Are We Getting Paid For This…?

Christmas. Bah humbug. Do you know how long it’s been since The Teller has received a real Christmas bonus?

Call it what you will: Profit sharing, year-end bonus, holiday bonus, Christmas bonus…it’s all dried up in the last few years.

Look, maybe The Teller isn’t what you’d call a “top performer.” Maybe The Teller should take shorter lunches – and drink less during them. Being The Teller isn’t easy, but the job gets done.

Lately, the combination of low pay and small bonuses has The Teller thinking that the New Year might be a good time for a new job.

But perhaps The Teller’s superiors will listen to Jim Moniz, the top guy at Northeast VisionLink in Braintree, where everyone is very smart.

Moniz says companies shouldn’t give Christmas bonuses.

Why would that make The Teller happy? Because Moniz says businesses “need to recognize there exist more creative vehicles that can serve as year-long incentive programs to drive and maintain growth as well as recruit and retain key talent.”

“What is needed is a rewards program that stimulates employee focus all 52 weeks of the year, not just three,” Moniz says.

Damn right. A starting salary above the state average for The Teller’s position and yearly raises – performance-based, of course – would be stimulating indeed.

But no; that’s not what Moniz has is mind.

“Deferral plans, phantom stock and company stock options are sound compensation avenues that clearly demonstrate allegiance to key employees,” he says.

Bull.

Moniz says an alarming number of employees simply wait for that Christmas bonus check and then quit in January and February. Some kind of structured, non-cash “compensation” system is supposed to prevent that?

A better offer is a better offer. And if what’s being offered is “phantom stock” or a fruitcake, The Teller’s out.