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Keffpie t1_j0i5ydh wrote

Reply to comment by fsacb3 in Landscaping company surprises employees with bonuses up to $200K by ChickenXing

That sounds great, but only works in at-will, no-regulation states/countries. Everywhere else, that means expanding fixed costs because of probably short-term super-profits, which will eventually lead to companies going under as soon as the economy turns bad. Happened a lot in the 70s.

I'm not arguing against fair wages, far from it, but bonuses are a better way of dealing with windfall profits.

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fsacb3 t1_j0i6g1u wrote

Ok I get it. I’m not a businessman. I stand corrected

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Keffpie t1_j0iwbf3 wrote

Dude, this is some difficult shit. I own a business that is worth maybe $50m. Dividends per year for me are about $200k (profits are in the $2m range).

I am literally trying to make more of that go to my employees but it's not easy. Anything I do is apt to wreck the company. The best I can do is give them a really good Christmas bonus, and pledge (to myself) that if I ever sell the company, the employees will get half.

But that will literally mean me giving them a gift of whatever their portion of half is. If I do it any other way (like, officially) I'd break the company. I've seen it happen. Once people start thinking about future wealth, your culture gets fucked. And Culture beats strategy any day.

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fsacb3 t1_j0ix253 wrote

I’m way out of my depth here. You sound like a good person trying to do the right thing. I shouldn’t have commented since I have no clue what it’s like to own a business

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Keffpie t1_j0j57rs wrote

Hey, I'm just using you as a springboard for my own frustrations at this point. I am literally a rich person unable to give money away. It's insane.

That said, what we've done is we pay everyone a more than fair wage (way above average for our sector), insane pensions scheme, and obviously we respect the parental leave laws in our country. We also give gratuities when we've done well.

We're not on the stock exchange, so we can't give options on shares, and the law makes it really advantageous to own more than 90% of your company.

We give the exact same bonus to everyone, regardless of salary. Who cares if the people in the warehouse therefore gets a higher percentage bonus; they probably need it more. We've toyed with the idea of bonuses being more formalized, but it always ends up with people expecting and even spending the bonus... and getting royally possed off if they then miss a milestone because one guy was sick or another was on paternal leave. Not worth it, ruins cohesion.

All in all, it's really hard to give people bonuses without wrecking your company.

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Trelloant t1_j0jyasa wrote

Pretty interesting to read as an biz econ student appreciate you writing it all out.

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