Does it really make a difference? Seems like it should be set fairly high, if your company is aiming for growth, and sometimes growth is slower for various reasons
In my view, it does. Maybe this was a good company with reasonable management who set realistic targets. Maybe it was a not-so-good company, someone in management saw the line item for bonuses and decided to "solve the issue" by setting a target he was sure would not be achievable, just so they could reduce payroll costs with minimal hassle. I am sure both happen in the real world.
Pretty sure my old job did this. People on programs that were successful would get a little bonus. This ended up changing to “every program across every sector must meet all business goals for bonuses to be paid.” That made it impossible to get a bonus when some programs were experimental or R&D type things that were kind of expected to run on a deficit for a while.
