Bonus application

Last year, for the first time ever, we got a bonus at work. The bonuses are funded out of the pool of money left over after all our health insurance claims are paid (we are self-insured, sort of - it's complicated). Last year we had about $8,000 to share amongst about 40 staff members. This year it's almost double that. 1/3 of the fund is shared equally by everyone, just for being an employee. 1/3 is divided based upon hours worked, meaning if you took a lot of sick leave, you should get less than someone who took very few sick days. Last year, taking vacation time counted against us, which I lobbied furiously against since that actually docked long-term employees who had earned multiple weeks of vacation (we have to take it or lose it). This year, I managed to convince the boss that only sick leave, which is usually unscheduled leave, and which has a huge impact on staffing, should count against us. The last 1/3 is divided based upon merit - and each employee has to "make his/her case" for this part of the bonus. We have to fill out an application listing any continuing education, workshops or conferences we have attended, committees on which we've served, things we've done over and above our job description, and things we've done to make the workplace more efficient, saved money, etc. We have to list the number of team meetings we've attended, the number of "kudos" we've received from staff or patrons (we have a form for them), and basically blow our own horns to try to justify the biggest bonus possible. That application is due today. Do you think I've had time to work on it given my insane workload? Three guesses what I'll be working on this morning.

UPDATE: Turns out, I was NOT successful in convincing the boss to count only used sick leave against our attendance after all. All time off, whether holiday time, sick leave taken, or vacation taken, or even comp time taken, is counted against the total possible hours for the year of 2,088. But, extra time worked IS added to the total, which is nice. Too bad I didn't start tracking my extra time until June 26! In just 5 months, I worked 165 hours of extra time. I worked at least that many hours between 12/1/05 and 6/25/06, but wasn't tracking them because it never mattered before. Just my luck.