Bonus, its a bonus

I am a partner of the John Lewis Partnership, which basically means i work for them.  i have previosuly blogged about my disatisfaction in my job, and since that blog post that has certainly not changed, in fact possibly worsened.  What is odd though i think is i am very much a minority in my lack of enthusiasm, and generally speaking, the majority of my co-partners are very satisfied in their jobs and i would go as far to say that many love thier work.

I can never see myself, in any job, truly loving it so much that i want to stay there for years and years but many people i work with have been doing basically the same job for 20 or more years and i just cannot get my head round this.  One of the "benefits" of working for the Partnership is if you do work for them for 25 years you are entitled to Long Leave, this is 6 months off work on full pay, and it is amazing how many people i do work with have qualified for this.  Although it would be nice to take 6 months off, i would hate to have slogged away for so long to qualify for it, especially knowing that when your 6 months are up you need to go back to the everyday grind.  In fact my manager left only today to take his long leave and when he returns in October, he still has 10 years left doing the same job in the same place before he is due for retirement!

Another benefit of the Partnership and probably the most well known and publisized is the Partnership Bonus.  This is a percentage of your annual pay and it is announced each March and depends on things like profit, cost control and productivity.  This years bonus was announced yesterday and it was a healthy 15%, up from last years 13%.  This is very welcome and nice that all partners get it regardless of grade or hours worked.  It will be paid at the end of this month so i need to start scratching my head as to what to do with it!

I think this post has made people wonder why i would even consider a new career, they sound like great benefits!!