bonus

oh not more ranting about bonuses pat! haven't we heard enough.
well yes.
well no.
this isn't about the rbs bonus as such - though it is nice to see that sir philip hampton has forgone his £1.4 million of shares. sir philip is chairman of rbs and on the their renumeration committee.

no this mini rant has been sparked by a letter in the guardian from dave way of marks sattin recruitment.

mr. way is upset about the current wave of hostility towards the payment of bonuses. he goes on the describe the call for those in the financial services to give up their bonuses as 'a worrying sign'.
mr. way goes on to argue that to deny people the rewards for their work will drive talent out of the uk.

now when i was working my reward for good work was my continued employment, a hoped for pay rise and just maybe a bonus. the bonus was never guaranteed.

as a reminder this is the definition of bonus
1 an unsought or unexpected extra benefit.
2 a seasonal gratuity to employees beyond their normal pay.

in the world that mr. way inhabits it seems that getting £1.2 million a year salary for doing your job isn't reward enough, you also have to have a very large bonus. not a bonus of 10% or even 20%, nope your bonus has to be much larger than that say 75% or more percent.

i don't believe that people begrudge those in high powered jobs a fair reward, we might wonder what it is that they do to get their million pounds or more salaries but we understand that you have to pay to get the right people for the job.
in fact most of us agree with mr. way to the extent that people should be rewarded. where we part company is the expected high bonuses that seem now to be seen as entitlements.

what is interesting is the argument of paying good money and good bonuses appears to stop when it comes to regular employees.

meanwhile cameron and clegg have put a pay freeze on state employees, regardless of how good, or important, a job they do.

need i remind you that we are all in it together?
i didn't think so.