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It's amazing to me that this sort of thing actually took place in the past... especially considering the one doing the investigating was a confirmed bachelor who had a "long term friend", and was known as having a predilection to cross dress.
Things certainly have changed.
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Another Captain of Industry was nothing but a criminal...
CARACAS/ST.JOHN'S (Reuters) - U.S., Latin American and European investigators widened probes on Thursday into the far-flung financial empire of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, accused of "massive fraud," and Venezuela seized one of his banks.
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I have a conference call this afternoon with my corporate overlords. They are cutting salaries across the board. I'm obviously curious to see how much they are cutting from mine.
The company actually makes money, and is doing relatively well. The current economic climate enables them to cut salaries, even though they really don't need to in order to be competitive.
They assume everyone will just be happy to have a job. I'm not likely to change jobs for more money, because I like the environment and lack of stress.
/update
The salary reductions are;
CEO 20%
Board 15%
VP & Directors 10%
Exempt staff 5%
Non-exampt staff (hourly) 2.5%
Sooo.. 5% for me. That's a non-trivial amount of money, and puts me back to about where I was at when I hired on 5 years ago. Of course, that reduces my taxes a little bit, and so I won't lose money in the full amount. They're also reducing the amount of matching funds for 401K contributions.
The person on the call is using their best MBA training, and using the proper double-talk language to try and make everyone feel better. It's kind of amusing. It's great news for us!!!1
I work on a government contract, and that contract is steady. It's increased each year, but that doesn't make any difference to the over-all company finances.
Of course, the company can do whatever they want with salaries. I don't have a contract with the company, and I'm free to leave if I want. In the big picture, it's not a big deal for me personally, but I suppose that other people may be impacted in a more serious way. It's still a lot better than mass layoffs.
The spin they're putting on it is unnecessary though. We're all IT geeks, and we're not swayed by bullshit.
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Oh wow.. they solicited questions and the first guy jumped on the obvious one. We work on a fixed price contract. Our revenue is constant, and the costs on the contract (us) is fixed. Why are they reducing our salaries when the company was making a consistent profit on our billable time?
The MBA said "we're protecting the jobs of our comrades who do not work on these contracts".. Isn't that "redistribution of wealth"?? LOL
I have a feeling this "environment" (and that's what they call it) is going to depress wages across the board as other company executives take advantage of a fluctuating job market to squeeze their own employees and maximize profits. For a lot of employees, what alternative do they have but to accept the lower pay?
It also points out the way that I see wealth working. The CEO probably makes many millions of dollars a year. His 20% reduction isn't going to change much for him, even though it's a larger amount of money than what I'm losing. The net result is a bigger change for lower income employees.
Oh wait.. I just used Teh Google, and the CEO made 48 million dollars in 2008.
niiiiiccceeeeee
/update 2
Ohhh.. IT geeks are so funny..
One just said "I hired on 3 years ago and only recieved one small pay raise due to (redacted reason), and with this 5% reduction, I'll be making less money than was in the offer sheet that I accpeted, which is contract. Should I file a lawsuit?"
LOL
5 comments:
I don't mean to sound like a chump because I'm sure I'm on much lower salary than you anyway... but only 5% in 5 years? Wow.
All those sorts of professionals here would get 5% + increments a year and probably some sort of performance bonus framework....
In the public sector we even get an accross the board yearly increase bargained by the union AND then an increase for moving up pay increments - which happens yearly as long as you are rated 'satisfactory' or above by your manager (which constitutes turning up most days and not sleeping with the bosses daughter).
You have however mentioned money isn't such an issue because you like the low stress element... and I can certainly respect that.
I just slid up the pay scale and a significant pay raise...and I work in a "troubled financial industry."
Ya, I know.. it's not quite 5 years, but the raises have been shit. I've priced my profession in my area, and I'm at about 70% in salary compared to my contemporaries.. and considering my job, I can definately live with that.
I could probably bump up 10 or 15 grand by switching jobs, but I like the continuity and low stress. I mean.. I appear to have a lot of time to blog, eh? There's a reason for that. lol
We're supposedly going to get some kind of a bonus at the end of 2009, but more than likely, they'll claim they have to recind it due to the bad economy.
I totally can't complain about anything related to my job... other than it more or less bores the fuck out of me, and I'd rather be doing something interesting for a change. Maybe I'll get around to that some day.
I think interesting is key.
Or your mind washes out and it seriously has long term consequences.
My job has been a 'means to an end' situation for a while now. They pay for me to be on campus at uni 1 day a week. Lots of internal training courses also. They don't keep tight tabs on my day and I can also skim some blogs and if I've got an assignment deadline coming up I've even been known to work on essays during the day at my desk...
But there comes a point where I go 'what the fuck am I doing here?'.
That point may come when I finish my current degree and they aren't paying my course fees anymore. lol.
It seems to me that very few people actually have a job doing what they like. I don't mind my job, but it's not terribly interesting anymore.
I've heard a phrase something along the lines of "Find your hobbie and figure out a way to make a living at it".. or something like that. I doubt many people can do that.
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