Baker & McKenzie has just revealed its record breaking results and confirmed that it would show its appreciation of the hard work of its London staff with, naturally enough, a voucher.
In 2010 London staff got a 4% bonus when profit per equity partner hit £650,000. The firm announced this week that this has increased to £773,000 for 2013/14 and that it had become the first law firm to hit annual revenues of US$2.5bn since the global financial crisis. Hurrah! So the hardworking London staff that helped generate all this loot will be getting a hefty bonus as a result! Nah, only joking.
Instead London staff will each get a voucher for £150. Despite the massive global haul, it seems growth at the City office (which chairman Eduardo Leite called "moderate") has not been enough to trigger a performance bonus.
Insiders at B&M have complained that the firm has welshed on its deal with its staff and that "morale is at an all time low".
The firm issued a statement saying that "we value the contribution and hard work of all of our employees and strive to ensure that we reward our people fairly and competitively. Our all staff bonus is one element of the overall bonus scheme that we operate and is part of a wider reward strategy that seeks to recognise both individual and collective performance. The criteria for these schemes are set at the beginning of the year. We continually review our reward schemes to ensure that they are appropriate and market competitive".
Translation: Enjoy the tokens, slackers.
Tip Off ROF
In 2010 London staff got a 4% bonus when profit per equity partner hit £650,000. The firm announced this week that this has increased to £773,000 for 2013/14 and that it had become the first law firm to hit annual revenues of US$2.5bn since the global financial crisis. Hurrah! So the hardworking London staff that helped generate all this loot will be getting a hefty bonus as a result! Nah, only joking.
Instead London staff will each get a voucher for £150. Despite the massive global haul, it seems growth at the City office (which chairman Eduardo Leite called "moderate") has not been enough to trigger a performance bonus.
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Don't spend it all at once. |
Insiders at B&M have complained that the firm has welshed on its deal with its staff and that "morale is at an all time low".
The firm issued a statement saying that "we value the contribution and hard work of all of our employees and strive to ensure that we reward our people fairly and competitively. Our all staff bonus is one element of the overall bonus scheme that we operate and is part of a wider reward strategy that seeks to recognise both individual and collective performance. The criteria for these schemes are set at the beginning of the year. We continually review our reward schemes to ensure that they are appropriate and market competitive".
Translation: Enjoy the tokens, slackers.
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But then they will leave. En masse. And the partners will see that as par for the course and instruct some recruitment agent on 35% commission to replace them all - this is the 'business' despite it being the opposite of good business.
Most are waking up to what law is. If you want to succeed and show off that you wear a hugo boss suit to belittle your school mates down the pub in the one hour a week you have off then great. But for everyone else its just a very hard job with multiple pitfalls and guaranteed stress for not much more money than other jobs, which was what distinguished law.
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They are mugging you off
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