Mar 17 2009
Bad Job Bonus
News of the bonuses recently paid to failing insurance giant AIG executives is currently making the media rounds. People are upset about this turn of events. Rightly so. Some executives are receiving death threats because of it. (What is it with all the death threats lately?) Anyway, AIG claims they had no choice but to pay the bonuses because of contractual obligations - even though they accepted billions in bailout money.
I’m not even going to pretend I understand how this makes sense. Isn’t a bonus supposed to be for a job well done? Unless the objective was running the company into the ground, I’d say their executives have done the antithesis of a good job.
What I’m wondering is when it became acceptable to completely fail at a job - and get over-compensated for it. I mean, don’t people normally get fired for making decisions that lead to the collapse of the company?
Clearly, I just don’t get it. I don’t want to get it. The moment I start thinking it’s a good idea to pay for work poorly done is…well…hmm. I guess that’s the moment I go into public office.
Jen
“The difference? I make sarcasm look good.”
It’s weird. I work for a company that’s been going great lately, better then it has in years and we don’t get a bonus yet here you have AIG who had to get BAILED OUT and they still give out bonuses? Uh…how does that work exactly?
It doesn’t work. But the rich people stay rich, and they still get to feel like they don’t owe anybody anything or have to answer to anybody.
I hope that impervious feeling of theirs goes away. I’m all for everybody feeling the pinch, for everyone to feel a bit vulnerable. We make better choices when we have something to lose.