A reader e-mailed the following question:
I recently gave my company a month’s notice as I planned to move to a new city and pursue a new career. A few weeks later, the company gave out the second installment of our bi-annual bonuses, and I did not receive mine. The company did well this year and my accounts posted increased sales. I can understand that the company may not want to give me any additional remuneration at this point, but I am leaving on good terms and feel that I deserve that money from the past year of great performance. Is this something I should discuss with my boss or am I being unreasonable?
Here’s my response, which I think might be useful to those of you in similar situations.
No, you are not being unreasonable. The truth is, you didn’t even have to give a month’s notice, but presumably did so in order to better transition your workload. If you gave the standard two weeks, you would have collected the bonus automatically before you broke the news.
If you can, check with HR to see if the company has an official policy against issuing commission-based bonuses if they have knowledge that the employee is leaving. If they do, there might not be anything you or your boss can do about it. If there is no such policy or you can’t determine whether there is one or not, you should absolutely talk to your boss. Bring it up to your boss in a friendly, "just checking to see what's up with this" tone that does not allow him to become defensive. Emphasize how much you’ve enjoyed working for the company and that you hope for a strong relationship in the future. Approaching it in this way will make it more likely that he will do right by you.
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I've been in similar situations on both the employee and manager sides. And as much as it pains me to say this (because much of my work is about bringing humanness and fairness to the work relationship), giving that extra two weeks of notice will usually hurt the employee far more than the employer. As employees, we want to do what's right to our own sense of honor...and it's only the few organizations that will reciprocate that sense of honor. I've actually advised my own employees to only give two weeks and (particularly for my pregnant moms) to tell me as little as necessary about their upcoming plans about leaving the organization.
My advice is to be very careful and thoughtful about how you leave an organization. If the minimum amount of leave notice is 2 weeks, then that's what you give. It's sad that we have to be so protective and guarded, but most orgs that I've been involved with do act like jilted lovers when you say you want to exit the relationship.