Borough Beeswax: Buzzing About Holiday Bonuses

Aside from being a first-rate slapstick comedy, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a time-honored holiday movie because it so effectively hits all the notes of seasonal beleaguerment—intruding relatives, dangerously over-the-top decorating schemes, and the lengths to which families will go in working to create the perfect holiday.

In the film’s pivotal scene, Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, finally melts down when the cash bonus he’d expected would fund a new swimming pool has been replaced by a subscription to a jelly-of-the-month club. Clark launches into a stirring, apoplectic rant that inspires his cousin, Eddie, to abduct his cheapskate boss, Frank Shirley, on Christmas Eve and make the man account personally for this decision.

The showdown between Clark and his boss is of course a farce; but according to many working Collingswood residents, the experience of working for an employer who cuts back on holiday bonuses is very real.

“I used to get a turkey,” said Tim Mallison, who works in the food service industry. “We don’t even get them anymore.”

Neither Tim nor his wife, Luann, could think of anyone they know who still receives a holiday bonus, nor could telecommunications worker Mark Loving.

“Not where I work, we don’t,” said Loving. The last time he can recall receiving a holiday bonus was in 2008.

“I don’t think anyone [still] expects them,” Loving said.

Hair stylist Shane Duncan agreed, adding that holiday bonuses “stopped last year.”

Marble and granite worker Clarence Roane said the last holiday bonus he received came four years ago, and that he and his coworkers had gotten a little something extra in their paychecks for five consecutive years prior. When bonuses were cut off, Roane said, it was done without warning or explanation. He can’t recall whether the company even addressed the situation.

“It was something we were supposed to expect [would be going away],” he said.

Rob Ciabattoni, who works as an appliance repair technician, says his employer used to provide Christmas luncheons, but that “they don’t even do that anymore.”

“I think people [are expected to feel] grateful to have a job in this economy,” said Tom Mosher, who works in a hospital radiology suite. If Mosher and his colleagues get anything, it’s a personal gift from the radiologists in their department.

To prove that not all bosses are like Frank Shirley, Collingswood Patch did catch up with John Laurick, who owns a mobile wheel repair business. Laurick said he makes sure his three employees all receive bonuses and “usually take[s] them out to dinner.”

“My guys work hard,” he said. “It keeps up morale, trust, all that. They deserve it.”

Laurick’s wife, Alisa, who keeps the books for the business, emphasized the business sense in bonus pay succinctly: “If you want people to work hard, you give them something to work for.”