I pretty much agree with this. I would just hold off on giving notice until the bonus has officially been paid. Any early notice is purely a gesture of courtesy, and it is entirely possible that giving a notice will just have your employee ask you to leave immediately in which case you won't get the bonus. The counter point would be, if there bonus is small enough, it may not be worth pulling the non-courteous short notice and not burn bridges for a small gain. The size of the bonus does indeed matter, IMO.
Have you ever worked at a bank? For a payroll company? I've done both. Legally, the company cannot have money withdrawn without your consent. And the bank is not allowed to allow the withdrawal without notification and approval of the account holder. These rules are not the same in every state, but this is law in Oregon (unless the law has recently changed).
http://forum.freeadvice.com/wage-salary-issues-96/direct-payment-reversal-218161.html I am having a conflict with my employer and I am afraid that the employer may reverse a salary payment which he has paid by direct deposit. I talked to the bank and the bank confirmed that any employer can do a reversal at any point of time. (Looks to me like the bank allows 5 days for such reversals to take place).
The bank and payroll company aren't the ones responsible or making decisions. The legal side of things is what determines what they'll have to do. I've been involved in a situation where a company was able to retract payment that had already been cleared by the bank. And they can certainly go after the employee legally if contracts have been breached.
What state were you in? I kid you not - the bank I worked at was fined by FDIC or FCC (I don't remember which - I was 20 at the time) when it allowed a withdrawal of a bonus payment to an employee. It was actually a situation very similar to this.
The employee wouldn't be a breaching a case in this point, as far as we know based on info provided. I mean, if there's somewhere in the employee handbook that says that you must continue employment with the company through certain time after the bonus is granted, this would be all be a moot point.
If you can find the regulation in the Oregon laws, I'd believe you. I would bet that the case you're thinking of was an illegal partial reversal. The entire deposit may be recalled - it's all or nothing. http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/30999/may-is-direct-deposit-month Fixing other errors is more complicated, however. These errors are called reversals because they require you to ask your bank to reverse the electronic transaction. Reversals can occur when an employee is terminated after the direct deposit file is sent to the bank, and state law mandates immediate payment of final pay. Reversals may also be necessary if an incorrect amount or duplicate amount was deposited. These rules apply to reversals: Reversals must be originated within five banking days of the settlement of the original (and erroneous) settlement and within 24 hours of when the error was discovered. Employees must generally be notified of a reversal. If employees have already withdrawn their funds, their banks don’t have to comply with reversal requests. It now becomes more cumbersome to get your money back. You might, for example, have to sue employees. If the mistake is an overpayment or underpayment of wages, don’t ask for a partial reversal. Partial reversals don’t comply with NACHA rules. In addition, reversals must comply with state wage-payment laws. Many states (Oregon, for example) consider a partial reversal to be an illegal deduction from wages. You must reverse the whole transaction and start again.
It's actually a good test of your new employer. Tell them the situation--that you wish to receive the bonus you earned for your performance in 2012 and because you want to leave on good terms, that you feel obligated to give them two weeks notice. You are concerned if you tell them you're leaving before you receive your bonus, they'll rescind it. If your new employer is decent, they'll understand the situation. On the flip side, how will your current employer react to your notice? Many companies will just let you go immediately when you give notice, especially when it's to go to a competitor.
I gave notice today. I asked my new employer for an extension but they couldn't since there is an orientation that I need to attend. My boss wasn't happy. I'm a software engineer so there's a lot of knowledge transfer that needs to happen before I go. Monday is a holiday, too. I've been very good about documenting the project I work on and I feel I'm leaving good specs behind for the next person. No talk about taking back the bonus and my boss' boss is in London all next week. I think I'm in the clear. Party time.
I think you know what time it is now Bluefrog... [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd8Fmh7nIrQ[/video]
