• Memebase
  • Animals
  • Cringe
  • Fandom
  • Food
  • Geek
  • Internet Trends
  • Parenting
  • Random Memes
  • Reddit
  • TikTok
  • Twitter Discourse
  • Wholesome

  • Links
  • About Us
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Security
  • DMCA Policy
    • search email community favorite this article chev-right latest posts article list comments tags video article login twitter facebook menu pinterest whatsapp

    Boss gives employee $0 bonus after stellar performance review, says they reallocated funds to 'other priorities': '"Other priorities" means top management bonuses'

    Author image for JR Atkinson
    JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
    Oct 18, 2025 10:00 PM EDT

    Everyone wants to be appreciated for their work. It's what keeps us coming back. And appreciation can come in many forms. You can feel appreciated by someone's words. Maybe they reassure you and tell you that you're doing a good job. You can feel appreciated by someone's actions, like if they swoop in to take a task off your plate without asking. But most importantly, in a job setting, you can feel appreciated by compensation. The whole point of a job is to be compensated for your work, so you fight to be compensated fairly. 

    But it doesn't stop at your starting salary. There are checkpoints along the way that good managers understand that employees need to feel appreciated. After all, if you're consistently putting in excellent work, you probably deserve a little more appreciation. You don't want to feel like you're going above and beyond for nothing. You want to feel incentivized to keep doing a good job. The best bosses and managers know that and know how to mete out rewards to keep their employees engaged. 

    Add as a preferred
    source on Google
    Advertisement
    • A confused man looks at his work computer.
      via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

      The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

    • Advertisement

    • But that's not what happened in this story. This company did not know how to keep its employees engaged, and instead lost them to something that he easily could have avoided. When people don't feel appreciated, there is only so much you can do to keep them interested in their jobs. Read on to see what happened in this story. 

    • Turned in my notice after boss gave me a $0 bonus...

      Had my annual review last week. Boss spent 20 minutes talking about how valuable I am and how much the company appreciates my work. Then came the bonus discussion → $0.
      via u/TwelveozMouse
    • Advertisement
    • Not "we're having a tight year" or "budget constraints." Just straight up told me they decided to reallocate bonus funds to "other priorities." Meanwhile I watched two new managers get hired at probably double my salary.
      via u/TwelveozMouse
    • Handed in my two weeks yesterday. Boss seemed shocked and asked what they could do to keep me. Told him he already showed me exactly what I'm worth to them. Already got one interview lined up. Done with this place.
      via u/TwelveozMouse
    • Advertisement
    • A man works on an iPad at home.
      via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

      The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

    • Commenters agreed that this concealed something greater.

      Reasonable Comb... 12h ago "Other priorities " means top management bonuses. F em!
      via u/Reasonable_Comb_5720
    • Advertisement
    • Salty-Sprinkles-1562 11h ago I worked at Home Depot, and I had my annual review. It was stellar, exceeds expectations on everything. Then they gave me a 10 cent raise. I just laughed and said, "I quit." It was great.
      via u/Salty-Sprinkles-1562
    • Adventurous-Card-... 11h ago . that seems to be the only way to make money now is to leave the fucking company. its insane
      via u/Adventurous-Card-707
    • Advertisement
    • Ok_Pilot_2585 · 12h ago I did this two years ago - went from T2 help desk at a fintech startup to a grocery store produce manager cause they were disrespectful with their year end raise and no bonus. Gave notice a week after they notified me of my tiny increase. Pushed potato carts
      via u/Ok_Pilot_2585
    • around for 18 months (and made the same money with a fraction of the stress) until the fintech startup came crawling back offering a 40% increase... Companies will only respect you as much as you respect yourself. Sometimes that means calling their bluff and leaving
      via u/Ok_Pilot_2585
    • RoutineFeeling • 11h ago Having more budget for new hires than to retain existing ones just never makes sense to me.
      via u/RoutineFeeling
    • Advertisement
    • bastardofdisaster · 11h ago It's the gift that keeps on giving, Clark.
      via u/bastardofdisaster
    • Whyletmetellyou 11h ago . Take everything in your head with you. Leave nothing behind that would help them out in any way
      via u/Whyletmetellyou
    • FlyOrdinary1104 • 10h ago My work replaced all of the employee's annual bonus with something called phantom shares. Basically we each got 100 of these things and, in the event of a buyout or going public, these shares would be sold for the value at the time
      via u/FlyOrdinary1104
    • Advertisement
    • of and paid out. This already felt like shrute-bucks and everybody was nonplussed but guess what? If you leave the company for ANY reason those shares are forfeit. I got laid off after 3 rounds of downsizing over the last 2 years due to catastrophic
      via u/FlyOrdinary1104
    • failures to maintain clientele and integrity. There have been a further 2 rounds of layoffs since and the 3 managers for my department. are on cycling furlough which sounds hella illegal. Those phantom shares were exclusively for leadership to spend on filling out their parachutes and no one will convince me otherwise.
      via u/FlyOrdinary1104
    • low22 9h ago • In one of my annual reviews, the boss called me in to discuss the competitive wages he promised when I was hired. After a long discussion of the ups and downs of the business I got a 25-cent raise. Then another discussion about how I make the "big bucks". I quit, and within 2 weeks had a job offer with a starting wage $7/hr higher. AA
      via u/low22
    • Advertisement
    • Pristine_Reward_1... . 11h ago Other priorities = new RV/new boat/holiday ski trip.
      via u/Pristine_Reward_1253
    • Anytimelnvitation • 10h ago Ive been trying to get into other roles in my job (current nurse aide, wanna be a unit clerk or patient access). I even inform my mgr im applying. All my apps get reject and all my rejection emails are stamped with the same date and time. My
      via u/Anytimelnvitation
    • paranoid ass is thinking my mgr is preventing me from transferring. I've even asked her for a reference/rec letter. I havent read her reply yet cuz I know she wont tell me what I wanna hear and I don't want that to put me in a bad mood during my shift. So I'm just gonna find something else and quit, possibly with no notice.
      via u/Anytimelnvitation
    • Advertisement
    • LordKai121 • 8h ago Did something similar. I was a 7 year regional supervisor and top repair tech, and they gave me a raise from $19.50 to $20/hr. My position was a $28-36/hr standard in the industry. Also the 1 year who I had trained who honestly sucked get a raise to $21 because he threatened to quit.
      via u/LordKai121
    • I just quit and went freelance. I now make over triple what I was only working 4 days a week. Fuck 'em
      via u/LordKai121
    • Geminii27 9h ago . This is why I hate bonuses, honestly. I don't want a phantom of an unknown possible future payment that a boss might decide to downgrade or flake on entirely, or try to use as leverage. Put it in my regular paycheck or fuck right off with that noise.
      via u/Geminii27
    • Advertisement
    • Big Duke0 11h ago • Company shows no loyalty to workers, workers should behave likewise. Life is a two way street unless you are a slave.
      via u/BigDuke0
    • MrHazard1 • 6h ago Two weeks notice is a respectul way. People who disrespect me don't deserve my respectful way
      via u/MrHazard1
    • greyhoundshadow • 4h ago A behavior that has now become common in many companies! You need them, the water carriers, good- natured idiots who keep the place running, but you don't want them next to you in leadership! They could become too influential.
      via u/greyhoundshadow
    • Advertisement
    • SuperHyperFunTime • 3h ago . The "we need to pay as less as possible" strategy needs to die. My new boss has told me "look, if I have to pay you a £100k bonus then something has gone VERY right for us".
      via u/SuperHyperFunTime
    • Is there going to happen? Fuck no. But it's there because they want to reward me for the work I do put in. Any company that looks to stop paying out performance related bonuses deserves to rot. My last place was like that and made meetings a target. Forcing me to have meetings with customers who really do not want them is so utterly backwards it's insane.
      via u/SuperHyperFunTime
    • Mach5Driver • 2h ago Good for you, but just a reminder to everyone else that it's sheer lunacy to quit BEFORE you get a new job! It's EXTREMELY tough out there!
      via u/Mach5Driver
    • Advertisement
    • DaneAlaskaCruz 11h ago . How freaking disrespectful. Talk for all that time and no bonus? Just empty words. Supervisor probably thought he'd butter you up with all of these words so you wouldn't notice that he didn't give you any actual monetary bonus.
      via u/DaneAlaskaCruz
    • Good for you for putting in your two weeks notice. Be sure to "quiet quit" during these last few days and refuse to train your replacement. What are they gonna do? Fire you?? Lol
      via u/DaneAlaskaCruz

    Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

    Tags

    boss antiwork workplace-stories bonus toxic-workplace job bosses work coworkers working reddit story toxic-boss workplace reddit thread bad bosses Reddit toxic-work-environment
    Like
    Scroll Down For The Next Article
    Show Comments
    Next Article