Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit
&quot;One of our things is that money follows; it does not lead.&quot; --Dan Gilbert<p>In my experience, successful people go work hard and are excited about &quot;the right things&quot; and incur financial benefits along the way. If you are working on the right stuff in the right way, on average you should get good comp&#x2F;bonuses.<p>On the flip side, if your only connection to your work is the bonus then you&#x27;re probably unhappy anyways.<p>&quot;Sometimes people mistake generosity for not being fair. Generosity is good, entitlement is bad, and they can easily be confused, so be crystal clear on which is which. Decisions should be based on what you believe is warranted&quot; -- Ray Salio<p>Other comments talk about becoming entitled to bonuses, while they are genuinely discretionary. Broader, people get used to any perks and complain if they go away. This is reality of life on one hand but a flaw in individual thinking on the other.<p>Personally - as an employee I seek places where I can feel good about the <i>relationship</i> between the company and the people. When that&#x27;s right, I&#x27;m more understanding if bonuses are tight during a lean year or the espresso machine gets downgraded. As an employer I look for the same thing in employees. Why would I hire those who don&#x27;t care about their work mission in an emotional way? It&#x27;s not that everyone has to love derivatives trading, it&#x27;s that the best people find a way to connect and care about what they are working on and be genuinely excited about it and want their team to win. It&#x27;s a great attitude and I believe it leads people to much more success (and none of this is to say you should stay on a sinking ship or tolerate a bad work situation -- never do that. But there&#x27;s something to say about maturely weathering the ups and downs of a worthwhile relationship)<p>In a good company, it&#x27;s ride or die together and both the company and the people feel that way. If this is crazy to some people I feel they are missing out on some genuine upsides of what work can be like.