• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to footer

The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

  • About Jack
    • Other Places You Can Find Me
  • Contact Me
    • Disclosure
  • About Jack
    • Other Places You Can Find Me
  • Contact Me
    • Disclosure

Archives for November 2006

The vanishing holiday bonus

November 27, 2006 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

“We’re seeing the holiday bonuses disappear,” says Brian Drum, president of Drum Associates in New York. “Thirty-five years ago, when I first dealt with a lot of companies that used to pay the so-called Christmas bonus, it was a gift. Today, as companies are becoming larger and consolidated, they are giving because it’s performance-related.” Tying rewards to the performance of the company serves to motivate workers, employment specialists say.

Nowhere is that more evident than on Wall Street. Bonuses are reaching the stratosphere, rising an estimated 10 to 15 percent this year over 2005. Those rewards can average $1.7 million for managing directors of Wall Street banks. For top-tier bankers, they can swell to $20 million or more.

“The financial-services industry has the notoriety of paying the highest bonuses,” Mr. Drum says. “They can be multiples of a person’s salary. In the more industrial companies … probably not a lot of bonuses are given out.”

Many companies have also changed their fiscal year so it no longer coincides with the calendar year and the holiday season. Some end their year on Nov. 30. for others, it’s March 31. “It kind of takes you away from paying a bonus,” Drum says.

In a 2005 survey by Hewitt Associates, 59 percent of companies said they would not award holiday bonuses. But more than three-quarters of firms offer performance-based bonuses that must be reearned each year.

Among 1,500 small businesses, 39 percent plan to give employees holiday bonuses this year, according to Constant Contact, an e-mail marketing service for small businesses. That is up 2 percent from last year.

“For small businesses, cash flow and cash management are more difficult issues,” says Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. “It is harder to see out to the future and understand where cash will be next quarter and next year. It takes more confidence for a small business to pay a bonus.”

Whatever a company’s size, employees are frustrated by a “lack of clarity about how one qualifies for that bonus,” says Bill Kuntz, vice president of Princeton One, an outplacement firm. “They want to be treated fairly and have clear expectations.”

Many companies do a poor job of communicating with their employees about the direction and goals of the company and that can harm productivity and morale. Especially if you are employed by a company in which it appears that the rewards of the hard work of the company are not shared by all.

Still, Bob Kustka, president of CHR Partners, a human resources consulting firm in Norwell, Mass., expects changes: “Bonuses are going to come back into vogue in the next few years as the war for talent heats up,” he says. “The new workers entering the workforce, the millennials, will be harder to keep. They don’t have the same level of loyalty [that] previous generations had. Therefore organizations will be looking for innovative ways to keep those workers.” Already he sees gaps in accounting, engineering, and nursing.

Mr. Kustka notes another factor that could strengthen bonuses: the need to redistribute profits. “A lot of people are critical that CEO pay has risen between 300 percent and 400 percent. How do you justify that, when the average worker over the past 20 years has seen a decline in earning power and CEOs have seen immense growth in their earning power?”

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Evolution of Dance

November 27, 2006 by Jack Steiner 2 Comments

This was worth watching again.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Tiger Versus Crocodile

November 27, 2006 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Michelangelo Meets McDonalds

November 27, 2006 by Jack Steiner 9 Comments


Source

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Soccer Fans Are Problematic & The French are Worse

November 26, 2006 by Jack Steiner 8 Comments

I have written about the dull game here, here and here. Now we can add this to the list:

PARIS, Nov 24, 2006 (AFP) – A French police officer — a black man in plain clothes — shot dead a Paris-Saint Germain football fan after being turned on by a mob during racist violence that followed the team’s defeat by Israeli side Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

Antoine Granomort, who was in custody Friday morning, fired his handgun into a threatening crowd near the Parc des Princes stadium late Thursday after seeking to defend a French fan of the Israeli club from attack, police and witnesses said.

A 24-year-old man was killed and a 26-year-old who was wounded is in serious condition in hospital, police said.

Five fans were in police custody Friday morning and face possible charges for “racist and anti-Semitic insults”, police said.

“Four young people presumably from the Jewish community were rounded on by a group of supporters of PSG. They decided to separate, and one of them Yanniv Hazout was chased by attackers … The mob grew to some 100 people,” said state prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin.

“A plain clothes officer from the transport police, Antoine Granomort, told Monsieur Hazout to stand behind him and then tried to keep the crowd away using his tear-gas canister.

“The crowd hurled insults — dirty Jew, dirty nigger — and monkey cries and raised Nazi salutes. Some shouted ‘Le Pen for president’,” he said.

According to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy: “One of the attackers hit him on the head and another kicked him in the groin, and he fell to the ground. He got out his gun after stating he was a policeman — though in what exact circumstances I do not know.”

“(The officer) fired in legitimate self-defense in order to protect his physical person. He had come to the aid of a man in accordance with our rules of engagement, and he had no choice but to shoot,” said Patrice Ribeiro of the Synergie police union.

“I am sorry that there is a dead PSG fan but one has to say that these people are racists who attacked a police officer because he was a man of colour,” said Joaquin Masanet of the UNSA-police union.”

France has some very serious problems. It is a society that is on the verge of a major upheaval.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Haveil Havalim- Thanksgiving Edition

November 26, 2006 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

Haveil Havalim #95 – Thanksgiving Edition- It is live at Smooth Stone.

Filed Under: Haveil Havalim

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 14
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

Things Someone Wrote

The Fabulous Archives

Copyright © 2025 · Jack Steiner

 

Loading Comments...