazy economic times. The fat wallets are easy targets, sure, and the anger is justified, but it does make you wonder from a human resource management perspective – what is the best way to reward and incentivize people? At my company our bonuses are clearly tied to performance. We set targets for ourselves at the beginning of the year, and if at the end of the year, we don’t hit those goals, we see a big hit in our year-end bonus. Having faced two major crises this year: 1) the impact of the peanut butter recall and 2) consumers having less discretionary income to buy the food we make, our teams are likely NOT going to be making our targets this year, which means, we’ll take a hit as a company (from Wall Street) and I will take a hit in my direct-deposited bonus. I am a lowly peon for said company, so honestly, I feel this is NOT a good incentive. I am doing my part everyday but I feel it is pretty far removed from our overall performance, so I wish I was seeing a more equal paycheck bump as many of my same-company peers who made their targets. However, in terms of sheer corporate “fairness,” our current system makes intuitive sense to by-standers.

I was relying on a bump about the same as last year’s bonus to meet my 2009 Net Worth Goal. But if it doesn’t happen, c’est la vie – I am young, still employed, and happy.