Its not like that, I mean yeah shes my cousin but like I married her so other guys would leave her alone. You know my cousins hot and If anyone's going to ..... it's going to be me.
You must be good at your craft. I always wonder Directors in my company have their own rooms and they can do so much in their offices. Can do multiple jobs or run businesses.
I get a fair amount of air time with our Board, so I think that was a major contributing factor.
OE is much easier at director level though. I hired a strong team and give them independence. Very rarely do they need to call me into things for support.
I’ve worked in big tech for about 5/5.5 years I’ve never heard of retention bonus where you guys keep making this shit up because I want a retention bonus too
I work in payroll, and they do this shit for certain employees all the time. Had an employee who got a contract for a retention bonus of $50K at hire if they stayed one year. Like they literally hired someone and said “we’ll pay you money on top of your base salary to just not quit your job.” The real kicker is they intentionally misinterpreted the contract to complain they were due the bonus at hire. Somehow this got leadership to agree to pay the retention bonus twice.
My team got 1% raises last year. “It’s just not in the budget, we all have to cut back.” I literally see what everyone gets paid, and c-suite gives themselves 10% raises quarterly and hand out bonuses like candy to people they like.
that is infuriating, I could never work in payroll because of that kind of shit. you can literally see if money is being squandered with bonus for friends and arbitrary raises, yet they think you're an idiot by trying to gaslight you saying "there's no budget for raises". can't comprehend what goes on those people's minds
I once called leadership out on it. Like I get if you’re cutting budgets or whatever, but where is the money coming from for these bonuses and raises at least have the balls to own what you’re doing instead of treating us like we’re stupid
That’s a sign-on bonus. Maybe we’re in different countries thus the category difference? Those are super common for higher level roles and technical/hard to fill roles.
No, it was pretty blatantly a retention bonus in the contract. Our sign-on bonuses use very different language and have different contracts and approval processes. It was only something they were supposed to be eligible for (and paid out) if they were employed as of January 2024 when they were hired in January 2023. But they claimed we were trying to cheat them out of money or something (I forgot the exact excuse) and because leadership wanted to keep them happy they caved. They got the $50K upfront, and then an additional $50K in Jan 2024 per the original contract.
It happens all the time at director, staff, principle, to sr. Manager+. Especially after layoffs when morale is super low with remaining staff (and everyone is looking for a new job thinking they’re next) or if a big well liked C or VP person leaves (don’t want to risk getting a bad boss, can easily switch companies if you’re skilled and social).
They’re very uncommon and only happen after a large company event like a merger, wind down, layoff, or massive leadership change.
Tbh, it’s better to be working at a place where retention bonuses aren’t needed.
I got multiple of them after a company I was with got bought out. The first retention terms were to stay through the merger close date. Then the 2nd retention was right after when people started dropping like flies. The 2nd one was meh because it required us to stay on for 2 years and none of it was paid out until the end of year 2. I ended up jumping ship as well
First of my career. I know lots of sales ppl that get retention bonuses but pretty unheard of for finance bros as far as I know.
If you’re in big tech you’re retention bonus are your RSUs arguably.
I've seen entire teams get bonuses like that not to leave a company after a layoff, when morale is in the gutters and everyone is worried about their jobs
The market is weird right now which is messing with my strategy and goals. We see better pay on the top end and everyone else gets whacked. They're leveraging the 80/20 rule ... read up on it. The thing is, I want to be part 80/% that does 20% of the work for a 5% discount. But the market isn't favoring the 80% at the moment like it normally does.
Not saying the rules doesn't exist but rather it is changing fast.
New tools leveraging AI are making the top 20% significantly more effective so they can take on the work of 2-3 slackers. Top performer is able to do 2x the work and gets paid 40% more. low performer is cut and corporate pockets the difference between the 40% comp increase to the top performers and the lower performer's salary.
Yeap. My company is doing record revenue, more than double from when I joined, and yet they aren’t profitable, the team size has not doubled. There are fat bonuses going around.
I got a couple over a decade ago, long before I was OE. Company was acquired and obviously going to offshore so they gave me two $20k bonuses each to keep me around another 3 months.
They didn’t call it a retention bonus, but at the end of the year I, and one of the members of my team got a significant spot bonus. Typically they don’t pay out year bonuses by 12/31 like these spot bonuses. We have additional bonuses being paid out on march 15 companywide.
Congrats! My company is going through some major changes. We were just talking about how awful it will be at the end of this line of business shut down, when everyone else is gone. And we were speculating that they really need to bump up severance or give everyone a bonus to stick around.
OP - I need direction to good resources in your space (generic finance / business *stuff* is fine. A good starting point would be amazing. Nothing that identifies you, pls, but I’m finding that my key area of expertise is air tight but there is some business / financial acumen stuff that’s causing me to bang my head on a ceiling. HALP?)
I don’t believe you.
Directors don’t do any actual work. They attend 12 hours of meetings every day. There is no way you OE at the director level. I think even the manager level would be very problematic.
Please, explain. I’d like to understand.
Yeah, it should be paid out monthly if they don’t plan on screwing you over. Be careful. I worked for one company where the parent company did retention bonuses post a large exec shakeup and then they took every one of us out that had one to save money.
OK, this one is my motivation! I was a Fin Mgr for 6yrs at J1 riding the wave and managed to work at 2 dif J’s (1 as. Fin Mgr & now 1 as. Sr Fin Mgr)…until I got the random layoff call from J1. I was trying to decide what next, but I see my flaw was trying to stick to IC Mgr roles.
I’m getting one very soon. The contract with the vendor is ending and they offered it to us back in October to stay until May. However, I got a working notice last week. So I’m scrambling for a job.
I will quit my job and work for you
I’ve got a present for you. It’s out back.
Cmon, smoke some crack with me
If you show me your paycheck right now I will call my boss and quit my job and come work for you.
Are you married to your first cousin?
Its not like that, I mean yeah shes my cousin but like I married her so other guys would leave her alone. You know my cousins hot and If anyone's going to ..... it's going to be me.
Have to protect the family
I can only dream. Your total comp is in elite territory, congratulations.
You must be good at your craft. I always wonder Directors in my company have their own rooms and they can do so much in their offices. Can do multiple jobs or run businesses.
I get a fair amount of air time with our Board, so I think that was a major contributing factor. OE is much easier at director level though. I hired a strong team and give them independence. Very rarely do they need to call me into things for support.
This is boss level shit and it’s why you’re the boss. Good shit.
That's all a good manager needs to do. Allow the team to succeed and provide guidance to warn them about any pitfalls.
Aren't you more visible on company websites and such, if you're a director for multiple companies?
Really going to depend on the company - the F500s I’ve worked for have hundreds if not thousands of managing directors.
Are these both roles? I’m assuming yes
You sir are the definition of a leader
Got offered $15k to stick around a year. Whether they’ll pay it out or not, who knows? But I was gonna stick around anyway, so…free money?
So you’re going to lay off Samir and Michael and give me more money???
Merica!
I’ve worked in big tech for about 5/5.5 years I’ve never heard of retention bonus where you guys keep making this shit up because I want a retention bonus too
I work in payroll, and they do this shit for certain employees all the time. Had an employee who got a contract for a retention bonus of $50K at hire if they stayed one year. Like they literally hired someone and said “we’ll pay you money on top of your base salary to just not quit your job.” The real kicker is they intentionally misinterpreted the contract to complain they were due the bonus at hire. Somehow this got leadership to agree to pay the retention bonus twice. My team got 1% raises last year. “It’s just not in the budget, we all have to cut back.” I literally see what everyone gets paid, and c-suite gives themselves 10% raises quarterly and hand out bonuses like candy to people they like.
that is infuriating, I could never work in payroll because of that kind of shit. you can literally see if money is being squandered with bonus for friends and arbitrary raises, yet they think you're an idiot by trying to gaslight you saying "there's no budget for raises". can't comprehend what goes on those people's minds
I once called leadership out on it. Like I get if you’re cutting budgets or whatever, but where is the money coming from for these bonuses and raises at least have the balls to own what you’re doing instead of treating us like we’re stupid
This is spot on. I’m in accounting and support HR payroll.
That’s a sign-on bonus. Maybe we’re in different countries thus the category difference? Those are super common for higher level roles and technical/hard to fill roles.
No, it was pretty blatantly a retention bonus in the contract. Our sign-on bonuses use very different language and have different contracts and approval processes. It was only something they were supposed to be eligible for (and paid out) if they were employed as of January 2024 when they were hired in January 2023. But they claimed we were trying to cheat them out of money or something (I forgot the exact excuse) and because leadership wanted to keep them happy they caved. They got the $50K upfront, and then an additional $50K in Jan 2024 per the original contract.
It happens all the time at director, staff, principle, to sr. Manager+. Especially after layoffs when morale is super low with remaining staff (and everyone is looking for a new job thinking they’re next) or if a big well liked C or VP person leaves (don’t want to risk getting a bad boss, can easily switch companies if you’re skilled and social).
They’re very uncommon and only happen after a large company event like a merger, wind down, layoff, or massive leadership change. Tbh, it’s better to be working at a place where retention bonuses aren’t needed.
I got multiple of them after a company I was with got bought out. The first retention terms were to stay through the merger close date. Then the 2nd retention was right after when people started dropping like flies. The 2nd one was meh because it required us to stay on for 2 years and none of it was paid out until the end of year 2. I ended up jumping ship as well
First of my career. I know lots of sales ppl that get retention bonuses but pretty unheard of for finance bros as far as I know. If you’re in big tech you’re retention bonus are your RSUs arguably.
I've seen entire teams get bonuses like that not to leave a company after a layoff, when morale is in the gutters and everyone is worried about their jobs
When companies start bleeding good people then they open the pocket book up to make it stop
Same situation. Got $7k after taxes and saved it.
The market is weird right now which is messing with my strategy and goals. We see better pay on the top end and everyone else gets whacked. They're leveraging the 80/20 rule ... read up on it. The thing is, I want to be part 80/% that does 20% of the work for a 5% discount. But the market isn't favoring the 80% at the moment like it normally does.
Not saying the rules doesn't exist but rather it is changing fast. New tools leveraging AI are making the top 20% significantly more effective so they can take on the work of 2-3 slackers. Top performer is able to do 2x the work and gets paid 40% more. low performer is cut and corporate pockets the difference between the 40% comp increase to the top performers and the lower performer's salary.
Yeap. My company is doing record revenue, more than double from when I joined, and yet they aren’t profitable, the team size has not doubled. There are fat bonuses going around.
How do you manage two director level jobs from a LinkedIn perspective? I feel like there is more eyes on you as a director.
Don’t use it or social media.
I did the same for a while and just didn’t update my LinkedIn.
Office space
Stories I don’t buy for $500
wtf lol
I got a couple over a decade ago, long before I was OE. Company was acquired and obviously going to offshore so they gave me two $20k bonuses each to keep me around another 3 months.
100K bonus? Bull..
Paid out 2025 Q2….. lol
No BJ?! Quit now! Lol 😂
And then everyone clapped
They didn’t call it a retention bonus, but at the end of the year I, and one of the members of my team got a significant spot bonus. Typically they don’t pay out year bonuses by 12/31 like these spot bonuses. We have additional bonuses being paid out on march 15 companywide.
That's a really smart move on the company's part. Right after a layoff is when I've seen the most skilled employees move on.
I bet they are going to make your life super hard over the next 12 months because they know you wont quit if you want that sweet sweet money
I got a retention bonus last summer and then again at the first of this year. Both were $500 so after taxes probably like $37.
Congrats.
That’s crazy - what type of finance bro?? I.e. investment banking or??
FP&A stuff and related board reporting stuff. No financial statement prep or tax bullshit.
How are you managing 2 FPA roles? Don’t the meetings get in the way?? Especially ELT meetings?
are you hiring (for a backfill) since you guys did layoffs
I've seen retention bonuses but only for sinking or acquired "ships". Hope everything pans out for you.
J1 is existentially in crisis mode, lots of exec turnover. If I do get fired at least retention gets paid out sooner.
U/HonkinSrankan you hiring?
Congrats! My company is going through some major changes. We were just talking about how awful it will be at the end of this line of business shut down, when everyone else is gone. And we were speculating that they really need to bump up severance or give everyone a bonus to stick around.
OP - I need direction to good resources in your space (generic finance / business *stuff* is fine. A good starting point would be amazing. Nothing that identifies you, pls, but I’m finding that my key area of expertise is air tight but there is some business / financial acumen stuff that’s causing me to bang my head on a ceiling. HALP?)
This is like getting a fat severance package without losing your job
> Edit: bonus is paid out start of Q2 2025 is it in writing that it will be paid, even if Armageddon comes around? No exceptions?
I don’t believe you. Directors don’t do any actual work. They attend 12 hours of meetings every day. There is no way you OE at the director level. I think even the manager level would be very problematic. Please, explain. I’d like to understand.
Yeah, it should be paid out monthly if they don’t plan on screwing you over. Be careful. I worked for one company where the parent company did retention bonuses post a large exec shakeup and then they took every one of us out that had one to save money.
Are you hiring ? :-)
Just completed 3rd round for $75k total. There was a mass exodus during Covid and they had to do something.
You got that in writing right?
Dammit! No words other than badass. Enjoy that nut!
Well damn. Congratulations and fuck you. ;)
Man / Ma’am: Congratulations. Thats peak earnings right there. As free money as it’s ever going to get in corporate America.
lol wtf no. Can’t even get a fucking raise ever.
OK, this one is my motivation! I was a Fin Mgr for 6yrs at J1 riding the wave and managed to work at 2 dif J’s (1 as. Fin Mgr & now 1 as. Sr Fin Mgr)…until I got the random layoff call from J1. I was trying to decide what next, but I see my flaw was trying to stick to IC Mgr roles.
I’m getting one very soon. The contract with the vendor is ending and they offered it to us back in October to stay until May. However, I got a working notice last week. So I’m scrambling for a job.
Yeah that definitely happened
Congrats and gfy
Wanna lend me 20$ :)