I realize I might be the problem.

This year, I didn’t get a bonus. I asked about it and I was told many people didn’t get a bonus due to industry climate.

Come to find out, of the 4 managers that report to my boss, I was the only one who didn’t get one.

It was rough to find this out. The 3 other managers absolutely deserve the bonuses. They’ve been putting in a lot of time and effort on some pretty major projects that don’t touch my area of responsibility.

I’m a little bummed I didn’t receive more feedback about my bonus as it was honestly unexpected.

I think one thing that is different between me and her other subordinates is that when I’m asked to work tight deadlines, I often like to know why the deadline is so tight before I shift my work life balance for the week. Inevitably I do the project but I often need to understand the why. On occasion it has been the case that the why doesn’t justify the timeline.

My coworkers, don’t have a problem working more than 50 regularly, so I think they just say yes and get to it.

We had a discussion today about how she doesn’t have time to explain the why on the timelines on all her requests. I’m fairly certain this (asking why on deadlines) and the fact that I don’t regularly want to work 50+ hours weekly is the reason I didn’t bonus.

I certainly could just say yes to these requests but some of the timelines do legitimately seem silly that I’ve done. Is it unreasonable for me to want to understand the why on the deadlines? Especially when it takes her sometimes a week past the deadline to begin to review the product? How do you guys manage work-life balance? Career advice?