A bonus is a bonus is a bonus...

Eeka of One Smoot Short puts her thoughts in the Big Bank Bonus Bingo. Even a token amount of money in a gift card goes a long way to say thanks.

We don't get bonuses at work per se.  (Definitely not the $400,000 Bank of America execs get.)  Whenever we've had a good year, the company shares the profits by depositing the monies into our 401(k) plans, usually at a rate of 3-6% of our salary, depending on our performance as a whole.

Pro: not a single dollar gets taxed, so we don't get whacked with income taxes if they cut a check instead.

Con: if the market ever goes down, like last year, it will take a long time to get that money back; and even if we've save all those nice bonuses they've given us, the money gets taxed as soon as we retire.