I work on a Learning and Development team as a policy writer. Each year I receive an annual bonus based on performance. A year and a half ago, after the ENTIRE training team quit due to return-to-office issues, I offered to step up and facilitate training to be a team player until new trainers could be brought on. (I’m fortunate enough to be fully remote.)
As a thank you, I received over 100% of my bonus that year, I got like an extra 6%. Yay great, right?
This year, when going over bonuses, they deducted 6% from the bonus because I received “extra” last year.
They played stupid, as if this was something I should’ve expected the whole time. Like an idiot, I let it go at the time and after months of continued frustration this year, it’s definitely too late to bring it up. Not that anything would even happen, since my last chat with HR (about something different) made it clear that speaking to them is a complete waste of time.
Needless to say, “above and beyond” buys you some kudos but don’t offer to do it for nothing.
—-Also—-
to those thinking that training / learning and development is a good direction for your career:
-Make sure you don’t get pigeonholed, find a way to have a backup plan. I’m either too valuable in my current role or just suck too much to be promoted, but any chance at a new position within the company has been denied.
-Lots of outside jobs I’ve applied for have told me I’m not “marketable,” even though I’m heavily involved on a wide range of things from compliance, to comm strategy, to UX writing, to product and project management. I’ve been in a career rut for years now, mainly due to the pandemic, and now I’m just struggling to move beyond my current level – even after getting a PMP certification. I’m heading back to get a master’s cause I don’t know what else to do. Just make sure you’ve got some sort of certification or side skills you can leverage if you need to pivot.
-don’t stay in one spot for too long. I’ve cemented myself in my role for 5 years, I should’ve left 2-3 years ago (but again- pandemic).
Anyway, time to get back to work. Thanks for letting me rant!