Ask HN: Is my frustration warranted?

1) I think its smart to cool down prior to having a conversation about the bonus. Approaching this tactfully will be important.

2) I'd absolutely call them out on this embarrassingly small bonus if only to establish that you're not going to take insults (which this is) laying down.

3) I'd probably not even bother fighting over the 4k annual bonus. I don't know what your current salary is but I'd imagine framing the argument as "I'm a RoR developer now" vs "I'm an under-rewarded support engineer" will be much more lucrative and any anchoring to the latter would only hurt that negotiation. I'd also keep in mind this bonus incident when negotiating your future role/salary/bonus structure with the company.

4) If they don't want to compensate you for your work, milk them for this experience since it sounds like a significant promotion in terms of responsibility and then run like mad to the next opportunity as soon as you find it (and you should start looking shortly if #3 doesn't play out favorably).

Good luck!

I would definitely calm down before you do anything at all. In a few startups I've worked in the bonus structure is surprisingly simple:

- Bonus pool is some fraction of profit for the quarter

- Your part of that pie is proportional to your role/seniority. (Not necessarily having anything to you with your performance for the quarter).

- You are capped at a certain amount, just because they had to set the cap somewhere, and you probably shouldn't expect to see anywhere near that number.

I would ask them to clarify if this is a performance-bonus or just your piece of the pie (a form of profit sharing).

Remember, bonuses are discretionary and subject to the overall financial health of the company. What affects your bonus the most is if there is any money available for bonus payments regardless of your eligibility. Everyone on the team may be doing awesome, but if you are not turning a profit, then where is that money going to come from?

You mean the bonus was 2000 not 200 right? I think 2000 is a nice gesture for two months in only. After all, most corporate jobs only do annual bonuses. If it was 200, then that is just laughable and the companies either is doing poorly or will be once its employees leave.

On the other hand your job has clearly shifted. Your discussion should be less about the bonus (given 2k) but rather your future role and its appropriate compensation. Choose the right time to bring it up. You may wish to wait for the bonus to pass, so they don't use it against you, and when you deliver a first prototype. That's when your value is obvious.

I'd ask your boss how the bonuses are calculated and ask how you can reach some target (say... 3k for satisfactory performance).

If $200 is par for the course and there is no real explanation as to why, Id personally start packing my bags in that it likely indicates that they either... like to bait and switch on employees and don't care about morale or they are in the hole financially.

I personally have seen a lot of bait and switch to get people in the door in the startup world and from my experience its usually a sign that your going to be a glutton for punishment more or less.

Personally I would talk to them with the assumption that they're unhappy with me somehow, even if I think they aren't. I'd say that I noticed my bonus was only 5% of my maximum and I just wanted to know why my job performance was unsatisfactory and what I could do to improve. They either respond with a useful critique (who knows, you could be overestimating your abilities), or the actual reason why the bonus was low.

I received a bonus like that at a job once. I stayed there about a month after that. They were upset when I left.

Your bosses will get away with as much as you let them. The 70 hour weeks are on you, but you can certainly approach them to understand why they are giving you that amount. You can explain it away by saying that you'd like to understand where you can further improve. It is, after all, a reflection of your performance.

If you can separate your emotions from the money, just ride it out for a year and get back that $20k you lost by switching to a RoR developer role at another company.

If I wasn't expecting anything and I got $200 extra out of nowhere, I'd think that was strange, but whatever dinner on them. If I knew there was a quarterly bonus and the max was 4k and I got $200 I'd be very insulted.

Simply ask why the bonus was $200.