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Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay")

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westsider
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Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 03 Apr 2008, 10:49
No, this is NOT a rant about how much execs are paid. I am not really bothered by all that. This is instead about the company where I work. All of this info is public (you can find it on yahoo finance) but I'd rather not name my company for fear of being googled. If you want to guess, feel free to private message me!

I work for a small (~150 person dot com company)We got a new CFO back in August 2007. He was a VERY poor fit for the company. It showed within a couple of weeks. Seriously, even the customer service folks noticed.

His salary was $200k, plus stock option goodies, etc that vest over 4 years. ($16,667 a month).
It was announced he was leaving the company as of march 31 2008 in mid Feb. Other high-level manager have made it pretty obvious he was "pushed" out.
He will have to give up the options, but don't feel too bad about it.

Today I see an announcement (publicly available on yahoo finance) that he will be paid 2 months salary on his last day in exchange for (paraphrasing) "continuing to do his job until the last day. He has not been in the office since the announcement in mid feb.

He did not accrue 6 weeks of vacation in 6 months.
This means that in march he is being paid $50k (16,667 + $33k [2 months salary]) to NOT COME TO WORK.

My last day at work will be may 30th (already told my employer). I *WILL* be working until that day. Perhaps I should ask for $33k in additional to my normal pay for coming to work in May? I would imagine my completing menial tasks is more valuable to the company than his sitting at home watching judge judy?!?!

Hell, I would even compromise and take triple MY pay ($4500 + $9k [2 months salary]) .

For a split second (out of PURE ANGER) I thought of proposing this to the CEO. Of course I thought better as then my poor poor self will be "pushed out" just like the CFO. Oh, except that I won't get the extra $33k gift.

Thoughts/Comments?

Cheers.

Originally posted by westsider on 24 Mar 2008, 14:05.
Last edited by westsider on 03 Apr 2008, 10:49, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: My CFO's ridiculous pay - WTF?! [#permalink] New post   24 Mar 2008, 19:20
Ha! That story actually reminds me of one of the reasons I'm going to business school in the first place:

I have a friend who I run with who is about 3 years older than me (early 30's). He works in asset management. In late 2005 he left his job as a managing VP with a boutique asset management firm that was heavily invested in Mortgage Backed Securities, CMOs, CDOs. When he left he was required to sell his share of ownership in the firm (he was not a partner, it was some kind of S Corporation). This was before the real estate bubble burst, so the company was doing really well and he sold his shares for the equivalent of about 1 years salary.

He took about eight weeks off after he quit, because before he left he had lined up a job with another asset manager with a similar portfolio (heavy in real estate related stuff). He received three months salary as a signing bonus. During his eight week vacation between jobs, the $h*t started to hit the fan in the sub-prime market. Turns out his new employer was hit pretty bad and his position ended up evaporating. To make up of the inconvenience of being laid of before he had worked a single day, my friend was offered six months severance pay by his new employer.

A month later he was back working for his old firm with a raise. If he had stayed with his original employer instead of going on vacation not only would he not have gotten the raise, but his shares in the company would have been nearly worthless. All in all he ended up receiving roughly 1 3/4 years pay for taking a three month vacation.

You don't see those kind of perks as an engineer.
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Re: My CFO's ridiculous pay - WTF?! [#permalink] New post   24 Mar 2008, 19:32
WOW.. what a story.

As an engineer, all you see is the BROKEN coffee machine in your office and the laid off/hours reduced hourly employees. All while some dufus they never should have hired makes $1,600 a day watching telenovelas in an attempt to learn spanish.
(That settles it. every time I mention this guy I will try to find a new way to quantify how much he is paid, and speculate on what he is doing with his time). :-D
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Re: My CFO's ridiculous pay - WTF?! [#permalink] New post   25 Mar 2008, 07:37
Sorry guys, but even here in good ol' Europe its absolutely normal for high-ranked managers to be fired and then receive money until their contract runs out or the notice period is over.

We had a guy running our Product Management who came in November 2006 and was let go in May 07 but received his pay until the end of the year because thats how long his fricking contract was running. He was not allowed to start anywhere else in the meantime, but thats one nice long vacation...
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Re: My CFO's ridiculous pay - WTF?! [#permalink] New post   25 Mar 2008, 10:13
Yeah, but he didn't have a contract of that sort. It was "at will" - could be fired at any time for any/no reason.

Meanwhile he is making ($50,000/30 days/24 hours/60 minutes)* 10 mintues $11.57 while he makes Minute rice (10 minutes).
Meanwhile I make $1.04 in those 10 minutes at work
(per-minute pay when prorated 24/7 over a month)
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Re: My CFO's ridiculous pay - WTF?! [#permalink] New post   25 Mar 2008, 16:38
I ride the bus for 20 minutes to get home from work, wait a few minutes, and walk a few as well. Total time about 40 minutes.
If he rode the bus with me he would make $1.157 (per minute)*240 = $46.28 in that time.
That would be enough money to replace the broken coffeemaker in the breakroom so I wouldn't have to pay $1.50 at starbucks for a cup.
$1.50 = 57.3 seconds of his time, or 14.4 minutes of my time (at $0.104 per hour)

(per-minute pay when prorated 24/7 over a month)
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Re: My CFO's ridiculous pay - WTF?! [#permalink] New post   25 Mar 2008, 23:56
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I agree. That is crazy. I would ask for a raise. :lol:
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Re: My CFO's ridiculous pay - WTF?! [#permalink] New post   26 Mar 2008, 15:03
Both kitchens are now out of Paper towels. I now have to walk to the bathroom to steal from there... until they run out as well.
Time wasted: 10 minutes/day
During this time he makes:
$11.57
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Re: My CFO's ridiculous pay - WTF?! [#permalink] New post   03 Apr 2008, 10:48
-The paper towels have (triumphantly) returned to the kitchens.
-Sadly I have just found out that our "free sodas" will disappear.
-In their place will go a 10-cent per can vending machine. The idea is to prevent people from "walking off with a 6-pack".
-Apparently the bad results last quarter were due to theft of Mountain Dew and Diet Sprite.
-Managers have promised to set out a "dime bag" so we won't have to actually pay for the sodas.
-I guess the thought that a manager buying the soda rather than the company is supposed to make me less likely to "walk off with a 6-pack"?

More as the story develops.

(For those keeping score)
Cost to CFO of soda: ~5.2 seconds
Cost to Me of soda: ~ 1 minute
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Re: My CFO's ridiculous pay - WTF?! [#permalink] New post   03 Apr 2008, 16:33
LOL what a ridiculous thing to do! Soda, in my opinion, is like productivity juice, and companies should never charge for it :)

westsider wrote:
-The paper towels have (triumphantly) returned to the kitchens.
-Sadly I have just found out that our "free sodas" will disappear.
-In their place will go a 10-cent per can vending machine. The idea is to prevent people from "walking off with a 6-pack".
-Apparently the bad results last quarter were due to theft of Mountain Dew and Diet Sprite.
-Managers have promised to set out a "dime bag" so we won't have to actually pay for the sodas.
-I guess the thought that a manager buying the soda rather than the company is supposed to make me less likely to "walk off with a 6-pack"?

More as the story develops.

(For those keeping score)
Cost to CFO of soda: ~5.2 seconds
Cost to Me of soda: ~ 1 minute
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   05 Apr 2008, 18:06
westsider,
I hope you continue with this thread because it is now getting hillarious. You havent posted for a couple of days now so I am worried about what that manager must be doing with his free time!!!!! :wink:
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   09 Apr 2008, 12:29
Sorry for the slowdown in updates. the lack of sugar and caffeine have slowed me down a bit.
Important updates:
-Soda consumption claimed to be 100,000 cans a year
-CEO claims $0.10 will only cover cost of vending machine, and cans themselves will cost the company the same as before.
-If there is no change in consumption, employees will pay $10k (100kx$0.10) a year for something that is saving the company exactly $0
-Over the course of 5 years, employees will pay the same for the "once free" sodas as the CFO was paid NOT to come to work in March. Seems fair. (Sorry, have to include a mention of this dude in every post).
-Over 5 years employees will pay the same for the "once free" sodas as I get paid in a year.
-Last week there was a shortage of powdered creamer in the office. Anyone wanting coffee had to leave and buy it at the starbucks. This led to a dramatic drop in my coffee consumption and therefore, productivity (since my other source of caffeine - soda - had been cut off as well)
-This week the creamer has (thankfully) returned, but there is now NO SUGAR or sugar substitue of ANY KIND in the office. I am sensing a cruel, cruel joke.
-Alternate theories include that this lack of coffee fixin's is being used to garner support for "pay-per-cup" coffee.

**breaking news**
The vending machine is now fighting back. Reports are pouring in that the machine has accepted people's dimes WITHOUT dispensing any soda.
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   22 Apr 2008, 12:34
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It just stole *MY* dime. Charges may be filed in small claims court.
Developing....
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   22 Apr 2008, 12:52
ROTFL. Kudos!
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   02 May 2008, 09:42
The machine has stopped simply stealing the dimes. When it does dispense it is now dispensing the wrong soda.

When sodas were free we had a mini-mart style fridge.
It is nice to see we are paying for the privilege of getting nothing - or simple not what we paid for.
ROCK ON! :-D

p.s. 20 days to go....
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   06 May 2008, 17:04
Speaking of stealing money - it turns out that due to a little "office space" style "glitch" in payroll I have not been paying the $90 a month for my bus pass.

See, I bumped up my 401k to 95% a couple of months back (to make sure I would hit the federal limit by the time I left work). However, after social security taxes, I had $0 left in my check to pay for the bus pass - so I had been getting it free.

Sheesh - now they want me to write a check! Maybe I will bring the 3600 cans of soda instead (at $0.10 a can)
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   12 May 2008, 09:15
OMG everyone at work now thinks I'm nuts - I've been laughing out loud at this thread - howlingly funny. Hang in there westsider! :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   13 May 2008, 11:16
westsider wrote:

Sheesh - now they want me to write a check! Maybe I will bring the 3600 cans of soda instead (at $0.10 a can)


$0.10 a can? What state are you in? I'm going there to double my income!
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   16 May 2008, 17:46
No joke - just got back from the in-office "Cinco de Mayo" Party.

Apparently no one here speaks Spanish.
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink] New post   19 May 2008, 09:29
Just occurred to me - the bus pass money should have come out pre-tax. This means I am losing ~$50 due to the general incompetence here. I guess it shouldn't surprise me. I lost thousands a year by taking this absurdly low-paying job. at least the sodas are fre.... oops. nevermind.
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Re: Strange things a-brew at work (previously "my cfo's pay") [#permalink]
19 May 2008, 09:29
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