So, I heard something today on NWPR that really got my dander up. They were talking about the Leahman Brothers failure, and how Congressional hearings started today around executive actions during the days and weeks leading up to the failure of that venerable institution.
So, here's the thing that got my attention, and made me a little bit angry. It seems that even as Leahman Brothers was petitioning the government for aid, they were funneling millions of dollars to their executives in compensation. I get so sick of this kind of thing happening. During the article, the person that NPR was interviewing made an allusion to Jimmy Stewart films, and immediately my mind turned to "It's a Wonderful Life." Specifically, the scene when George and Mary are leaving for their honeymoon, and there's a run on the savings and loan. George takes his hard earned and carefully saved money that was to pay for his honeymoon and with some fast talking and cooperation from all his investors saved the Bailey Savings and Loan with his own money. That's the kind of business man I can admire.
I got my first post college job at Hewlett-Packard at the height of the Dot-Com Bubble. Everyone was riding high, and if you had a business plan written on the back of a used napkin that had the word Internet in a fuzzy looking cloud, there were more than a dozen venture capatilists that wanted to inundate you with money.
However, that only lasted a short time past my joining the company. The bubble burst, and immediately tech firms had to tighten their belts. At HP, the CEO (Carly Fiorina at the time) cancelled the company performance bonus, on the grounds that while HP turned a tidy profit, it was a paltry thing compared to the wealth the company had earned while the bubble had been in full swing. This didn't affect me, becuase I hadn't been with the company long enough to qualify for the bonus, but many of my co-workers were bitter about that move. Then they suspended all pay raises. This did hit me, because less than a year after I started working at HP, I got my first promotion. Finally, as things tightened up, we were asked to voluntarily take one of 3 corrective actions: 1. take a 10% pay cut, 2. Take a 5% pay cut, and donate 5 vacation days to the company, or 3. take a 5% pay cut. Having just graduated from college, I didn't have vacation days to spare, and looking at my finances, I didn't feel that my entry level salary could withstand a 5% pay cut (I might have chosen otherwise if I had gotten my raise), so I opted out of the plan. What bothered me, is that none of the executive team mentioned what they chose, if they chose at all. Even worse, we received word that due to the cost savings implemented, Carly had received her performance bonus of some 5 - 10 million dollars. Like most of the employees, I was flabbergasted.
However, across the city, another company showed me what I ought to expect from those in power. Micron was also taking a beating at that time. In fact, they were probably in more dire straits than HP was. After all, they weren't as diversified as HP. The entire upper management team at Micron voluntarily went without pay for 6 months while the company worked to stabilize itself in the economic turmoil. At that moment, I envied my friends that worked for Micron. At least they had a management team that they could look up to.
So, when I heard about the Leahman Brothers, I couldn't help but be reminded of my short tenure at Hewlett-Packard, and the management team that lost my respect.
