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Bankers count their blessings

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Investment bankers are hoping for a season of goodwill as bonus time approaches. Illustration: Corbis

Yes – it’s that time of the year again. No – not Christmas trees, carols, frenzied shopping sprees, boozy corporate parties and stuffed  turkey dinners.
For most investment bankers, the season of goodwill takes an altogether  literal meaning.

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Goodwill –  or intangible, excess value – neatly sums up what  happens behind the scenes in the last quarter of the calendar year.

The long-awaited bonus – and promotion –  period is just around the corner,  as the globe’s financial luminaries get assessed for how much they have (or  are perceived to have) produced  in the year. 

The process is not entirely fair and disproportionally rewards  senior ranks. How discretionary payments are determined is often  clear as mud, even though formal procedures are  established to  lend a veneer of even-handedness.

In practice, it’s a top-down approach with a bonus pool  determined by the powers that be, and that, in turn, is allocated across global and regional departments. This often involves self-assessment by each recipient across a variety of criteria dreamed up by HR consultants. As one can imagine, this is as far removed from a Mao-style  auto-critique as possible – it’s about communicating how great, indispensable and visible you are.

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Importantly, it normally also involves a 360-degree review by direct reports, peers and managers, although the assessors will often be identified for this purpose by the recipient, which somewhat negates its effectiveness and can become a mutual back-scratching effort.

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