Micron imposes new bonus plan

Micron plans to change its bonus plan so employees are rewarded based on performance.
The new plan, scheduled to start Sept. 1, replaces a profit-sharing plan that gives bonuses uniformly to all employees.
Employees were divided about the change. Senior Technician Karl Mesenbrink, an 18-year employee of Micron, supports the plan. He said Micron has always been willing to share the wealth and compensate employees fairly.
“We have a CEO who went without pay and compensation while we were struggling as a company,” said Mesenbrink, referring to Steve Appleton’s decision to go without salary for more than a year until Micron returned to profitability in 2004.
“We live in a world in which CEOs have a tendency to suck as much as they can for their personal gain and they leave the sucked-out juice box behind.”
But another Micron employee who wished to remain unnamed wondered how the new plan could serve as an incentive to work harder since many employees already work 60-hour weeks.
Most employees approached for this story did not want to be quoted or named because of a company policy forbidding regular employees to talk to the media.
The new plan gives bonuses every six months, rather than each quarter, and bases bonuses on profits and individual performance, rather than profits and the employee’s position, spokesman Dan Francisco said.
Employees’ performance will be measured based on goals the employees set with their supervisors, Francisco said.
The performance of entire departments and business units will also be factored into bonuses under the new program, Francisco said.
But employees who make slower-growth products like dynamic random access memory, which is used mainly in computers, will be as eligible for bonuses as employees in faster-growing business areas like NAND flash memory and image sensors, he said.
Micron expects to spend the same amount or more on its new bonus program, Francisco said.
Local businesses weren’t sure how the new policy would affect discretionary spending, but they could see a potential upside.
It might be better for companies that sell durable goods if Micron employees get less frequent but larger bonuses.
“Those two times a year could be pretty good,” said Matt Grover of World Cycle and XC Ski.
“As long as their bonus checks come I’m sure they’ll spend it when they get it,” said B.J. Klotz, a buyer for McU Sports in downtown Boise.