Bonus of contention

Money, salaries and benefits are always contentious subjects within teams, all over the world, for very many hidden and unhidden reasons. The logic about how we approach these matters differs hugely by context and what might not make sense to a Brit makes complete logical sense to a Cambodian or South Sudanese.

This month the issue of Christmas bonus is coming up with the South Sudanese staff. My logic dictates that, as this isn't in people's contracts or the labour law, this would only be paid to reward exceptional performance and if we have spare money in the budget. Here the view is if it's been paid before, it should be paid again, or a great atrocity has been committed.

In weighing up what to do I have to consider multiple things: continuing to set a precedent, the fact that we've been generous with time off to allow staff to travel to Uganda to see family, the fact people may be in debt because of bonus pay they were expecting, the relative security and good pay we are already providing for (in some cases) poor value work, the value of keeping morale high and wanting to align as much as possible with the approach we take in other country programmes.

Basically I'll either annoy head office or I'll annoy the programme staff in South Sudan, and at this point I'm not sure the direction to go with.

Picture of the Nile and its islets as I flew towards Yambio from Juba.