Now, this story happened a few years ago when I was working for a German engineering company and I'm still mad as hell.
I started my professional career as an engineer at this company and despite everyone always being busy, management kept telling us that business was merely okay.
As a young professional you tend not to think too much about these things. You got your projects, there's no imminent risk of losing your job and the pay check comes on time – so don't worry.
But when it was time for the bonus, it was the same story every year over and over again: Business is not great, there's no money left. But at least we're all in the same boat and even the company owners will waive any bonus payments, dividends or whatever.
Well, I was slightly frustrated about this situation but the fairness of this situation seemed to make it okay. At least everyone was treated equally, right? No. Not quite.
You see, a few years in I found out that the operating side was indeed not doing great. However, there was a holding company on top of it all which did nothing but lease out equipment, offices and other stuff (i think even corporate services) to the operating companies and boy oh boy, they made money.
They were actually doing extremely well but that didn't really matter for us because the employee's bonus were ONLY based on the result of the operating company. Technically we had nothing to do with the holding. The owners however…..
Well, I don't think I need to tell you more about the situation. Needless to say I quit soon after I found out.