[benjaminwootton]

At the lowest levels, most employees don’t stand to share in any gains or upside attributed to their hard work. At best there will be a small bonus if the company does well which will be weakly correlated with their individual efforts.

In white collar jobs and as you move into management then the bonus programmes become more aligned with business unit and company performance so maybe you can move the needle and get paid for it. Companies also have the carrots of promotions and pay rises.