Approximately 3+ years ago I was sat down by the owner of our company and the COO and was told they were going to start implementing bonuses. At the time we had just gotten a new, very expensive business management software so it was very easy to see profit per job that was quoted out. I was told that I would be getting a percentage of the gross profit per the bid if it was won.
Fast forward a few months later, the topic came up again during discussion. This time I was told the bonus would be calculated after the labor cost was removed. Ok fine, that’s called net profit but whatever. I was still cool with it as I never asked for a bonus anyways.
We get towards the end of the year and it comes up again. “Well, you’ll only get a bonus if the job is profitable”. So now I’m getting a bonus based off of others performance and not of my own? Our company is notorious for hiring under skilled people for positions. In the past 5 years we have hired 1 skilled employee for the field. All others were hired with no experience and we “train” them up to par. And when I say no skill, I mean we have hired people that were not in our industry or have ever picked up a hand tool in their life and put them into positions.
So after 3+ years, I have yet to see a dime of bonus. Others have been told the same thing and strung along as well. Honestly all I care about is my base pay but now it’s kind of a principal thing. I have gone and made financial investments based on the promise that they were going to be distributing these bonuses and they have reaffirmed this multiple times.
My question is, what if I leave or get let go before I ever see any of it? Do you think I have any recourse or possibility of retro pay even if i have to take legal action?