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This is a humorous and sarcastic blog written by a paralegal in a mid-sized law firm in a mid-tier market. The goal is to share some of the pitfalls and foibles encountered in my own day-to-day experiences. Feel free to contact me at aparalegalslife@gmail.com with comments. Complaints, not so much :)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Bonuses, or Above The Law tries to be nice and succeeds!

Above The Law wrote a very thoughtful article today about how a lot of people in this industry get no bonuses at all, and specifically mentions paralegals and secretaries.  They were tacitly chastising some of the associates who were bitching and moaning about how "low" their bonuses were.  I was working on a post myself about how self-serving, petty and childish those complaints are, but ATL beat me to the punch.  It's well worth a read, but don't venture into the comments section unless you want to get very, very angry. 

Instead, I'll just end with a short note about my personal situation.  An associate with my level of experience would be getting a bonus roughly equal to 15% of their annual salary.  My bonus this year is a shade over 4% of my annual salary, and that's twice what I got at my last firm. 

But I am NOT complaining about my bonus, in fact I'm happy to get anything extra at all.  If anyone feels otherwise, I suggest you compare the definitions of "bonus" and "entitlement" in the dictionary, then smack  yourself upside the head with a 2x4.

3 comments:

jenna! said...

Agreed, and I also like how ATL did the post on gifts for secretaries/paralegals. Obviously there was quite a bit of trolling going on in the comments, but otherwise, it was nice watching what appeared to be the more senior associates smack around the juniors who felt that their secretary or para deserved nothing. My favorite was the person who thought cash was insulting and did "spa products." Yeah, that person got smacked as well.

The post got me talking to other paras and I was SHOCKED when one of them told me that in 20 years he/she got NOTHING from the attorneys. And this person is an amazing para, taught me a ton, the one you call when you don't know what to do, the one who works 16 hour days, works directly with the client, and does trial after trial. Yeah, that one. NOTHING.

Grumpy Humbug said...

I've gotten some of the nicest gifts from attorneys that I don't do all that much work for. At one of the small firms I started with, one of the partners gave us bonuses out of her own pocket to make up for the crappy bonuses the other partners outvoted her on. Really, it can depend on the personality of who you work for more than anything.

Kim said...

No bonus this year for the staff at our firm.