anonymity<\/a>, I’m not going to disclose that, nor her address (which is 15233 Mahatma Gandhi Place, Wichita KS 67667), nor the publishing company that employs him (Gale McGill Putnam Brothers and Howe), nor the account number of his 401K. On the other hand, I will tell you his shoe size, favorite hockey team, and criminal record. I mean, fair’s fair. End Digression.\nWhere was I? Oh, right, retention bonuses. My response, when I heard about this ever so many weeks ago, was that this is what comes of weak unions. Not that my Gentle Reader would have been in a union; he is a manager, not only by classification-to-keep-people-out-of-the-bargaining-unit but by actual responsibility. I believe, however, that in organized workplaces, where stuff like bonuses are written into contracts with unions who have the power to enforce them, the employer will get used to fulfilling responsibilities and will therefore be less likely to screw middle management than ownership in a non-unionized workplace. Also, I believe that in societies that are heavily unionized, ownership is less likely to screw middle management. I’ve never seen any data on that. So it may be a complete fabrication based on my romanticization of unions. But I’m sticking to it.\n
Now, legally, there are all kinds of things going on. My Gentle Reader did not have a contract to point to with a clause that says 4% on 12\/31\/08<\/i>. There was a promise, with maybe a handout that wasn’t signed by anybody. Not that a verbal agreement isn’t enforceable, but legal enforceability isn’t the issue. Demanding the bonus in court is not going to be cost-effective. No, the issue is that the company feels perfectly entitled to simply walk away from a promise. It’s a cultural issue, a mindset.\n
So. People are probably drawing lines between this sort of retention bonus and AIG and similar financial-industry big money bonuses. I think it’s a good idea to draw those lines, although of course those bonuses, even when they are retention bonuses, are structured in an entirely different manner, mostly as a way to shovel money to people whilst minimizing tax liability. The point, though, is that there was an agreement made to pay a bonus under certain conditions, and the employee fulfilled those conditions, and the company did not feel it could walk away from that promise.\n
Why not?\n
Let’s leave aside, for the moment, the fact that while fulfilling the condition of the bonus, the employees engaged in fraud (possibly without violating laws) and broke the company and pissed in the corners. I know that’s a big thing to leave aside. But let’s leave it aside. In fact, the ownership of AIG was in big trouble financially, but felt it couldn’t walk away from its promises. The ownership of the unnamed publishing company that employs my Gentle Reader felt it could.\n
The difference is what, exactly? Yes, the amount of money makes a difference. Yes, I suppose there could be a difference in how replaceable the employees are deemed to be. Yes, there is a class thing going on. And yes, AIG found a pot of gold at the end of the proverbial, whilst Gale McGill Putnam Brothers and Howe found a crock of shit. Is that what’s going on?\n
I don’t know. I really don’t. I don’t know what’s going on with the whole employer-employee relationship in our culture at the moment. I really don’t.\n
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus<\/I>,
-Vardibidian.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Which Your Humble Blogger also fulfills a promise, of sorts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[202],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-item"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18711,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11969\/revisions\/18711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![Tweeter<\/a>dom, it decided to keep what money it had, and not dispense it to people like my Gentle Reader, who, after all, were just employees.\nDigression<\/i>: I say his<\/i>, but actually her name is Peter Emmanual Purwinis. Still, in the interests of anonymity<\/a>, I’m not going to disclose that, nor her address (which is 15233 Mahatma Gandhi Place, Wichita KS 67667), nor the publishing company that employs him (Gale McGill Putnam Brothers and Howe), nor the account number of his 401K. On the other hand, I will tell you his shoe size, favorite hockey team, and criminal record. I mean, fair’s fair. End Digression.\nWhere was I? Oh, right, retention bonuses. My response, when I heard about this ever so many weeks ago, was that this is what comes of weak unions. Not that my Gentle Reader would have been in a union; he is a manager, not only by classification-to-keep-people-out-of-the-bargaining-unit but by actual responsibility. I believe, however, that in organized workplaces, where stuff like bonuses are written into contracts with unions who have the power to enforce them, the employer will get used to fulfilling responsibilities and will therefore be less likely to screw middle management than ownership in a non-unionized workplace. Also, I believe that in societies that are heavily unionized, ownership is less likely to screw middle management. I’ve never seen any data on that. So it may be a complete fabrication based on my romanticization of unions. But I’m sticking to it.\nNow, legally, there are all kinds of things going on. My Gentle Reader did not have a contract to point to with a clause that says 4% on 12\/31\/08<\/i>. There was a promise, with maybe a handout that wasn’t signed by anybody. Not that a verbal agreement isn’t enforceable, but legal enforceability isn’t the issue. Demanding the bonus in court is not going to be cost-effective. No, the issue is that the company feels perfectly entitled to simply walk away from a promise. It’s a cultural issue, a mindset.\nSo. People are probably drawing lines between this sort of retention bonus and AIG and similar financial-industry big money bonuses. I think it’s a good idea to draw those lines, although of course those bonuses, even when they are retention bonuses, are structured in an entirely different manner, mostly as a way to shovel money to people whilst minimizing tax liability. The point, though, is that there was an agreement made to pay a bonus under certain conditions, and the employee fulfilled those conditions, and the company did not feel it could walk away from that promise.\nWhy not?\nLet’s leave aside, for the moment, the fact that while fulfilling the condition of the bonus, the employees engaged in fraud (possibly without violating laws) and broke the company and pissed in the corners. I know that’s a big thing to leave aside. But let’s leave it aside. In fact, the ownership of AIG was in big trouble financially, but felt it couldn’t walk away from its promises. The ownership of the unnamed publishing company that employs my Gentle Reader felt it could.\nThe difference is what, exactly? Yes, the amount of money makes a difference. Yes, I suppose there could be a difference in how replaceable the employees are deemed to be. Yes, there is a class thing going on. And yes, AIG found a pot of gold at the end of the proverbial, whilst Gale McGill Putnam Brothers and Howe found a crock of shit. Is that what’s going on?\nI don’t know. I really don’t. I don’t know what’s going on with the whole employer-employee relationship in our culture at the moment. I really don’t.\nTolerabimus quod tolerare debemus<\/I>,-Vardibidian.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Which Your Humble Blogger also fulfills a promise, of sorts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[202],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-item"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18711,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11969\/revisions\/18711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/business\/ticker\/tweeter1103.jpg\"){kind=link}