Layoffs --> Executive Bonus

I nearly missed writing today's blog, so in the minutes after midnight before I go for the night's sleep, I jot down the words I mean for this blog to keep.

A friend of mine called with some sad news. Like mine, the company where he works had layoffs this week. Unlike mine, his company could actually afford to keep all their employees. Here is what he told my husband and I....

The company where he's employed is doing well - profitable in fact, but just not as profitable as the executives had projected. So what did they do? They laid off employees without warning and told the remaining employees that everyone left would have to take a week's furlough -- unpaid / without using vacation days or any other paid time out. Why? This way the company can make it's projected gross earnings and the executives could all earn their bonuses.

How many out there find that wrong?

With the several thousands of dollars that these executives are going to receive, the company could have kept all those they laid off and never required the rest to cut their income. Who knows how this will affect the non-executive employees? How many will find it difficult putting food on the table as they struggle through their meager savings (or none at all) while they look for a new job in a very poor economy? How many will loose their home or car?

Did the executives that made this decision even CONSIDER this or were they so focused on the bottom line -- in filling their own bloated pockets and overinflated egos -- that they did not care for their fellow man?????

This isn't even some stranger in a foreign country or even different state - these were people who worked at the same place as those they canned. Maybe they just went right to their posh offices and the corporate structure is such that the people who were impacted the most never got to enter those posh offices with all the layers of management between them.

Where I work, the company's biggest customer filed for bankruptcy and we lost 90% of our revenue. We didn't have to let people go to boost our bottom line; we had to let people go so the company could survive. Granted, we are a smaller company, but we also care about our employees. We knew exactly how such a decision would impact them each personally... How one was facing issues with paying for a new deck as his existing one was being wretched away from his home due to ground settlement. We were thrilled when we heard from another that her other part-time job needed to give her more hours so things worked out for her. Both the President and founder (his dad) of our company have actually brought THEIR salaries down to $0 per month (no bonuses or dividends either) until the company starts to see significant profits again, which means nothing through the rest of this year and possibly well into next.

What a difference a leader makes.

Not all CEO's and executives are greedy bastards (excuse the language) but there are plenty who are. In these hard times, I've heard cases both heinous and noble. I pray that God guides many more hearts as we continue to struggle on a global scale to set the economy right. I know it's wrong to wish ill on anyone, even those we see as deserving it. So instead I will wish that the light shining from those noble acts of the CEO's who really do care about those in their employ -- those whose hard labors have earned them their position, benefits and pay -- shine bright and brilliant in this darkening world and light the right path for the others who need to look up from the bottom line to see what is right and wrong. For if this world continues to support those who only look to the bottom line and self-serving goals (individual or selective group), then this world is already lost. :(

May the hearts and the acts of the noble shine bright.
Not the bottom line in their sight.
Pray.

- ESA