Employee questions - Bonus & Vacation Time

[Piglet]

At work, we are setting up some policies on how we pay a Christmas Bonus and how much Vacation time everyone gets.

Just curious what the company you work does. Is it based on profit (for bonus), years of service, hours worked???

We are a small company and I am the only office person. We have hired quite a few employees this past year (before most were family of the owner) and need to set up a policy, so everyone is treated the same.

In the company I worked for before (very large # of employees) bonus was based on profit - but their fiscal year ran July - July. We run Jan - Jan. Vacation was based on years of service.

Anyone want to share - I'm not intersted in $$$ just the basic policy your company follows.

Thanks

Melinda

 

[PamOKW]

Most places have had two-tiers of bonuses. A set policy for the administrative and hourly staff -- sometimes a week's pay and sometimes no bonus at all. Everyone who was employed when the bonus came out, received the bonus. Executive/managerial staff usually had to attain some goal set at the beginning of the year and would receive a bonus based on reaching goal(s). They might get partial credit based on performance.

Vacation was based on how long you worked at the company. Everyone would start out with 2 weeks (10 days) and then get another week after a certain amount of time. One place it was 3 years to get a third week and another was 5. Both places gave a fourth week after 10 years. Also, attaining a VP Level might also include an additional week of vacation. Also, sometimes people would negotiate vacation days at the time they were hire resulting in them starting with more than the entry-level vacation time.

I've worked places with a set number of sick/personal days and others where the policy was "no sick days" as a means of preventing abuse. They would pay you when you were sick or had a legitimate reason to be out, but no one was entitled to a set number of days that they might use as vacation instead.

Most places rewarded long-term service with flexibililty for special circumstances.

 

[Christine]

I work for a very small company (15 employees) and we are contracted by the U.S. Navy. Based on that, we have certain restrictions on how bonuses are given. Our fee, or profit, is the same each year over the life of the contract we can't really give legitimate bonuses (ones written off toward the business) without it being tied to the contract.

In our company, we do not get a bonus unless we get a written letter from our client (US Navy) stating that they recognize our performance as superior. Once my company has this, they give a bonus check. So, some people get bonuses and some don't.

As for vacation, our policy is 3 weeks per year to start. After you have been there 5 years, you get an extra week. The company is thinking about adding another week's leave to the benefits package and I am trying to get them to change their policy to something more liveable. I like it better when you get your leave gradually; i.e., for each year you put in, you earn that extra day of leave so by the time 5 years is up, you have the extra days. I don't think an employee should have to wait a full five years to see ANY increase--archaic in my mind. Especially in the business I am in, where you pick up and lose contracts a lot and you have to change companies a lot. I have worked on the same "work" since 1988; however, I have had to change companies 3 times to follow that work. Each time, I could lose all my time with the company and have to start over. Fortunately, I "negotiated" more leave with each jump; however, it I think it is just wrong to have an employee wait 5 years for an increase. Also, my company does not offer sick leave. We just get straight leave and you use it for what you see fit.

 

[debster812]

I cannot speak to the bonus question, as I work in a non-bonus earning position, but I can speak to the vacation time question.

My company operates that everyone has a bank of Vacation Time, and a bank of Discretionary Time. We are on a bi-weekly pay schedule, and each pay period we earn a fraction of our yearly bucket of V time and DT time.

Discretionary time is one bucket to be used for holidays we are closed, sick days, and personal days, and we are free to use them however we wish. (For instance, I will be working on New Year's Day, so I get to 'bank' that 8 hours and use it later).

I hope this helps, it seems really confusing as I wrote it. Sorry.

 

[snoopy]

Our bonus is paid in March, and is based on company profit, and then based on level of management, then based on a certain percentage of your salary. In other words, if the company does well and you are at the top of the ladder, you get a real nice check come March.

Unfortunatly, the majority of us aren't in that position, but I never argue with any money they want to give me.

The percentage of your salary is based on the level of management, but the highest being 20%, lowest being 6%.

Vacation time is 1 week per year to start, with 5 personal days, then after 5 years its 2 weeks with 5 personal days, not until 15 years do we get 3 weeks of vacation. They are sort of cheap with the vacation time, I've noticed, as opposed to other large companies.

BTW, I work for a company that employs 200,000 people.

 

[peg2001]

I work for a non-profit entity, so no bonuses. But, on the plus side, we have annually:

22 days vacation
13 days sick leave
9 days paid holiday

Peggy

 

[Minnesota!]

Where I work, our yearly bonus is based on profit. In the 6 years I have been here, we have gotten anywhere from 4.5% to 8.5% of our yearly salary as a bonus.

As far as vacation, you start here with 2 weeks vacation. And 80 hours (2 weeks) of personal time each year. For each year you have been here, you get 1 extra vacation day. So, at 5 years, I got 3 weeks vacation, 2 weeks personal. Then, you don't earn any more time until 10 years, when you start getting an extra day a year. At 15 years you get 4 weeks. Then at 25 years you get 5 weeks and that is where we top out. We can carry over up to 15 personal days.

I work for a good size company...about 5000 employees..

Hope that helps!

 

[believe]

You don't get your full vacation unless you are with the company on 1/1 of that year. If you are then you get 2 wks vacation, 2 personal days and there is not a certain amount of sick days. If you are sick then you are sick, your manager manages if you are abusing sick days or not. For Christmas we get a gift delivered to our home, everyone gets the same thing. At my level there aren't any bonus, but I think as you get higher up they do receive bonuses based on profit.

I forgot to add that we get 12 paid holidays. The company also gives us flex dollars to spend towards medical/dental/lawyers/wk of vacation, etc. The amount of dollars is based on your years of service and your salary.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font color=navy>I work for a big company. It's a private organization, but we deal primarily with the government.

After 90 days probation, we get 2 weeks vacation, accumulated weekly, and 40 hours sick/personal time (at manager's discretion). After 10 years we get one more week, and at 20 years we get four weeks. I have 18.5 years, so I get 2.3 hours each week, up to 3 weeks. Also, we can buy a week's vacation, where they take a portion of your weekly salary until you pay a whole week - this year I pay off my extra week today. That week's vacay is immediately available in January, and if you don't use it up, you get your money back at the end of the year. (just in time for shopping) We can save two year's worth of earned vacation, but we cannot save personal/sick time. That starts over again in January. After two years, you'll be paid for any 'extra' vacation days on your anniversary date. (That hasn't happened to me yet. )

We also get 12 days vacation, including Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving (2 days). At the end of the year, whatever is left over is used during year-end (or Christmas) shutdown. This year our year end shutdown is from 12/24 through 1/2/02, and almost all employees are taking 2 days vacay (12/22-23), which will give us all 2 weeks off.

Hourly personnel get a year-end bonus based on their gross earnings. This bonus can be from 3% up to 5%, depending on how well the company is financially.

We just started a new program called Results Sharing - this is for all employees. Depending on how well the company does for the year, we get a bonus in March - we're up to 6 days of our salary. Of course, those who make more get a bigger bonus. We're in our third year of this.

In addition to that, the big cheeses get annual bonuses in the $k's

 

[tar heel]

Many companies have gone to PTO. Although I switched jobs a few months ago, I previously worked at an affiliate of a hospital. Our vacation, sick pay and holidays came from exactly the same pool. Since I worked part-time, I always tried to make-up in the same pay period holidays such as Labor Day, July 4th, etc. I have no doubt that this decreased sick days. Since I wasn't sick much, the switch to PTO gave me more vacation! My dh also has PTO for vacation and sick but still gets his holidays separately. At dh's job, one week can be put in a long-term illness bank -- otherwise absolutely no PTO can be carried over from year to year.

My last bonus was $35. The hospital had had a very good year and gave bonuses based on seniority. I was new, but I think the top one was about $100. DH works for one of the largest media companies in the US (Knight Ridder) and gets bonuses only in extraordinary situations (such as when he put his life in danger to cover a riot) and it was not much bigger than my last bonus.

I'm working for a nonprofit now and my "bonus" is that our office is closed on teacher workdays and school holidays.

 

[aprilgail2]

I work for a large company, we start out with 2 weeks vacation after the first year, 3 weeks after 5 years, 4 weeks after 10 years, 5 weeks after 15 years....we also start with 3 personal days, after 10 years we get a 4th, after 15 years a 5th, after 20 a 6th and after 25 a 7th. We also get 12 sick days a year which we can bank and ssell back to the company at retirement. 13 paid holidays a year but no bonus....

 

[helenabear]

My company gives out the sick/personal days/vacation all in one grouping (TOP time). You start off by getting 20 days total that you accumulate monthly. After 4 years you get 25 and it goes up every several years after that up to a certain number.

We used to get a quarterly bonus that was based on profit. Now we are to an annual bonus that who knows when I'll see it. I used to get about the equivalent of one paycheck (bi-weekly pay) every quarter. Now I am lucky if I see any extra bonus at all. Only management levels are able to get the bonus as well.

 

[CEDmom]

My company pays a bonus dependent on profit and job performance. Vacation is based on years of service. I have 12 years in so I get 4 weeks. I think it's 2 weeks after 90 day probation thru your 5th year; 3 weeks for 6-10 years; 4 weeks for 11-20 years and then 5 weeks over 20 years.

 

[ead79]

At my company, which is medium sized (approx. 85 employees), all employees start with 10 days of paid vacation. Of course, if they start in the middle of the year, they don't get the full 10 days--we earn one day per month worked from Jan.-Oct.). We do not get holiday bonuses. Our bonus system is paid out monthly (but next year it will switch to a quarterly basis), and is based on revenue less "customer concerns" plus or minus variance in budgeted costs. It typically ranges from about 5-10 percent of our pay, but there are months with no payout (if we fall below 75% of our budgeted revenue). We also earn 1 extra paid day of vacation per year we work for the company, capped at 3 weeks.

 

[Ted and Holly]

I have always felt that my company was pretty generous with time off. We are a relatively large (400-500 employees) International company.

* No set number of sick days (to the Manager's descretion)
* 10 Paid Holidays
* And a graduated vacation time plan. let me see if I can post it:
<pre>
VACATION & PERSONAL TIME SCHEDULE

TOTAL FULL YEARS HOURS ACCRUED VACATION / PERSONAL
OF EMPLOYMENT EACH MONTH DAYS PER YEAR

0 10.00 HOURS 15 DAYS
1 10.67 HOURS 16 DAYS
2 11.33 HOURS 17 DAYS
3 12.00 HOURS 18 DAYS
4 12.67 HOURS 19 DAYS
5 13.33 HOURS 20 DAYS
6 14.00 HOURS 21 DAYS
7 14.67 HOURS 22 DAYS
8 15.33 HOURS 23 DAYS
9 16.00 HOURS 24 DAYS
10 + 16.67 HOURS 25 DAYS

</pre>

Well, I guess it looks OK.

Our Christmas bonus is rather weak. Usually $100 after tazes. Used to be a $100 bill, but they go through payroll now. Tax reasons, I am sure.

There is a bonus program for those departments that are in revenue generating positions. Those are usually given out quarterly. The performance of the group in meeting their goals determines the percentage of the total possible bonus you can get. These bonuses can ge quite large, from what I understand. More than one or two thousand...

Ted

 

[ByTheSea]

I work in a billable position and get quarterly "Bonuses" but they are part of a comp plan... and I can calculate it myself.. it's based on billable hours each quarter (hours over our "base" billable hours we are expected to bill each quarter.)

Vacation - we have PTO (no separate sick/vacation) I think it starts at 15 days per year and increases a bit each year. - we also have 2 "personal" holidays and 8 Company holidays.

 

[Kimberle]

Originally posted by Piglet
At work, we are setting up some policies on how we pay a Christmas Bonus and how much Vacation time everyone gets.

Just curious what the company you work does. Is it based on profit (for bonus), years of service, hours worked???

We are a small company and I am the only office person. We have hired quite a few employees this past year (before most were family of the owner) and need to set up a policy, so everyone is treated the same.

In the company I worked for before (very large # of employees) bonus was based on profit - but their fiscal year ran July - July. We run Jan - Jan. Vacation was based on years of service.

Anyone want to share - I'm not intersted in $$$ just the basic policy your company follows.

Thanks
Melinda

Bonuses are paid after the year is closed and numbers are released (generally mid March). Bonus are based on personal performance and company performance.

All time off is called PTO (paid time off). It encompuses sick, vacation, etc. 0-4 years get 20 days; 5-10 get 25 days, 10+ get 30 days. This year, we also got 2 floating holidays. Personally, I like this "timekeeping" much better. Who cares if its a sick or vacation, etc day. Plus, the company is closed for 8 paid holidays.

All PTO time is given on an employees anniversary date. No time is paid out if an employee leaves the company.

 

[caitycaity]

our bonuses are given at the time of our annual review which is generally in may/june. the manager gets a certain amount of money based on number of employees and how well the group did financially and on their reviews. then the manager has discretion to hand out that sum as he/she sees fit. some people get nothing, others get a tidy sum (well before taxes anyways ). it's definately not something i ever count on. last year for example we had a bunch of layoffs and the company made the decision to use the money that would have gone to bonuses to retain staff.

in terms of vacation, you get 15 days of vacation (in addition to the 9 holidays we get) your first year, 16 your second year, 17 your third year, and it incrases like that until you hit 20 days. that is the most anyone accrues. we also used to be able to accrue vacation forever, and cash it out at any time. now you can only carry-over a certain percent of your vacation days and can only get a cash out when you leave the company.

we also get 6 sick days to use however we want.

 

[disneyjunkie]

We don't get any bonuses.

We get 30 vacation days a year. (2 1/2 days each month)
12 sick days a year, 11 paid holidays, and 3 personal days.

All of the classroom teachers, assistants and aides get the same amount of vacation time no matter how long they've worked at the center.

 

[PamOKW]

I forgot to mention that most places I've worked and my friends' companies are getting stringent about "using or losing" vacation time. If you don't take the vacation time in the year it's given, you lose it. Sometimes they'll allow a portion to be carried over but it would require permission of your manager and usually a deadline for it's use (we had to use it by the end of March). Vacation is also "earned" as others have mentioned. We were allowed to take the vacation but if we were to leave the company and had taken days that weren't "earned" they could deduct those days from the final paycheck (this was rarely done) but they did not pay for vacation days that had not yet been earned. For example, if you left the company in February, you would not receive 10 days vacation pay. You would only get the days that had been earned by the time you left.