An interesting story at USA Today (When failure's worth $200M, something's out of whack) does a pretty good job addressing an issue that has been on my mind lately.
There is a contagious disease spreading throughout business practices from Fortune 500 companies to public high schools. Screw the "Golden Parachute", give me the "Golden Corporate Jet"! Top administrators in organizations big or small are being handed huge 'bonuses' for their failures.
I'm a bit more cynical than the USA Today columnist. I see two reasons that this practice exists.
1.) It's cheaper than litigation. Let's face it, getting canned because you suck at your job is a slap in the face. Top administrators, being the ego-maniacs that landed them the job in the first place, are not going to let that kind of insult go unchallenged. Lawsuit! Lawsuit! Lawsuit! and why not, they've got the money to throw at it and there are plenty of lawyers willing to take it on. Win or lose, organizations do not want to spend the resources fighting it in court, so the idea is to simply pay them off as they leave.
2.) It's all about mutual back scratching. It's not the average joe that makes these decisions, it's other execs. Execs want to keep this practice going for when it's their turn in the hot seat.
So why does any of this matter? It matters because American society is losing it's middle class. We're becoming like a caste system. A person's value is not based on their performance or skills but on their self-perpetuating social(?) standing. This is completely contrary to the concept of 'hard work pays off'. If you're a hard-working blue collar, your reward is being shit on by execs. If you're an incompetent exec, you are rewarded at the expense of the workers. If the political conservatives don't get ahold of this soon, the masses of working class will continue to lean toward socialistic democratic policies which will bankrupt us.
After all, this same practice goes on in politics too.
5 comments:
p0nk-
I agree. Those lazy fucks sit back and bathe in money while middle America sinks further into the abyss. Where is the justice? I guess it got voted down in Congress, and I hear they only like 4 day work weeks.
sad, very sad.
-D
The whole world is full of money grubbers.
i was trying to log in and was telling me invalid user account. Then i went to Zanna's page and the comments I had left on her page said they were from 'anonymous'. very bizarre.
yes it does make sense. privately owned businesses have the single goal of making a profit. Whereas the goal of corporately owned businesses is to make shareholders happy which in most cases means compromising the long term viability of the business for short term gains.
It would be very frustrating to bust your ass for a business that is not in it for the long haul, creating your own sense of lack of job security. How can you be a loyal worker in that kind of environment?
p0nk-
Which is exactly why I work for a small business (privately owned) but affiliated with a medium sized business (for tax purposes only). The biggest perk? I have one boss and one direct co-worker. Just the three of us. No miscommunication, very tight-knit. We all have each others' backs. It is FAB. No strict rules. Just dress nice and do your job.
That said, I still do some shopping at Wal-mart and those other large chain stores. Oh well. I would never work for them, but someone else can!
-D.
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