Employees discover boss gave himself $100k retantion bonus after he claims all bonuses and raises are ‘off the table’, leading to mass quitting: 'The man literally rewarded himself for not quitting'

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Sep 20, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

Who doesn't love a boss who refuses to follow the rules they set for their own employees? 

We all know that one of the most important traits for a manager is to lead by example. You can't expect people to follow your lead if you do not abide by your own rules. But how many managers actually follow this strategy?

Not enough, if you ask me.

In one of my previous jobs, one of the main rules we had to follow was that everyone had to get to the office by 9:00 AM. My boss was so strict regarding everyone's clock-in time and would constantly reprimand people who were even 5 minutes late. And that would have been totally fine by us if he hadn't rolled into the office every day at 11:00 AM. You want us to be in the office at 9? Great! The least you can do is be there too.

If you think this is bad, wait until you read the story of the employee below. Their boss refused to give anyone a bonus or a raise for a year, only for them to dig and discover he granted himself a $100,000 retantion bonus instead. Talk about leading by example…

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    www 83 OPARTY LLARS 58E
    via Comstock

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02

    CEO says no raises or bonuses this year… then gives himself a $100k RETENTION BONUS

    At my old job, the CEO told us during an all-hands that raises and bonuses were 'off the table this year.' Everyone was pi ed, but what could we do?
    via Nammmieee
  • 03
    Times were tough, right? A month later, someone dug through a board filing and found out he gave himself a $100,000 retention bonus.
    via Nammmieee
  • 04
    Yes. The man literally rewarded himself for not quitting. Meanwhile, half my department quit within 6 months.
    via Nammmieee
  • 05
    Guess the retention strategy didn't quite work out the way he thought.
    via Nammmieee
  • 06
    OP Nammmieee Crazy how 'retention bonus' means keeping himself around, but not the people actually doing the work. Half my department walked within 6 months- and honestly, good for them....
    via Nammmieee
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    kubrick5150 At my place, Management said they can't afford raises. But the top 5 have themselves promotions (titles) that include huge pay raises. They can also afford to move to a new sky rise office complex and spend hundreds of thousands on the finish out. But nothing for the employees. Unless you're in IT. Then you get a pay reduction for on call hours. But at least we're still a family.
    via kubrick5150
  • 08
    OP Nammmieee Classic corporate math: broke when it comes to salaries, billionaires when it comes to marble lobbies.
    via Nammmieee
  • 09
    16BitApparel I'll do you one better. Fortune 500 company. Hired an external consultant with a bonus for achieving milestones of revenue and savings. Suggested two things: 1. You need to fire this entire department (savings) 2. You need to work with external company A and external company B to increase performance (revenue)
    via 16BitApparel
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    OP Nammmieee Ahhh see Consulting is just corporate money laundering with extra steps...
    via Nammmieee
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    PhilosopherSad123 more people need to quit and give no notice
    via PhilosopherSad123
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    OP Nammmieee The real 'two weeks notice' is when your brain checks out months before you do...
    via Nammmieee
  • 13
    UnicornSheets I think I figured out what their problem was, they didn't throw a pizza party
    via UnicornSheets
  • 14
    OP Nammmieee Don't forget the 'casual Friday' = priceless perk, zero cost to them.
    via Nammmieee
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    www LARS 58E
    via Africa images

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 16
    dsdvbguutres A consultant's first order of business is to find ways to extend the duration and/or scope of their own contract. Never fails.
    via dsdvbguutres
  • 17
    OP Nammmieee Funny how consultants always 'discover' the same solution: cut staff, hire their buddies, and extend their own paycheck.. hahhh
    via Nammmieee
  • 18
    Travis Bickle09 Executives have no clue. My mom was an executive assistant to a president of a company. Once, he bragged to her about the size of his bonus. She told him that was more than she made in a year. He never did that again.
    via TravisBickle09
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    OP Nammmieee Executives love to flex... until reality checks them harder than HR ever could.
    via Nammmieee
  • 20
    obviousfakeperson I mean, he *did* just save the company a ton of money. /s
    via obviousfakeperson
  • 21
    OP Nammmieee Haha then - By that logic, firing the CEO would save the company the mostttt money.... Yeah, and I guess if they stopped paying employees altogether they would save even more. Absolute genius strategy. Lol
    via Nammmieee
  • 22
    sarahin NewEngland I worked for a company that routinely announced no raises or bonuses due to how the company was doing, then posted billions in profits on the company intranet for us all to see. The greed in corporate America is astounding
    via sarahinNewEngland
  • 23
    OP Nammmieee Wow.. Amazing how there's never enough for the people who make the money... but always plenty for the ones counting it.
    via Nammmieee
  • 24
    BigMax I've told this before, but we had something like that happen at a place I used to work. Medium sized company, startup, with a board of directors. The CEO was told by the board "Cut costs by X amount, and you'll get a $250,000 bonus." She cut costs here and there, and here's where it sounds made up, but it's NOT, I saw the documents. She was about $250,000 short near the end of the year. Guess what line item cost $250,000? The company bonuses. (Yes, they did line up almost exactly like tha
    via BigMax
  • 25
    OP Nammmieee that story is wild but not surprising at all. It's like they'd rather burn the whole place down than let employees share in the success. Pure greed on display
    via Nammmieee

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boss workplace-stories employee bonus manager job tales-from-the-workplace reddit story ceo pay raise overworked-employees workplace Reddit company funny money quitting
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