Yesterday my employer released the amount of Bonus or Profit Share every employee will receive this year. It was pretty interesting to watch the reactions of my colleagues as well as my own. Because of the social media style comments section in the intranet you get a pretty good feeling, what people think about it.
Almost every external colleague (subcontractors, consultants and temporary workers) was offended or envious because they don't receive the profit share, although they contributed in the same way as all regular employees. For them not getting paid was a lack of appreciation. And almost every colleague who got the share was disappointed. Why? Because despite the most successful year in the companies history the share was comparingly low. It was around one monthly payment (roughly 5.5K gross) for the avg. employee.
The worldwide profit of last year exceeded 2 Billion Euro for the first time. This was generated through 12,000 people all over the world and a few thousand externals. This means on average every employee contributed 166,666 Euro to the profit. This is the net number after all wages are paid, all taxes and investments are deducted. If you consider this number the (way above average in the industry) profit share of 5.5k doesn't look like a lot. In other words a little over 3% is shared. So although everybody is getting more than industry standard almost everyone is disappointed because they expected even more. In the end only a few are thankful, basically everybody is unhappy. This really makes me think if it wouldn't be better to be the employer instead of an employee.
Now my questions are:
1. Wouldn't that mean that I'd exploit my employees as well? Or is it even exploiting?
2. Do you think this is fair / ethical to keep 161k and pay 5.5k? Or is everything paid with the wages and an employee shouldn't claim anymore than agreed on?
3. If you have employees do you share the profit and if so how much?
Let me know what you think...
Almost every external colleague (subcontractors, consultants and temporary workers) was offended or envious because they don't receive the profit share, although they contributed in the same way as all regular employees. For them not getting paid was a lack of appreciation. And almost every colleague who got the share was disappointed. Why? Because despite the most successful year in the companies history the share was comparingly low. It was around one monthly payment (roughly 5.5K gross) for the avg. employee.
The worldwide profit of last year exceeded 2 Billion Euro for the first time. This was generated through 12,000 people all over the world and a few thousand externals. This means on average every employee contributed 166,666 Euro to the profit. This is the net number after all wages are paid, all taxes and investments are deducted. If you consider this number the (way above average in the industry) profit share of 5.5k doesn't look like a lot. In other words a little over 3% is shared. So although everybody is getting more than industry standard almost everyone is disappointed because they expected even more. In the end only a few are thankful, basically everybody is unhappy. This really makes me think if it wouldn't be better to be the employer instead of an employee.
Now my questions are:
1. Wouldn't that mean that I'd exploit my employees as well? Or is it even exploiting?
2. Do you think this is fair / ethical to keep 161k and pay 5.5k? Or is everything paid with the wages and an employee shouldn't claim anymore than agreed on?
3. If you have employees do you share the profit and if so how much?
Let me know what you think...
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