CHRISTMAS BONUS, 2010 STYLE

[Drip]

Well, after a three year hiatus, the company has passed out a Christmas Bonus. What are you expecting or have received?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

During my newspaper career, these were some of the bonuses I got.

The bad ones...

An invitation to a Christmas party where I would have to pay $10 for each person attending.

A gift certificate for a free turkey from a grocery store that was at least 40 minutes away from where anybody who worked at the paper lived.

A donation in our names to a charity of the publisher's choice.

The good ones...

Computer bags with the paper's name on it. I heard we got them because they couldn't sell them, but I didn't care.

My boss (not the paper) paid the entire tab for the staff to go out drinking and paid for cabs to take us home afterwards as well.

My boss (not the paper) bought $25 gift Best Buy gift cards for everyone on staff.

 

[printdust]

How about news of four furloughs over the course of the next year all at once, so you can plan accordingly instead of wait with false hope that you won't get one at all in any quarter? Just thought that up since some on here are still getting them.

 

[Sir Sid]

Once got a $10 (or maybe it was $5) gift card to Dillards.
Essentially my Christmas bonus was a pair of dress socks.

 

[MileHigh]

Those at Lean's Bay Area Newspaper Group got a nice bonus this year: No vacation accruals from Dec. 6 to March 27.

This will not impact any vacation time that you have earned or vacation time that you have planned. In fact we hope that you will take your vacation and enjoy some paid time off during this holiday season.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/109186/remember-when-newspapers-gave-bonuses-around-the-holiday/

 

[BYH]

I got a gig outside the industry this year, as I continue to idiotically try to worm my way back in. Our "office," for lack of a better term, has less than 10 people in it. Got in the mail a few weeks ago an invite to the Christmas party, which is a week from Monday. Boss lady told me there'd be gifts too.

Which means it took until I was 37, and out of journalism after almost 20 years, to be invited to a Christmas party and get a holiday gift, even though I have worked for companies that were, to put it charitably, far more well-endowed than this Mom and Pop (or Hubby and Wife) operation.

The people "running" this industry can go **** themselves.

 

[farmerjerome]

I have never received a Christmas bonus, but we've always had a party.

One of my bosses was pretty generous with the presents last year though.

 

[nmmetsfan]

 

[Mizzougrad96]

My first Christmas bonus in a non-journalism job was three paid days off.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Non-Journalism stuff for me right now, although I am marginally hanging onto a gig on the editorial board of a large financial publication -- even though it is in direct conflict with the main work I am currently doing. We never really worked out the logistics, so I am sort of on hiatus -- not contributing any editorial work for the time being.

No Christmas bonuses for me. I have my own company and I guess I will take a distribution at the end of the year, but that isn't really a bonus. It's just taking money out of the business in a way that avoids paying some taxes. But the great news for me is that a client I have worked for for a few years -- in the financial/investment banking industry -- asked me to manage a project for them a few months ago, which has involved a lot of editing and design of sensitive policy documents, as well as improbably being part of a high-level team that is involved in a megaproject that involves some hot button compensation issues that regulators around the world are still pushing on for changes.

So there will be no Christmas bonus for me, and the work has been difficult for me in some ways because I lost a lot of independence--I have had to work onsite 99 percet of the time for a few months, and maybe one or two more months, but every day I stick my nose in this place, I earn a goodly amount. So this year, I am considering that my unexpected Christmas bonus. In the mean time, my business has other work, and I have been much better about delegating to my boys, who seem to be holding the fort just fine, even if they are knuckleheads. And I earn something from those projects to, even though I am barely involved. The work I am personally doing has been so so, and culturally, I am not a suit and tie guy and find this place dreadfully depressing at times. But the checks clear on time and they have filled my bank account nicely. So it will be a good Christmas for the loved-ones of Ragu.

 

[Seahawk]

My first full-time job, I got holiday bonuses of $500 in 1999, $750 in 2000 and $1000 in 2001. I don't believe I have received one since. Actually, I forgot that bonuses happened. However, both of my last two stops has taken the entire staff out for a nice dinner or lunch every year, which is nice.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

A subscription to the Jelly of the Month club.

Ok seriously, a what?

 

[NatureBoy]

A subscription to the Jelly of the Month club.

Headbutt, that's the gift that keeps on givin' the whole year.

 

[JakeandElwood]

We have always had a party, but it's always when the sports staff is working.

 

[bydesign77]

The sports department is the toy department anyway!

I was at a paper from 2000 to 2005. The first year we had a nice party at a local museum, catered, all that. The last year, the dinner was in the old kr.com room with a pan of turkey and stuffing that was cold and mostly gone by the time the night shift got there.

 

[bigpern23]

In high school and college, I worked at a seafood shack during the summers and annually got a bonus between $1,500 and $2,000.

Since entereing the professional world of journalism, I received a $25 bonus my first year (everyone got something like 2 percent of the money they had earned and I had only started a couple months earlier) and nothing any year after that.

 

[mustangj17]

Never got a Christmas bonus, gift or invitation to a party where I didn't have to pass a dish while I was in the journalism industry.

This year in my first year out of the journalism industry I've been invited to the holiday party which features an open bar. We will also be getting a holiday gift. Not sure what it is. Last year it was a nice fleece blanket. I got one of those too even though I started in January. Our boss is sort of scrouge all year round but I guess every year around the holidays he hands out the gifts himself and personally thanks everyone, gives them a hand shake and the gift.

 

[OnTheRiver]

Worked here for 13 years now. Have never gotten a Christmas bonus of any kind. Ever.

 

[expendable]

I've been getting a $500 bonus every year since 1999. I'll find about this year next Friday. I've heard everything from the full bonus, to half, to nothing. The expendable household is planning on the latter. It's a bonus, and not regular pay. Oh, but our neighborhood correspondents are getting $100 gifts for the first time. Like a sick bird, we're puffing out our feathers for the community, while withering away underneath.

 

[ucacm]

I worked at a movie theater that is part of a large chain during college. We actually had really fun Christmas parties. The company was way too tight to give out bonuses to the regular employees, but the local managers always tried to do something nice for us.

It's probably only something a kid/young adult would enjoy, but one year they switched all of the games in the arcade to free. I remember eating pizza, drinking gallons of Dr. Pepper, and playing Mrs. Pac-Man for hours.

Also, the managers would trade movie passes with other businesses in the area in exchange for gift cards or merchandise. I don't specifically remember what I got, but I remember there being some really cool gifts that people received.

I know it's simple, but I always really enjoyed those parties.