Holiday Bonus

I didn't get a bonus, other than a nice gift card from my boss to my favorite restaurant in town, but I did get a nice raise today.

 

I got a 12-pack of my favorite shit beer, which I'll take any time.

 

Profit sharing here was 3.5 percent this year but I've only been back for half the year. That still was an extra $500-plus.

Everybody got $25 Kroger cards and a decent, if somewhat institutional, Christmas meal the other day.

The pre-Thanksgiving meal is always much better.

 

No holiday bonus here. No Christmas party, either, come to think of it.

But the other day, we did have the United Way come and do this presentation, asking to take from our paychecks each week (we get paid weekly here) by showing us this film. VCR didn't work, damn shame.

So they moved on to "Deal or No Deal" when they gave out prizes, even to those of us who chose not to give. I won the top two prizes ($10 and $7.50) during that meeting.

I quickly filled my gas tank with that money once we got out of there, rather than donate it back to the United Way. (To be fair, they told us to keep it.) My new nickname this week around the newsroom is Scrooge.

 

And if you get liquored up and crash into someone, they can sue your company.
Ho ho ho.

 

First, our out-of-the-office party was canned because the place we've been going to for almost 10 years "gave away our date."
At the in-office party, our publisher handed out cards that had $25 gift certificates to a local place that puts logos on cheap clothing. Guess what logo we can choose from?
I gave mine to a photog. Obviously, there was an agreement so I'm sure it didn't cost the paper anything.
To anyone who gets a cash bonus, whether it's $10 or $500, you're damn lucky and enjoy it.
Thanks for nothing, pal.
Reminds of me a restaurant I worked at during HS. This was back in the early 80s and I only worked 5 hours a week as a dishwasher so my net was $20 a week.
The family that owned the place gave us a Christmas party, a pie and a cash bonus, which for me was $5. I'm sure the long-time employees that worked full time made out very well.
As the old saying goes, "it's the thought that counts," and those people thought very highly of their employees.
Probably why they're still going well after nearly 70 years.

 

I love how Lee encourages its employees to give money to the United Way -- I willingly did so, by the way -- but refuses to give its employees jack. At least that's how it was at my old shop. And management was whining that it only turned 20 percent profit in 2005, not its 22 percent target. Layoffs followed to get ready for an "advertising downturn." Whoop-dee-damn-effing-doo.

 

No Christmas bonus of any kind here, at least from management.

The publisher, who makes many times more than I do, can get a rather handsome one if he cuts costs and/or boosts advertising revenue by X amount before the end of the year. This of course means even more work for our shorthanded sports staff, especially during the week between Christmas and New Years when there are prep basketball tournaments galore, in addition to the normal NBA, NHL, and college basketball slates.

As for Christmas parties, they did have one, and it was catered nicely from what I heard. But they held it at lunch time for the newsside staffers who don't have nearly the workload that us sports clerks and paginators do. By the time we get in after 5, all of that stuff is long gone.

 

Here's one to make us all feel good. My brother-in-law, a lawyer, just received an unexpected $9,000 bonus before Christmas.

 

Not a chance of either happening.

United Way has a funny way of reaching out a helping hand only to Judeo-Christians, also. Ain't getting my money.

 

And the typical news side answer is something like: "Well if it really mattered you'd be here to celebrate with your coworkers."
My usual response was if "we really mattered, you'd throw it when we got there."

 

you know, i never mind the parties getting thrown at 1 p.m. whatever. no biggie.

what i hate, though, is the buildings that turn off the heat after 5 p.m. i've worked in three buildings in the last five years -- and it's happened at every one of 'em. you gotta dress in fucking layers if you're a night-sider.