Show me the money!

Two of our companies top executives came to our office yesterday for the annual "All Associates Meeting". Basically, this means all 80 employees in my office head downstairs to a conference room at a designated time and listen to an hour and a half long presentation on where the company has been in the past year and where they see it going. I mean, I think it is cool that these top executives from Philadelphia and New York offices take time out of their schedule to actually clue the "little people" in North Carolina into what is going on, but at the same time, a lot of what they say goes over our heads. It isn't that we don't care, but they really lose you when near the beginning of the presentation they do a little illustration to explain why the bonus pool is smaller this year and basically implying that our bonuses won't be as good. Great! Just what I wanted to hear!! Of course with the economy the way it has been, everyone is struggling, so why should I expect anything else, but until you actually hear it, you don't believe it. They talked about how they are trying to increase the bonus pool by giving half bonus and half stock shares - but that is only going to happen from a certain level up, so my guess is that supervisors and above will receive half of their normal bonus and the rest will be in Willis stock shares. Ok - looking to the future that is cool - but show me the money now! At least I haven't taken the plunge to become supervisor yet, so hopefully that means I will see all the $ signs now (well after Uncle Sam takes his stab at it in taxes!). There were a few entertaining factors that kept me awake during the presentation - #1 - Paddy from New York is British, and I always love listening to those accents!! #2 - One of the women from our office was sitting right up front and was falling asleep!! She picked the wrong seat to do that!! I honestly felt sorry for her - she is so sweet and really works hard. She is actually the first one that trained me when I first came on as an intern. But, her kids and grandkids run her dry! I hope I never take advantage of my mother the way her grown daughters do her!! So, at any rate, I guess we will see how many $ signs I see come March 15th! Because, let's face it, that was the only real piece of information I brought out of that "All Associates Meeting". At least I didn't have to work the last hour and a half of my day yesterday.