Google to Employees: No Christmas Bonus, Here's a G1 Instead | Hacker News Reader

Google to Employees: No Christmas Bonus, Here's a G1 Instead

gizmodo.com

14 pointsvaksel11 comments

No. The article is confusing the christmas bonus (usually $1k from what I've heard) with the annual bonus handed out in February (which is normally 15% of salary).

I agree that replacing an expected $1k with a mobile phone on short notice is likely to come as a bit of a shock to many Googlers, but this is nowhere near as much of a shock as replacing the 15% annual bonus would be.

Also they're getting the dev unlocked version of the phone which is $400, not $180... a lot of subpar reporting on this, giz isn't alone in having the facts wrong.

Perhaps $180 is the raw cost of the phone?

considering $180 is the cost after a subsidy by t-mobile, I don't think that's the case.

$400 retail no?

And what if you already have a phone that you're perfectly happy with?

They're covering tax on it, and doing an extra payroll run to make sure this gets to Googlers hands in time for Xmas. Seems pretty okay to me.

People have to realize, Google's stock has not only flatlined in the past year, but has taken a massive pounding. Their spend-now-ask-later methodology had to go at some point. I know many companies who wouldn't give their employees a cell phone, or any sort of bonus.

Sending out G1s to all employees worldwide is still a great gesture IMO. Forget the $1k or $15k, a gift is a gift.

Now imagine the amount of recommendations, improvements, suggestions that these top brains will be making for the G1. That's gona be interesting.

Still beats my Christmas bonus. When you're self-employed, the bosses are so miserly.

Yeah, I wish I had one of those phones... they're pretty nice, and I'd love to play with Hecl on a real phone.

This is linkbait crap (see cperciva's comment). Though I admit this would probably be big news if the annual February bonuses were eliminated.

That's a "specially designed for Googlers with a 'droid' on the back" G1!! You could resell it on ebay, et voilà, you'd get your bonus!

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