As Employees Got Laid Off, CEOs Got Rich
from the how-nice dept
We’ve posted plenty of stories about CEOs getting ridiculous salaries and/or severance packages while they were laying off everyone else at the company. However, now a study has come out showing that we weren’t just picking up a few random cases. It’s an epidemic. CEOs at companies that are cutting jobs are officially being paid ridiculous amounts. CEOs of companies that didn’t layoff their workers, were compensated less. I have no problem with CEOs at companies that are doing well getting paid whatever they can get. However, if a company is collapsing, and workers are being laid off, than there’s no excuse for CEOs to be getting ridiculously high payouts. If someone is brought in to do a turnaround, then maybe – but the payment should be clearly linked to some measurable goals and milestones. Otherwise the companies (and their investors) are simply getting ripped off.
Comments on “As Employees Got Laid Off, CEOs Got Rich”
No Subject Given
Well, I think you are thinking like a techie. Typically CEO’s are carriers of the touch and negotiators. If given the task of turning around a company that has an unlikely chance of success, he will negotiate what ever he wants to get for the risk. The BOD’s will likely pay out even if the likelyhood of success is low. If the BOD says no thank you then they don’t have any CEO. It is just the way it works.
Re: No Subject Given
Scott, I completely understand that. But, most of these guys weren’t turn around experts. They were, instead, people who drove a company into the ground, but had created severance packages that gave them no incentive to actually do a good job.
Anyway, a Board’s job is to figure out what’s in the best interests of the company’s shareholders (fiduciary interest) and as such they shouldn’t accept a CEO who rapes them. There’s nothing wrong with making pay conditional on performance. If more BOD’s forced that condition on some of these turn around artists there would be a lot more reasonable deals.
If the potential CEO’s first thought is how he or she can guarantee a huge payout for him or herself (no matter how good or bad a job they do), rather than feeling confident about how good a job they can do fixing the company, the board shouldn’t hire them. It’s that simple, whether you’re a techie or an MBA who understands fiduciary responsibility.
No Subject Given
CEO’s are no differnet than you and me,
Corporate America is one giant ponzi scheme.
And all the chumps who bot dotcom stocks are at teh bottom of that pyramid. Once you figure that out, it all makes sense.
Have a nice f’ing day!