Annual bonus season brings gain and pain
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More than 80 percent of companies polled say they will hand out hongbao to employees
The annual bonus season is already under way ahead of the Spring Festival, prompting highs and lows among optimistic and pessimistic white-collar workers.
Zhu Junting, assistant to an international pharmaceutical company's chief executive officer (CEO), has been counting a wad of money she was given by her boss, along with praise for her good performance.
Zhu and her colleagues received nothing last year because the company performed badly.
"Given that the impact of the financial crisis is fading away, we all received a fat annual bonus - as much as 20,000 yuan," Zhu said.
She added that every department in her company had their own bonus scheme with staff rewarded according to their annual assessment results.
Lu Xuan, a member of the administrative staff of a State-owned company, was happily expecting a big rise in his bank balance.
"To be honest, our annual bonus is secure no matter how terrible the economy is," said Lu. "That's because our company is operating in a monopolized sector with much government support."
He said that despite the financial tsunami, average members of the administrative staff at his company received about 20,000 yuan in hongbao - red envelopes containing cash bonuses - last year. They expect to get at least 30,000 yuan this year.
"The engineering staff or people at management level are likely to receive double or triple what I received for their bonus, or even as much as hundreds of thousands of yuan," he added.
Lu said he spent his entire annual bonus along with his savings on the down payment for his new apartment in Beijing's Wangjing area.
According to Mark Carriban, managing director for Asia at international human resource firm Hudson, about 84 percent of companies they polled are going to send a certain amount of annual bonus to their employees. The percentage is much higher than in other Asian countries they surveyed.
The figures come from a recent survey by Hudson in which more than 1,500 key human resources personnel, mostly at international businesses, were polled.
It found employees from the polled enterprises would receive fatter annual bonus compared with previous years. About 55 percent of employers promised to give bonuses equal to more than 10 percent of annual salaries to their staff, Carriban added.
According to the survey, about 91 percent of banking and financial enterprises will award their staff annual bonuses. Many banks will give bonuses equal to two to four months' salary. Securities, investment and assets management companies are expected to give bonuses of three to five months' salary.
Guangzhou Daily reported a receptionist with a financial company received 100,000 yuan as her annual bonus while managers of the company would get as much as 1 million yuan.
However, Linda Li, a manager at one of the big four accounting firms who has been working for four years, said:" We didn't receive any bonus for 2009 and we didn't get any in 2008 either. Of course, we expect some bonus ahead of the Spring Festival gathering, but the reality is it will be zero."
Industry insiders said some financial agencies would give the annual bonus as part of the regular salary to their staff, rather than paying an extra amount ahead of the Lunar New Year.
The Hudson survey showed that 90 percent of companies in the consumer goods sector and 88 percent of companies in manufacturing said they were able to pay annual bonuses to their employees.
Only about 46 percent of media, public relations and advertising companies agreed to the employees' hongbao. Parts of the sector were badly hit by the downturn.
Cindy Ji, a Beijing-based journalist with a State-owned news agency, said she received 8,000 yuan as annual bonus.
"Compared with my reporter friends, I should feel blessed since most of them got 1,000 yuan or even nothing," Ji said.
According to the Hudson survey, there is a wide range in annual bonuses between different media agencies. Figures showed that 36 percent of employers in the media sector had promised to send annual bonuses equal to 5 percent of average annual salaries or even less, but 13 percent of them would motivate their staff with hongbao containing 20 percent of employees' annual salaries.
Human resources experts said it showed that after a year's struggle, although many companies had striven to cut their costs, they were still willing to hold on to talented staff by offering a hefty bonus.
Feng Xu, an analyst with a financial website in Beijing, was disappointed this year, just as he was last year.
"I really need the bonus to relieve the pressure from my house mortgage," Feng said. "I also need the money so I can afford to go back to my hometown for the family gathering during the Spring Festival. Everything is expensive during the festival."
For employees working for smaller enterprises, a fat hongbao might be an unachievable dream.
Yang Juanjuan, a 26-year-old office worker at an international trade company in Beijing's Guomao area, said: "An annual bonus of hundreds of yuan would be a pleasant surprise for me. If I don't get it, I'm expecting my boss to give us more days off for the Spring Festival holiday. That would be the best annual bonus for me."
Xu Mohan, a sales person with an English training company, is also concerned about his bonus. "It will be nothing this year because the performance of the outlet I'm working for was not satisfactory in 2009. However, our foreign staff are very likely to receive something."
The pressure over bonuses can even prompt some people to lie about them.
Sui Qing, 25, has worked as a salesman at an insurance firm in the capital for three years. "I have got nothing again this year because of my dismal performance. Nonetheless, I'm planning to give my parents 10,000 yuan which I saved from my monthly salary," he said.
"I will tell my parents that it is an annual bonus for my excellent work in 2009," he said. "I have to tell a lie because I don't want to disappoint them or make them worry about my life in Beijing."
According to a survey by Zhilian Recruiting, a Chinese human resources firm, more than 40 percent of 7,000 respondents will deposit a half of their annual bonus into their bank accounts, while 20 percent of them will put all the money in the bank.
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