My Bonus is not fair

This is quite a common feeling of all the employees in the company. Everyone expects the bonus to be a bit bigger. Or significantly higher. The employees have no clear overview about the calculation of the bonus and how the manager evaluates the performance of the individual employees.

The employee will always see the bonuses as unfair with one small exception. The employee with the highest bonus in the department will be satisfied as it is a nice recognition for him or her. The employees are not allowed to speak about their bonuses, but they usually do. They do not have to speak about the amounts, but they are able to rank themselves and they are right. Usually.

The manager has to make a difficult decision, when the bonuses have to be paid. Most managers try to recognize the best employees and there is no issue to identify the best one. The real war is in the middle of the team. Those employees, who really work hard, but they have no excellent results and they have no chance for the excellent career growth. They are vulnerable to complain.

The manager has to explain every single bonus in detail and the employee has to get a chance to understand the reasons and how the bonus was calculated. The manager spent a lot of time, when deciding about the bonus, the employee should receive several minutes to know the feelings and reasons behind.