[rescue] Do you remember when? Security software..... (waaay the f**k of topic)

[Shannon]

On Sat, Aug 16, 2003 at 05:59:31AM -0700, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> > Likewise I know that selling off 40K people's jobs so I get a bonus
> > is wrong, without ever having been a CEO.
> 
> Your example assumes that the CEOs bonus is the sole motivation for
> sucha decision, and I suspect it rarely is.

Sorry, but its pretty much a normal thing.

It happens at much lower levels as well, and I've seen that directly.

This happens all the time. I think it is naive to think they are
doing it solely for company survival. Their decisions are HURTING the
companies, not helping them.

> > Right and wrong don't magically change because your door has CEO
> > written on it.
> 
> True, but the descriptions of the issues involved gets more detailed as
> you move up the chain from the employee that was laid-off through
> middle management to the CEO. Companies exist for making profits, not
> jobs...

Oh, of course it is. All the more reason to avoid short-term thinking.

> I wonder what the 40K employees would have done if they were
> (collectively) the majority share holder (through their 401Ks) in the
> company? Would they vote to keep jobs if it made no financial sense, so
> that they could keep getting their paychecks? In certain circumstances,
> this could be a form of "penny smart and pound foolish"...

This sounds like you are justifying one person's wrong because a group
of others might do the same thing...

Also, this is a short-term financial decision.

If dropping 40K jobs and making good profit destroys the economy so that
you don't have anywhere to spend all that money, then its a pound smart
and future foolish.

To counter your argument above: what would the high-level execs have
done if it was their jobs that got destroyed instead of the 40K
employees?

This thinking works both ways.

Good leadership makes decisions that are good all around, and consider
the future of everyone, not just themselves.

That is *supposed* to be part of their job.

-- 
UNIX/Perl/C/Pizza__________________________________shannon at widomaker.com