I work for a major telecommunications equipment maker that will remain nameless here. For the last 2 years or so the company has been “recovering” from bad decisions made by upper management. Costs have been cut to the point where we don’t have the tools to properly perform our jobs. Headcount has been reduced by almost 2/3 (tens of thousands of employees) and more cuts are on the way. Middle management has not received bonuses in almost 3 years. Everyone has been asked to “bite the bullet” to help the company get through these tough times. Everyone, it seems, except for the executive officers.
It seems that despite people losing their jobs and the company reporting 11 consecutive quarterly losses, company executives feel they are worthy of raises, bonuses and assorted perks. Our CEO this year will receive a $1.8 million bonus. The Chairman of the Board received a $100,000 raise despite dropping 2/3 of his work load. Another board member received a raise of $200,000. Bonuses equalling $12.89 million were handed out in 2001. The COB received $26,425 to pay for his chauffeur services. He also received $26,351 for financial counseling services and a $57,325 tax reimbursement for certain fringe benefits.
WTF? This is a company that will not allow me to go down to Home Depot and buy a screwdriver because they cannot reimburse me for it, and yet they will give the COB $57,325 for some fringe benefits? This is a company that has laid-off over 70,000 people as a cost cutting measure and yet they hand out over $12 million in bonuses? Here’s the kicker–if the CEO leaves the company after 5 years, even if the financial fortunes of the company do not improve, she is guaranteed a minimum annual pension of $740,000 a year. If I am forced to leave the company (laid-off) due to the CEO not being able to improve the financial fotunes of the company I am given 5 weeks pay and a swift kick in the ass.
The logo of the company has often been compared to an enflamed asshole. Now I know why…our execs are giving it to us up the ass! It’s too bad this once great company, with it’s history of innovation and service, is being run into the ground by a bunch of JACKASSES!
I feel your pain… I used to work for a company whose corporate logo resembles the Death Star (let me guess, yours starts with an L?) and failed to grasp how they could rationalize doing $20M worth of “cost cutting” in the same year the CEO gets $23M in stocks and bonuses.
I am happy that I no longer work for said company, and the ulcers have been gone since I left. I now work for a company that just came out of bankruptcy. A company that actually laid off a lot of the management along with those in the trenches. A company whose CEO took a pay cut instead of further shafting us. If only other corporate leaders weren’t the scum of the earth…
It’s my understanding that the CEO of Cisco Systems reduced his salary to $1 a year and refused a bonus for himself because he had to lay off 2,700 employees (IIRC). He said he doesn’t deserve the money if he can’t guarantee employee job security. Too bad he’s one of the very few exceptions.
My former employer has been cutting people for the past 2 years, making sure to cut the folks that are making a lot of money.
Raises were frozen for over a year, and no new hiring or internal transfering was allowed for that same time.
Earlier this year, after the Stock Prices started doing the bungee bounce (and just before they tanked by HALF) someone asked the CEO how he could justify his $55 MILLION salary.
This kind of shit will drive you crazy if you let it. I have ceased to be upset over it simply for that fact.
Although I’m sure I’ll be back in the pit in a few weeks when my company is sold and the fucktard who “runs” it is rewarded with large sums of $$$ for his “excellent stewardship” of the company during the merger process. The fact that in his 1 1/2 years here, he’s run it into the ground notwithstanding.
Ok, now I’m getting PO’d, so I guess I’d better stop.
Now, some might say that the AFL-CIO website is not the most objective place to find such data, but i’m sure that they try their best to get accurate figures. And much of this information is publicly available, at least to company shareholders.
Sorry, Birds on a Bat, but it seems he’s not really “one of the very few exceptions.”
I still believe that he is “one of the very few exceptions.” By taking a cut in pay and refusing a bonus until the company recovers he is showing his employees that he is willing to make sacrifices to help the company. By doing this the employees may be more willing to make sacrifices themselves. While his sacrifice is more symbolic, it’s better than accepting a $1.8 million bonus after laying off 70,000 employees.
Wow, that’s a real sacrifice he’s making there. Knocking back a $1.8 million bonus must really be making life hard for him, what with the paltry $131.8 million he got last year. Maybe if CEOs like this gave back half of what they earned (which would still leave him outrageously overpaid) then maybe some of the lower-paid, regular employees wouldn’t have to make “sacrifices” i.e lose their jobs.
Ask one of those 70,000 laid-off employees, or even the employees who weren’t laid off but still fear for their jobs, whether that 1.37% pay cut taken by Chambers makes up for all the hardship.
Actually, the $1.8 million bonus in question went to the CEO of the company I work for (not Cisco), which has laid off 70,000 people.
I am one of the remaining employees who fears for his job. I am currently number 9 on the list in my state for the next lay-off. When I see the money that is being handed to our execs it pisses me off. They have done nothing to deserve this money. Maybe if they refused the money it would make me feel a little better. After seeing the actions of these execs I now look forward to being laid off. Why don’t I quit before that happens? If the CEO deserves her $1.8 million bonus then I deserve the 5 week severence pay I’ll get by being laid off.
Sorry to hear you’re on the short-list. IMHO, the severance pay should be more than five weeks. Half of these CEOs, when the leave a company or get sacked, get away with much more than that. Fuckers.
