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CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

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Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#11

Post by toomuchtodo »

nine_zeros wrote: post #7
mjevans wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Executive stock prices should vest at the first of 25 years from the date earned or 10 years after they've left the company. That would encourage long term strategies rather than pump and dump.

That would certainly be one way of attaining long term vision. But who will enforce this requirement? Only pension funds and other large shareholders have any (and often impractical) leverage over the board C-suite. Wall-street shareholders demand faster growth until they themselves can exit out. They don't care about the business or the services or the employees. They want a high growth return, year-over-year until…

Stock buybacks used to be illegal. Lots of ways to use policy to encourage long-term shareholder value if boards and corporate bylaws won’t.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#12

Post by behringer »

I'm reminded of the song by Christy Moore about being laid off:

It seems to me such a cruel irony /

He's richer now then he ever was before /

And now my cheque is spent, I can't afford the rent /

There's one law for the rich, one law for the poor /

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#13

Post by kqr2 »

mjevans wrote: post #4
nine_zeros wrote: post #3

CEOs pay is tied to the stock price. They will do whatever it takes to boost the stock price, until they are out with a golden parachute. From their perspective, the business is all about boosting the stock price. It doesn't matter if the boost comes from innovation, or from polluting the planet, or from unscrupulous addictive practices, or from culling the employees. Employees are merely, an often undesired, side-ef…

Executive stock prices should vest at the first of 25 years from the date earned or 10 years after they've left the company. That would encourage long term strategies rather than pump and dump.

Some companies such as Toyota supposedly have 100 year business plans:

http://www.gongol.com/research/economics/100yearplans/

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#14

Post by ChuckMcM »

nine_zeros wrote: post #3

CEOs pay is tied to the stock price. They will do whatever it takes to boost the stock price, until they are out with a golden parachute. From their perspective, the business is all about boosting the stock price. It doesn't matter if the boost comes from innovation, or from polluting the planet, or from unscrupulous addictive practices, or from culling the employees. Employees are merely, an often undesired, side-ef…

And if you make them subject to "alternative minimum tax" where their stock based compensation is considered regular income for the year it is awarded based on the difference between the strike price and the market price, you "moderate" that process somewhat.

But if you're a politician and your donors are all rich elites who really hated that aspect of AMT you get repeal it for them: https://www.bowlesrice.com/tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-2018-change...

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#15

Post by nine_zeros »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #11
nine_zeros wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would certainly be one way of attaining long term vision. But who will enforce this requirement? Only pension funds and other large shareholders have any (and often impractical) leverage over the board C-suite. Wall-street shareholders demand faster growth until they themselves can exit out. They don't care about the business or the services or the employees. They want a high growth return, year-over-year until…

Stock buybacks used to be illegal. Lots of ways to use policy to encourage long-term shareholder value if boards and corporate bylaws won’t.

Stock buyback is equivalent to paying a dividend. If stock buybacks are prevented, companies will continue to layoff and pay out dividends. It doesn't solve the root cause that employees don't have a seat at the decision-making table.

At a minimum, if corporation laws were modified such that every laid off employee must be issued 1 year worth of shares as a golden parachute, the incentives will all get aligned very quickly and employees will not be abruptly thrown away.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#17

Post by s1artibartfast »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #11
nine_zeros wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would certainly be one way of attaining long term vision. But who will enforce this requirement? Only pension funds and other large shareholders have any (and often impractical) leverage over the board C-suite. Wall-street shareholders demand faster growth until they themselves can exit out. They don't care about the business or the services or the employees. They want a high growth return, year-over-year until…

Stock buybacks used to be illegal. Lots of ways to use policy to encourage long-term shareholder value if boards and corporate bylaws won’t.

Stock BuyBacks have nothing to do with long or short-term vision.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#18

Post by taberiand »

behringer wrote: post #12

I'm reminded of the song by Christy Moore about being laid off: It seems to me such a cruel irony / He's richer now then he ever was before / And now my cheque is spent, I can't afford the rent / There's one law for the rich, one law for the poor /

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.

- Anatole France

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#20

Post by s1artibartfast »

nine_zeros wrote: post #3

CEOs pay is tied to the stock price. They will do whatever it takes to boost the stock price, until they are out with a golden parachute. From their perspective, the business is all about boosting the stock price. It doesn't matter if the boost comes from innovation, or from polluting the planet, or from unscrupulous addictive practices, or from culling the employees. Employees are merely, an often undesired, side-ef…

I disagree with pretty much everything you say except this.

>Employees are merely, an often undesired, side-effect in the business of boosting stock prices.

Employees are worse than a side effect, they're a cost center to be avoided if possible. You want to achieve your goals with as few employees as possible.

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