I’ve got some friends that work at this company in the next county. They said that every year, including this one, they get a form in their November paycheck where they can register how much they would like deducted from their December paycheck to provide a gift for the CEO of the company.
As if that isn’t bad enough, the company announced it would be closing one of their product lines and therefore laying off the people who work on that product. So they got both notice and demand for a CEO gift in the same packet.
One of my friends is in the group getting let go and he is applying for a job in another part of the company.
This just seems totally wrong to me, and it seems like it should be illegal. Is it?
No more illegal than the “forced” contributions to United Way or other bullshit charities that some companies strongly encourage people contribute to.
This is obviously optional, the CEO probably tosses the gift in his family’s yankee swap pile. I’m sure it’s just some of his underlings wanting to kiss his/her ass. Plainly ridiculous.
immoral? illegal? What, the layoffs or the request for voluntary contribution to the CEO’s gift? What if they determine which line gets shut down by how many in that product group donated to the gift?
Seriously, the request to donate to a CEO gift is bad form but when products are discontinued and therefore, no longer bringing in revenue to support jobs, then layoffs have to occur.
I was looking mostly at the implied demand that staff deduct money from their pay to give to the CEO and that the CEO will know who gave and how much. Nobody doubts that layoffs happen when product lines get cut.
For the friend being let go, it has an implication that if he doesn’t pay for a gift within his last paycheck he may not get hired for the other product line. Or, the implication is that someone must make a cash payment to the CEO in order to have a job.
If the implication is reality then it is BS. Yet, I suspect the implication is someone’s wild ass imagination and general disdain for the management, not to mention this being more pronounced as he is understandably upset over the layoff.
Perhaps you and I come from different worlds. I just can’t imagine setting up a system where my staff, who might make 25% of what I make, would be asked to cut their pay in order to provide me with a gift.
Most CEOs try to give rewards and bonuses to staff at the end of the year, not the other way around.
Maybe I should change my management philosophy. Demand fealty from my staff for allowing them to work for me might be the way to go. Those ungrateful bastards have had it too easy.
No more illegal than the “forced” contributions to United Way or other bullshit charities that some companies strongly encourage people contribute to.
This is obviously optional, the CEO probably tosses the gift in his family’s yankee swap pile. I’m sure it’s just some of his underlings wanting to kiss his/her ass. Plainly ridiculous.
Gotta love the United Way, especially, the donate and get to where jeans on Friday bullshit.
If you don’t where jeans, everyone knows you didn’t “contribute.”
I don’t see anything illegal, but, damn, that is really bad form. We all buy Christmas gifts for our legal assistants, but, I have never seen the monetary gift giving going the other way. Quite often they will bake us cookies or other goodies, but, to spend money on us or kick in for gift is really, really bad form.
it’s about time we all got used to showing proper respect to our corporate overlords - don’t make eye contact and give a little back to show our gratitude for having a paying job so we can bring a plate of rice and beans home to our families
.
wasn’t this basically ayn rand’s idea - that the peons should be far more thankful for our corporate overlords?
anyway, i’ve never heard of a CEO doing this. is this common? it sounds insane to me. are we sure the CEO’s “gift” isn’t some sort of matched contribution to charity?
if not - and if a CEO is really just asking his employees to give him money for christmas - i think it’s repugnant.
solution: report it anonymously to a local newspaper or TV station. i promise they would LOVE to run with it.
The company I work for is not laying people off or anything like that, but I did get a “You owe $250 to get the President a gift card to one of the fanciest hotels in the DC area” email last week. Last year was $125. I’m not liking this trend.
In my next life I want to be a CEO - you know the kind that get those huge signing bonuses( those are understood) but they also get the exit bonus to - quit, even get let-go with cause and they get a big pay-out.
I think I am going to try that in my next contract with an employer - Even if I fail terrible to make my sales numbers/targets, and drive the company deep into the red, I still get my bonus!!
