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My take on this SG50 Bonus

This year is a special year for Singapore in that its our 50th year after independence, and DBS in early February, decides to do something funny by distributing a $1000 SG50 Jubilee bonus to their employees.

NTUC then starts their propaganda to encourage companies that are doing well to  give more to their employees during the year.

Some of the major companies that has announced theses gifts are below:

  • DBS – $1000 for VP and below
  • UOB – $1000 and 1 extra day leave for VP and below
  • OCBC – $1000 worth of shares for Junior staff, $100 worth flash pay card and 4 Gardens by the bay tickets for junior staff
  • SMRT – $500 worth of shopping vouchers
  • Civil Servants – $500 together with their June bonus. Back in 2011 they used to give a quantum of $250 with their June bonus then data shows they stop giving
  • NTUC – Executives received $200 worth of vouchers, non executives will received $100 worth of vouchers
  • SIA – $500
  • Singapore Pools – $500

What happens is that this SG50 bonus becomes very good lunch time topics.

What started off  as envy for DBS staff becomes more like a longing whether their own company will give them anything at all.

Companies end up in a fix as employees look forward to something that is close to what DBS provided. I think a lot of employers must be hating DBS now as they would have to give something or anything.

As much as I see it seems only the garment linked companies or Temasek linked companies are doing this.

So have you gotten your SG50 bonus?

If not, do not lament too much about it.

Learn to find ways to build your wealth. I find that you become more psychological stable, less agitated about these things, once you know how to build your wealth, what makes the most impact to your wealth building (read this and this as well).

I felt that fighting for a better 1 month performance bonus far outweigh being disappointed about this sum of money. It will be kind of shitty if your company decides to give you $200 only to not do so well and retrench you later in the year. Then your losses will be more than that. Or worse you decide to leave your company, because due to this, “they do not take care of their staff well”.  Only to see after you leave the company, they reward the good performers with an extra 3 month’s bonus on top of the annual usual.

For sure $1000, $500 or $200 can help in meaningful ways. However, if this amount of money matters so much to you, then perhaps this amount, relative to your net worth is a large percentage.

If you are longing for an SG50 bonus that probably happen once every 50 years, it is a signal that you have not saved up adequately such that this amounts matters so much. If that is the case, you have a bigger problem.

My good friend who works in one of the 3 banks received numerous messages on his phone asking for him to give a treat. To me, these folks are really disrespecting him, considering this bonus is just a small to middle percentage of his monthly pay.

If he wants to, he could have given them a treat every month!

Somehow folks get the idea that $1000 suddenly made him very rich. I guess it is more like an excuse to touch base with him, but I hope all build up a better frame of thinking when it comes to the value of money and not be angry about your company if they do not give you the SG50 bonus.

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Kyith

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anonymous

Friday 7th of August 2015

SGPools $500

Kyith

Friday 7th of August 2015

Thanks anonymous

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