I received my quarterly bonus today. It wasn’t what I expected, but I have the explanation for why in hand and I can still celebrate having a great job that pays me well for doing stuff I like (mostly) and even offers a bonus. I’ve worked for companies before who claimed to offer profit sharing. The most I ever came away with was less than a thousand bucks. And if I tell you the name of the company, and how they paid a C-level executive a “Golden Parachute” termination clause of $16,000,000 right after laying off a bunch of people making less than $70,000 a year, you might not believe me. But it’s true.
So when I get this bonus, yes, it’s a lot smaller than I thought it would be. No, I’m not going to be able to do the things with it I wanted to. But you know what? I work for a company who promises to share its profits with its employees, and then honors that commitment. I work for a company showing a profit in an economic era of disaster for a lot of companies. I have a job in Illinois for a great and stable company, and that in itself is no mean feat.
I could by all rights claim I don’t deserve what I’ve been given. I could also hear my company find reasons for not paying their profit shares out. Or, I could be laid off or terminated any moment. But right now, I’m really glad to be here and working and doing my part to contribute to making our company profitable. I’ll continue to do that, and I’ll always give thanks.
So while I’m a little sad I can’t do what I hoped to do with my bonus, I still got one. And that makes me very happy. Next year it will be different, but it will also be based on a different figure for me. So I’m going to just revel in now, and enjoy what I have.
How’s your Wednesday going?
-JDT-
