Corporate Greed—Time to get MAD
Mar 26th, 2008 by Nut
We’ve all heard the stories out there of companies profiting even when they haven’t done their job well, especially CEOs. Well, I thought I had heard it all until I read this article. It talks about Washington Mutual and how the board has approved a new way of measuring the performance of the CEO to award his bonus.
Which is all well and good until you realize that WaMu’s stock has done terribly and with the whole mortgage crisis most financial companies have suffered.
Well, what do you know? Since the stock has done so badly, they have decided to change the stock-option rules for the CEO and other executives. Otherwise he won’t get “as big a bonus.” Can you believe this? So instead of working the way they are supposed to, these stock options are just useless pieces of paper that can be voided at any time. Why should the CEO care about the shareholders if he’ll make out like a bandit anyway?
They are also using fuzzy metrics to decide how big their bonuses will be: instead of judging on cold, hard numbers, they are going with things like “customer satisfaction” and “employee morale.” What kind of crap is that?
I wish I was judged on “company morale” or “funniness factor” when I haven’t been doing my job well.
Open an ING account and get a $25 bonus!
The Wire, Season 3
I used to get mad about things like this until I realized it was my fault… if you have accounts with companies like this, or own stocks in companies like this, you are encouraging this behavior. When you see annoying behavior in a company, react. They hate losing customers. Consumers are quick to attack but slow to react. Remember when everyone quit buying tuna because the tuna fishermen were killing all the cute dolphins? It worked. Don’t open WaMu accounts or invest in WaMu stock. That gets their attention.