Bonus

I had some good news this week.  I was awarded a "Key Contributor grant" - apparently it's a program that recognizes individuals who are critical to driving our company's future success (or so it says in the letter I got!).  And it's not an insignificant amount of money.  But the catch is that it's not a direct cash bonus, but I've instead been awarded some time-based restricted shares.  Basically they invest over a 3-year period - I receive a third each year.  Based on our current share price, it's worth over $20,000.  So that's a nice little bonus!  I've been awarded RSU's in the past, but not for ages and I think this is the first time since I rejoined the company.  But this came as a complete surprise, and frankly I haven't done nearly enough work in my job recently to warrant this.  So why have I been given it now?  I have some theories.  Possibly it's because they think I might want to leave my job soon - I certainly seem to give off the energy of someone who wants to leave.  It might also be because I haven't been promoted for ages, and I'm probably overdue a promotion that I'm not going to get anytime soon because again I haven't done nearly enough work recently to justify it.  Or, the worse case scenario, I'm about to be assigned a nightmarish and stressful project to work on - and this is to soften me up.  So I have my suspicions.  Or perhaps I'm just an ungrateful SOB!