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View Full Version : UPDATE- Fair? Legal? Any choice here?



elektra
08-03-2012, 12:45 PM
I doubt anyone was on the edge of their seat but I have an update on this.
I am officially back on good terms with my company- they are honoring the original agreement- hooray!
For me it was a difference of about $15k before taxes so you can understand why I was a little worried here. And I imagine it would have been an even bigger discrepancy for many of the sales people who have a much bigger percentage of their payout on bonus vs. base.
It was so weird though because the new agreement was not clear at all about when the new rules were going into effect. But I set up some conversations with my supervisors to clear things up and the bottom line is that Q2 payouts will come on August 31 in the old way and Q3 performance (paid our in November)will be the "new" way.
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So last week my boss set up a meeting with me and I guess with everyone individually to go over our new bonus structure. She said everyone had to sign the documents or we would not be included in the new plan.
The new structure seems fair and is basically solving for some problems with people being incentivized for things that really did not help the overall bottom line.

Goals were set up as straight percentages instead of taking overall revenue into account.
Ex. People managing several product lines had goals set per product line. So what happened in Q2 was that Product A with say only a $300,000 revenue goal, delivered $600,000 in revenue, and so those managers overdelivered by 100% they got this huge bonus, even though their product B with a revenue goal of $3,000,000 did not hit 100% of goal.

They are changing things so that overall revenue is weighed more heavily.

So my understanding was that this new structure was going into affect in Q3, and it says as much in the documents. But now I have come to learn that that means Q2 will be evaluated in the new way, as "starting in Q3" means that because Q2 is paid out in Q3, the new way takes effect then.

So now I am like, "wait a minute, this was your screw up, and you owe us the money in the old way for Q2 performance as that is how we were operating the whole time."
Now, I personally was always trying to do the most for product B- it only makes sense as that matters more. But because of things more out of my control, product A did really well.
And I thought I would be getting that bigger bonus. It's a matter of several thousand dollars.

I was told I had no choice but to sign. I do like my company overall and while I have had ups and downs recently, after interviewing a bit, I have come to realize that my current spot is the best place for me right now. And as I mentioned, it was a bit of luck that product A did so well, at least as far as I'm concerned as the reasons it did well were not really under my control.

But I feel like they can't do this can they?

HannaAddict
08-03-2012, 02:45 PM
Probably, unless you personally have an employment contract with them that says otherwise. Sad but true. What does your employment agreement or offer letter say?

lovin2shop
08-03-2012, 03:43 PM
My Dh has faced this scenario a couple of times over his career. Legally, there was really nothing that could be done since his contract was pretty wishy washy in certain areas. Most of the time, he was able to convince his boss to make it up through other bonuses or perks. In the end, there were a couple of times that he just never got the commission that should have been his, and ultimately, he left over this issue.

Even if you have a contract, it would probably entail suing which obviously wouldn't be worth it, especially if you want to keep your job. I believe California is very pro-worker, so it is possible that you could threaten to report them to the labor board, but again not a great option when you want to stay on with the company.

Sorry, that really is unfair, and I hope that they can find a workaround for you.

hillview
08-03-2012, 03:50 PM
Did you already sign a contract for this year that states things as the original way OR was this new plan a surprise but you've not yet signed something for this year?

elektra
08-22-2012, 07:23 PM
bump :)

codex57
08-22-2012, 07:33 PM
Yeah! Thanks for the update

TwinFoxes
08-22-2012, 07:35 PM
Whew, glad it worked out. They probably realized they were courting bad morale amongst a good team.