They finally announced the one-time bonus pay-out. As suspected, many people were not too happy about it. You see, this bonus was to make up for the wage freeze middle of last year. It was promised by the management when they decided on the freeze. I'm not going to rant about how unjust this decision was because this company had been earning *gross* amount of money. Well, they had to heed the government's call, or so they reasoned. At least they promised some kind of one-time compensation.

OK, so what's wrong with this pay-out? The circular mentioned that the pay-out is an "advance payment subjected to the company's overall performance in 2003". Firstly, if this bonus is replacing last year's wage freeze, why tie it to 2003 full-year performance? If it were to be given in the middle of 2003, how would one predict the company's performance anyway? Secondly, the word "advance" raised a lot of queries among ourselves. Do they mean that this is a part of the overall bonus that we are going to receive 2 months later? Which means that the actual quantum that we are getting will be deducted of this amount, am I not right? So what is the "pay-out in lieu of the wage freeze" are they talking about?

I can blast on and on about this, but of what use there is? The decision is final and they are not going to hear us out. It isn't going to change a thing, not here, not now.

Frankly speaking, I should be glad that the company is giving out bonus despite this bleak economy outlook. The overall amount, if on par with the past years, is going to be a lot more than what other companies are giving, and huge enough to make many green with envy. Besides, I'm beyond thankful to them for keeping me employed, even though there is a huge pool of readily available people out there with the same, or better, skill sets than I. At the minimum, I don't hate my job, for it let me put what I know to good use, and allow me to learn more, and more importantly, I need the money. So, I can't justify myself to be such an ungrateful and greedy soul.

OK, I rest my case.