Since I don't think anyone has made mention of it yet, I thought I'd bring up the recent news in regards to Washington Mutual. Within this subprime mess, the company's shares have dropped 70%, they've fired over 3,000 employees, and had about a $2 billion loss last quarter. Oddly enough though, the board of directors have decided that the executive's bonuses will be determined without factoring in the damage from mortgage losses. And because all of their failings can be in some way attributed to mortgage losses, guess what, the board of directors decided that the executives are gonna be getting the same fatty bonuses they'd get if the company had performed well.
Now, I'm not one to be bothered by rich people getting richer - 'cause my hope is to be in that realm sooner rather than later - however, we have the people who are the leaders of a company that has absolutely tanked taking zero blame for the losses. Apparently they effectively claimed that somehow they weren't responsible for any of the problems. Obviously there are certain market conditions that are out of the executives control, but I've always been under the impression that a leader takes the fall for their workers miscues just as the they receive the recognition for their accomplishments. Anyways, I could rant further about this matter as it's simply mind boggling to me, but from this we should take the following two things:
1) Work hard until you become a big shot. After that, you can relax 'cause even if you mess up you'll still make bank.
2) If you get fired 'cause some people above you made some horrible mistakes, tough luck - suck it up.
The article I originally read is in the 3/5/2008 WSJ, which I can't get a link to, but here's a link that says roughly the same thing.
WaMu's Shady Compensation Plan
And forgive my cynicism.
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