If You're Leaving, Should You Still Get Your Bonus?
A reader e-mailed the following question:
I recently gave my company a month's notice as I planned to move to a new city and pursue a new career. A few weeks later, the company gave out the second installment of our bi-annual bonuses, and I did not receive mine. The company did well this year and my accounts posted increased sales. I can understand that the company may not want to give me any additional remuneration at this point, but I am leaving on good terms and feel that I deserve that money from the past year of great performance. Is this something I should discuss with my boss or am I being unreasonable?
Here's my response, which I think might be useful to those of you in similar situations.
No, you are not being unreasonable. The truth is, you didn't even have to give a month's notice, but presumably did so in order to better transition your workload. If you gave the standard two weeks, you would have collected the bonus automatically before you broke the news.
If you can, check with HR to see if the company has an official policy against issuing commission-based bonuses if they have knowledge that the employee is leaving. If they do, there might not be anything you or your boss can do about it. If there is no such policy or you can't determine whether there is one or not, you should absolutely talk to your boss. Bring it up to your boss in a friendly, "just checking to see what's up with this" tone that does not allow him to become defensive. Emphasize how much you've enjoyed working for the company and that you hope for a strong relationship in the future. Approaching it in this way will make it more likely that he will do right by you.
Article by Alexandra Levit and courtesy of Water Cooler Wisdom blog.
I respectfully disagree. Bonuses and other forms of compensation are normally dependent upon the employee still being in the employ of the employer. While sales people and other employees often interpret bonuses as being the result of their accomplishments or efforts during the previous pay period, quarter, year or whatever time period is at issue, the reality is that bonuses are also paid by employers for retention purposes. If an employee voluntarily terminates their employment, they are normally forfeiting any right to future compensation from that employer. In this case, the employee could have prevented the loss of the bonus simply by asking the appropriate person in human resources or their manager if a bonus was pending. The employee chose not to and that is unfortunate but if the employer pays this employee the bonus then employees who separated a month ago, six months ago, or a year ago may also feel entitled. At what point has an employee been separated for too long to earn a bonus? The bright line is at the point that their employment is terminated. Anything after that point becomes fuzzy and contentious.