St. Johns Properties, a Maryland-based real estate company had recently hit a target goal of developing 20 million square feet of office space. To celebrate this milestone, the owner of the company decided to provide a Christmas bonus of $10 million. The bonus was spread out to 198 employees based on years of service to the company. The average bonus was $50,000 and the highest bonus was $270,000. Even the guy who didn’t start work until after Christmas was given $100, just because. Lawrence Maykrantz, president of the company said, “We wanted to do something to thank all our employees for helping us achieve our goal, and we wanted to do something big.”
Joe’s Perspective: I like that the bonuses were paid out based on seniority, not job title. Yes, it is easy to argue that the vice president did more to reach the goal than the custodian, but that contribution is noted in base pay. This bonus tells the secretaries and custodians that they are vlaued just as much. This system boosts overall morale.
Overall, it is nice to hear stories where owners and executives appreciate the value of employees. I believe that it takes a team to accomplish big goals.
Your Turn: If you were an employee of this company, what kind of affect would this bonus have on your morale and your work ethic?
I think that the company did a good thing for the hard working people.
I think the company did a good thing to the people because they have been working hard throughout the year I would work hard if my company did that for me.
i would spend it on a puppy and be happy
The company was really generous with giving that amount of money to its employees. I’m sure they understood that they work really hard and wanted to give more. The gifted employees must have felt very thankful and will put in more work in result.
This would affect my morale very positively and would boost my confidence knowing that the company truly does appreciate it’s employed and doesn’t just think of each worker as expendable, and how they distribute is relatively fair.
this would improve my moral and make me never quit that job
I wouldn’t let money change who I am. I would still work hard no matter what and even help some people in need.
It would drive me to stay there and work as hard as I could. And also it would affect me a lot because I could buy a lot of the things I wanted and also needed.
I would work harder and I might be a bit more generous.
idk get all good grades and pass all your classes do mess around to hard so you can get something good when you are in 12
I would have more of a positive attitude toward working and the boss of my job.
I think that this is a great way to reward your employees.