[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What do you do when your offer letter got ri...
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Ask HN: What do you do when your offer letter got rid of the bonus
promised?
Has this happened to anyone? I was too excited when reading the
letter, it didn't occur to me that a unicorn-valued San Francisco
startup would put the starting bonus in the offer deck they
presented, but omit it from the offer letter. I didn't even notice
until the bonus never came and I re-checked the actual letter.
Author : compacct27
Score : 12 points
Date : 2022-03-28 19:42 UTC (3 hours ago)
| bpiche wrote:
| How long have you been there?
| compacct27 wrote:
| ~2 months
| bpiche wrote:
| Don't know much else about your situation but I would ask who
| that slide deck was intended for. It's possible that it was
| only meant for sales/client facing people. In my experience
| bonuses tend to be a lot more common on that side of the
| house. If not, you could always walk and just leave it off
| your resume, but it's obviously a hard decision
| magneticnorth wrote:
| Sign on bonuses are very common in software engineering and
| other hard-to-hire roles in tech right now.
| keikobadthebad wrote:
| You can complain, but it sounds like you already agreed to
| whatever you agreed to.
| compacct27 wrote:
| Yeah, the legal-side of things is, you know, not on my side.
| bpiche wrote:
| At least it's an option. Not at my current org! Been there
| for two years.
| HWR_14 wrote:
| I mean, you can always decide to leave. So, you cannot force
| them to leave give you the bonus, but you could insist on it
| or quit. I wouldn't go 0-quitting, but you have options.
| HNHatesUsers wrote:
| alex504 wrote:
| It seems like if they intended to offer the bonus to you that
| this is a mistake, or a company that you don't want to work
| for, so it should be pretty easy to ask them about it and see
| what happens. Any sane company wouldn't intentionally lie
| about this.
| jjgreen wrote:
| Don't assume malice (possibly an oversight), ask nicely, then if
| they are trying to screw you, move on.
| compacct27 wrote:
| It does seems like an oversight. I'm hopeful it'll turn out
| fine, but I'm also pretty angry about it
| bsder wrote:
| You can't always control your feelings, but you can control
| your actions.
|
| Let yourself settle down, and then ask politely. If it's an
| oversight, they'll work to correct it. Nobody with brain
| cells wants to piss off someone they just hired in this
| market.
|
| If they don't work to correct it, well, then that's also
| information. Go back to job searching.
| [deleted]
| DIVx0 wrote:
| This has happened to me, it was omitted due to a miscommunication
| between HR and recruiter.
|
| I just had to mention it and it was fixed right away. Always read
| everything before signing!
| batmaniam wrote:
| You already signed the letter, so technically the company doesn't
| have to pay you your verbal bonus. Definitely ask about it to HR
| because you don't lose anything by doing so, but don't expect
| them to correct the mistake. In their eyes, they just got an
| engineer on the cheap, which benefits them immensely.
|
| If they don't correct it, look at your compensation and decide if
| it's still worth working there. If not, polish up that resume!
| Remember, business is business. If you're not being paid fairly,
| you have every right to leave for something better, and don't
| feel bad about it.
| SR2Z wrote:
| > In their eyes, they just got an engineer on the cheap, which
| benefits them immensely.
|
| There's something to be said for the idea of "I want someone to
| do an important job well, so I need to pay them enough."
|
| You wouldn't expect an American senior software engineer to
| make $30k a year, and Google or Meta or whoever the fuck
| wouldn't even _consider_ hiring something for a role that
| important for that little.
|
| Getting engineers for _slightly_ cheaper is great! Getting
| engineers for actually cheap is dangerous.
| sloaken wrote:
| You should have a discussion with boss or HR. Also talk with
| others to see their experience.
|
| I have worked at one company that gave annual bonuses, depending
| on company performance.
|
| Your bonus might be automatic after X months, because they do not
| want you to take a bonus and bounce immediately. It may be a
| company annual event. Need to discuss this with people.
|
| Place I work now had a very strict rule of, if it is not in the
| offer letter, you will not get it. Are you willing to leave over
| it? Because if they did this to you, how much can you trust them?
|
| I wish you the best. Was the bonus a key reason you took the job?
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(page generated 2022-03-28 23:02 UTC)