With the holiday just past the topic of Christmas bonuses came up in a family discussion.
My future son-in-law, who works for a German-owned company, told me that he had
received a Christmas bonus in his pay. This got me to thinking about when was the
last time that I had personally received a Christmas bonus.
The answer: December, 1988, while working for Ames. I believe the amount was
a couple hundred dollars. A few months later Mr. Gilman stepped-down from personal
involvement in running the company, and his successors announced that they were
doing away with Christmas bonuses.
Bah! Humbug!
Hearing about future son-in-law's bonus came as a surprise because it had been years
since I had heard of ANYONE getting a Christmas bonus. And close to thirty years since
I had gotten one personally.
Does anyone out there currently get a Christmas bonus from their employer?
Are their any retailers who still give one? Any non-German owned companies?
A lot of smaller businesses do; I always gave them when I was in business for myself, usually a couple hundred dollars for a good employee. My last employer did the same. I now work for a large corporation; their bonus is a gift from a catalog, worth around $35. It's a very good company to work for, though.