On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:47:21 -0500, HK wrote:

BAR wrote:
HK wrote:

CEO pay and bonus should never be more than a reasonable multiple of
the average worker's salary at the company or corporation. Reasonable
is NOT 500 times.

Why? What does the average worker contribute to the bottom line of the
business?

And therein lies the illness that is killing this country.

Exactly right. No way anybody I know would want to work for BAR,
average or not.
Here's something interesting I heard yesterday.
My son works at a shop doing mostly heavy truck suspensions.
The owner is a women who has 3 shops in the Chicago area.
She carries on with her deceased husband's method of operation.
Pay the workers more than the competition, provide health care, decent
vacations, a 401k, and bonuses when the profits are good.
Expect excellent quality work from employees. The crew itself
takes care of that, since there are always a couple long-timers
who really know their stuff, and new employees are on probation.
The managers do suspension work too.
And of course set prices to make a decent profit from fixing the
suspensions of fire trucks, ambulances, garbage trucks, etc.
The other day one of the "newer" workers was at a sister shop picking
up parts. Let's call him RAB. He bad-mouthed his fellow workers,
saying they were goofing off, on the computer playing video games, he
was doing all the work, etc, etc.
Some of this was in a sense true, because there are times when it's
dead at the shop, and boys will be boys. I've had a couple feast or
famine jobs like that myself.
Anyway, it just so happened that the owner's son was at the shop,
and heard everything. RAB didn't know him.
The son reported it to his mom. She got on the phone to the lead
manager at the shop and told him what she had heard, then said
something else, which surprised me, because...well, it surprised me.
She said, "What the hell kind of loyalty do you have over there?
RAB isn't a team player. You have my permission to fire him."
I think I could really get along with this lady.
BTW, he wasn't fired, but given a chance to keep his mouth shut.
My son defended him to the boss, and all his co-workers know he just
naturally has a big mouth and likes to yak about anything without
thinking first. Doesn't keep him from fixing suspensions.

--Vic