"I have been told my bonus and it is incomprehensibly large"

I work for one of the banks that announces bonuses before the rest. I was informed of my bonus late last year, and my number was incomprehensibly large.

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This is not my first bonus. I have spent a decade working in the banking industry, and I am not new to bonus calculations. However, in recent years, my compensation has become unhinged.

Revenues on my desk have been very volatile. I was hired as part of a growth push a few years ago, but it's hard to argue that we have succeeded in our mandate. Despite this, my compensation has increased steadily every year. In the past year alone, it rose by double digits in percentage terms.

It's a welcome increase, but it's also difficult to understand why this is. Last year was, admittedly, a much better year than previous years for our desk - and I know that some people were expecting even more in bonuses - but viewed over a longer period of time, our performance is less impressive.  The continuous increase in bonuses would seem to imply that the bank knows something that we don't - maybe that we are underpaid in relation to the market. 

This year's increase was all the more surprising because we had our expectations managed down before bonuses were announced. We were informed that the bank had done less well than it had budgeted, and yet pay rose significantly. 

I am bemused. I have no idea how my bonus is calculated. It is a black box.

Luke Whitaker is a pseudonym 

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