Leaving Job _ Will I get bonus?

Colonel Sanders

Planning on handing my notice in on 1st of february. I have a three month notice period. Bonuses are declared in March and paid in April, I will officially by employed by my company during this period but as I said will be on my notice period. Will I be paid the bonus?

Maccattack

I doubt it but it all depends on yr contract

fuse

3 month notice period?
That's an awfully long notice period.
1 month should be the most.
I thought it was based on the frequency of pay.
So if you're payed monthly, then notice period is monthly.

leeroybrown

Colonel Sanders wrote:

Planning on handing my notice in on 1st of february. I have a three month notice period. Bonuses are declared in March and paid in April, I will officially by employed by my company during this period but as I said will be on my notice period. Will I be paid the bonus?

I don't think that anyone here will be able to conclusively answer this for you unless they know the internal workings of your company. I would suggest that you would be entitled to 'a bonus' if you are present at the time of bonus allocation or were present for the full bonus period. That said your employer may have other conditions they impose and might chose to give you a poor bonus if they know you are leaving anyway. Unfortunately the only people with a definitive answer will be HR or management at your company.

fuse wrote:

3 month notice period?
That's an awfully long notice period.
1 month should be the most.
I thought it was based on the frequency of pay.
So if you're payed monthly, then notice period is monthly.

Three months is a long notice period but is used quite often for people in important positions. Three months could be quite reasonable if the OP is senior enough. For example my previous employer stipulated a single month for normal employees, two months for senior employees (4+ years experience) and three months for management employees.

Notice periods in Ireland have nothing to do with the frequency of pay yet for some reason people always seem to think that they do. The statutory minimum notice period that an employer is entitled to is one week but if a longer period is stipulated in a written contract it applies instead. This notice period can be anything agreed by the employer and employee and can also be waived or overridden if both parties agree.

I have vague memories of hearing about some employees successfully making legal challenges against overly long notice periods given their roles and responsibilities. Perhaps someone else will confirm/debunk this.

testicle

No you will not receive this bonus if it is of t he annual bonus variety. If the bonus is specifically for a project completed throughout the year, you should get it.

Colonel Sanders

No its an annual bonus declared after the company declares final results etc. Thanks anyhow.

WhiteWashMan

possible. or not. but maybe you will.

its really at the discression of the company.

a bonus is just that, a bonus. it is not in your contract, it is not a statutory payment, and it is not part of your remuneration package, unlike commission, so it really is at the mercy of the company as to whether you get it, or whether they pay it out at all.

damnyanks

Would depend on how vital you are to the business and what your relationship with them is upon leaving.

If it were me running the company I woulnd't give it to you. I wouldn't tell you that until your last week or there abouts. It would save me a good chunk of money but burn some bridges.

Its a person by person thing really isn't it.

Gurgle

Colonel Sanders wrote:

I have a three month notice period.

Afaik, thats can't legally be required.
One month notice would co-incide nicely with you getting the bonus

MarkR

Usually they issue the terms before paying, eg working from some date to another date. If you've already handed in your notice when it's being calculated I would have thought that you wouldn't get it, but fingers crossed.

Probably best to ask finance / hr about the requirements?

Colonel Sanders

Thanks everyone for the advice, problem with asking HR is that I'll be moving to a competitor and don't want to say owt as they'll show me the door the second I hand in notice. I'll still be employed but won't be allowed inside the building so i'd prefer to keep stum til I have the contract signed and sealed.

leeroybrown

The fact that a gardening leave will be involved might complicate the matter of the bonus yet further. At least if you miss out on the bonus you'll have a few months paid holiday.

RainyDay

Is there any way you can hold off until the bonus is in your pocket? If not, you should put this problem to your new employer, and tell them that if they want you to hand in your notice early, they will need to buy out your bonus. There were legal routes to pay 'hello money' tax-free to new employees some years back - not sure if this still exists.

Colonel Sanders

Rainy Day, there si talk of this but not too sure what will happen. I didn't expect my new employer to pick up the tab for my lost bonus so will not hold them to it if it comes to the crunch. I suppose having 3 months paid hols will have to be my bonus this year if all else fails!!!

WhiteWashMan

Colonel Sanders wrote:

Thanks everyone for the advice, problem with asking HR is that I'll be moving to a competitor and don't want to say owt as they'll show me the door the second I hand in notice. I'll still be employed but won't be allowed inside the building so i'd prefer to keep stum til I have the contract signed and sealed.

in that case you get 3 month gardening leave.

i dont see why you have to tell them who you are moving to though.

i mean, have you already handed in your notice or not?
and have you already signed papers with the new crowd?

seamus

Gurgle wrote:

Afaik, thats can't legally be required.

Of course it can. If it's in the contract that's it. CEOs or board members of big companies have notice periods of a year or more.

There's no legal maximum limit on the length of a notice period, only a legal minimum. However there is a legal notion of enforceability when it comes to such things. That is, if you're a call centre worker getting €10/hour, then a notice period of three months may be considered unenforceable - with that kind of notice period, no other employer would take you on at the same level, thus denying you your freedom to change jobs that you're entitled to.

The very fact that the OP has another job despite his three month notice period indicates that the contract is indeed enforceable.

WhiteWashMan wrote:

i dont see why you have to tell them who you are moving to though.

I'm not sure what the legal stance is on this, but there would definitely be an idependence issue when moving to an employer. Remaining on at the company could leave the OP or his new company open to legal action, with claims that the OP specifically withheld the information in order to obtain sensitive company information, or subvert their business processes.

BossArky

OP I don't think you will get the bonus if you are leaving. Usually a bonus is paid out to reward employees. They are not going to be enarmoured with you wanting to leave, and thus no bonus. Of course... I could be wrong.

Take a read of "Bloomberg" by Mike Bloomberg (current NY city mayor who make his money on Wallstreet with his self titled financial data company). He has much to say about employees leaving for competitors. He never attends going away parties as he classes people leaving as "taking food from the rest of our familes mouths". Controversial, but more or less just saying what people really think. He also maintains he will never re-hire anyone who left for any reason other than family problems.

Why don't you push your start date with the new company back by a month or two, collect bonus, then hand in notice?

ifah

do you want to have 3 months holidays or will you be in a position to start with new job whenever ? if that's the case and you will definitly be shown the door you should be able to do both - get bonus, hand in notice and then be available for work for new employer asap after being shown door ! only thing you lose out on is garden leave.

or else hand in notice in feb and start new job then - get paid for both (maybe that will offset loss of bonus)

leeroybrown

I think it would be extremely unlikely that the OP would be able to start a new job directly after being shown the door. If his employer shows him the door without enforcing the gardening leave then something is seriously wrong with their management structure.

tHE vAGGABOND

TBH I would not give you the bonus if your notice was already handed in.

What I would do, would be to be a wanker, and hand in the notice the day after you get the bonus into your account. Someone did that in my old job in the UK once, made the boss none to happy but there is nowt he can do about it, it being a free world and all that

But as the lads have said above, its none of their business who you are moving to. You can tell your mates at work, but its none of HR or managment's business. The only time it becomes their business is if you know company secrets and that kind of thing. If I were you I would play dumb and tell no one anything, just that you want to leave!

damnyanks

In my mates place they leave right after the bonus as well. While they are working off the few months before they get the bonus they **** the companies deals over as well - now thats being a bastard.

Colonel Sanders

Still not sure what'll happen. Starting new job 1st of may so handing in notice end of january. Won't know til then but new company will compensate me if I lose bonus, happy days all round!!!!

RainyDay

Colonel Sanders wrote:

Still not sure what'll happen. Starting new job 1st of may so handing in notice end of january. Won't know til then but new company will compensate me if I lose bonus, happy days all round!!!!

If you haven't got a written agreement with your new company regarding the missed bonus, I would suggest that it is extremely unlikely that they will hand over the cash. You might have some chance of negotiating this as part of an overall package, but given that you've already agreed to move, they have nothing to lose by not giving you the grant.

leeroybrown

RainyDay wrote:

If you haven't got a written agreement with your new company regarding the missed bonus, I would suggest that it is extremely unlikely that they will hand over the cash.

I wouldn't say that this is necessarily the case. If a company is in a position where they are spending a considerable amount of money on recruiting and then paying someone who will probably be quite an important employee then I would that there is a reasonable chance that they will be able to sign off on the bonus.