What more classless?

[GoSeahawks]

Company A
Mid August of 2009

Employees show up to work and are surprised by a party. The party's theme is money! There are little cupcakes being passed around with dollar signs frosted on the top. The company is celebrating one billion dollars in revenue and they want to reward the employees. This company really went the extra mile on this one. They even played a dvd of the CEO thanking his employees for filling his pockets with gobs of cash.

October 2, 2009

Employees show up to work and are informed that 15% of the workforce is no longer needed due to hard times.

Company B
2011ad

Company has a record year that is well documented in the press. Company informs employees there will be no raises this year because, "in good conscience, we cannot pay more than market value." Then there were phrases to explain the good conscience decision like, "fiduciary duty" and "at least you have a job."

A couple weeks later, employees receive a package in the mail from their employer. It's a bronze plaque not much bigger than a business card with the amount of money the company made in the past year. We'll just say the amount was forty billion dollars, and underneath the big 40b, was an engraved thank you note to the employees for helping fill the higher ups pockets full of gobs of cash.

The argument I've been having with my friend
Yesterday

I think company A is clearly the more classless one in this situation. They had a damn party bragging about rolling around in cash then laid a bunch of people off a month and a half later.

My friend thinks company B is the more classless of the two because they are clearly bigger than company A and their earnings are well documented in the media. Plus my friend thinks it's a huge slap in the face to get a plaque thanking everyone for helping make other people rich, but not giving the employees a slice of that pie.

Anyway, what does FOFC think? I guess it's too early to say if company B is going to do a 15% reduction of it's employees in a few weeks, but as it stands now, I think company A takes the classless cake.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Can I answer C- all the above?

Maybe I'm cynical, but I'm assuming in company B, while they did the fiscally prudent thing of freezing raises due to the economy, the CEO was still given a $20m bonus for achieving a clause written into his contract (your "fill the higher ups pockets full of gobs of cash").

I worked for a financial services company for 11 years, and while times were good it was nice. The last few years, no raises. Including the CEO, sending us all these emails about he was going to take $1 or $100 or something similar as a salary for the year. He announced this just after he cashed in like $14M in options at the end of the prior year. Thanks for taking one for the team bud.

[JediKooter]

I'll take answer C as well.

[Lathum]

If I have to choose A or B I say A. At least the people in B still have jobs, for now.

[Rizon]

I like A because it reminds me of where I work. Though I don't work for a large company, we did make a substantial amount of money between 2004-2007. This cash (since we are non-profit) went into reserves. In the last 4 years of slightly bad times, we've only used 8% of THOSE reserves. Long story short, we are sitting on a wad of fat cash and we have virtually no liabilities. I've had my retirement cut, my health care is about to be cut back, I have no dental or life insurance, or a COLA or raise in 3 years ... but I've watched this company (I'm the accountant here) blow cash left and right on the dumbest things, including this year increasing the meetings budget (aka "drunken orgy parties) 30%. I could really go on and on and on and on ... but I like A. For 'A'ssholes.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Privately owned? Publicly held?

I'm not asking for the identities here, I'm thinking about large amounts of shareholders interests vs one or two people.

[Chief Rum]

Did someone say drunken orgy parties? Where do I send my resumé?

[Rizon]

Did someone say drunken orgy parties? Where do I send my resumé?

Trust me, you don't want any part of these unless you like old, worn down looking people and you already have HSV1 and 2.

[GoSeahawks]

Privately owned? Publicly held?

I'm not asking for the identities here, I'm thinking about large amounts of shareholders interests vs one or two people.

Both public.

[Galaxy]

I like A because it reminds me of where I work. Though I don't work for a large company, we did make a substantial amount of money between 2004-2007. This cash (since we are non-profit) went into reserves. In the last 4 years of slightly bad times, we've only used 8% of THOSE reserves. Long story short, we are sitting on a wad of fat cash and we have virtually no liabilities. I've had my retirement cut, my health care is about to be cut back, I have no dental or life insurance, or a COLA or raise in 3 years ... but I've watched this company (I'm the accountant here) blow cash left and right on the dumbest things, including this year increasing the meetings budget (aka "drunken orgy parties) 30%. I could really go on and on and on and on ... but I like A. For 'A'ssholes.

Non-profit organization? Must be nice.

Since both examples are run by public companies, both suck.

[GoSeahawks]

I like A because it reminds me of where I work. Though I don't work for a large company, we did make a substantial amount of money between 2004-2007. This cash (since we are non-profit) went into reserves. In the last 4 years of slightly bad times, we've only used 8% of THOSE reserves. Long story short, we are sitting on a wad of fat cash and we have virtually no liabilities. I've had my retirement cut, my health care is about to be cut back, I have no dental or life insurance, or a COLA or raise in 3 years ... but I've watched this company (I'm the accountant here) blow cash left and right on the dumbest things, including this year increasing the meetings budget (aka "drunken orgy parties) 30%. I could really go on and on and on and on ... but I like A. For 'A'ssholes.

I've always been curious on the views of the accountant. They get fucked as hard as everyone else, yet they get to see behind the scene like no other regular employee.