It’s holiday time, and that means many companies will either make their employees very happy little drones, or they will give them a bitter taste in their mouth going into the holiday season. I’m talking about the holiday bonus. Many companies give out a holiday bonus as a token of their appreciation to their employees for their hard work during the year. After all, everyone should enjoy a nice Christmas or Hannukah, right? Let me preface this post by saying, I don’t mind receiving a holiday bonus at all, and I would never turn one down, but I never expect to receive one.

One major problem with receiving non-performance based bonuses is that we start to feel entitled to receive them. If an employer gives out a bonus every Christmas and they they decide not to give on out one year, employees will be angry because they felt entitled to the bonus. It was no longer a “bonus”, but a right for every employee of the company to receive one. How often do you find yourself feeling a sense of entitlement just because you have a higher-education degree or you went to a prestigious school? What makes you so special that an employer should roll out the red carpet?

If I ran my own business with employees, I would definitely give out bonuses, but they would mean something. You would earn a Christmas bonus, and a quarterly bonus. There would be incentives and goals for you to complete in order to receive a bonus. If you start equating performance with compensation, then you will find yourself making a lot of money in your lifetime. But, if you equate experience and loyalty to a company with compensation and bonuses, then you will find yourself never getting promoted and receiving slow compensation growth. Our country was built on the premise that you must work extremely hard to be successful. The pure idea of capitalism is what drives this economy and helps it thrive the way that it does. If we continue to receive hand-outs from our employers, we’ll never achieve the passion and drive to perform at a higher level and educate ourselves to become more productive workers in the economy.

Don’t be stupid and refuse your holiday bonus, but just remember that success and higher income won’t be handed to you in a red envelope.