My partner works for a large-ish company who was one of the many who laid off something like 15% of their work force a few months ago. They then told the remaining employees that they were restructuring the bonus framework, which would basically guarantee that no one would “qualify” for a bonus for two years. This is a field where quarterly bonuses are fairly substantial, so this is tantamount to a reduction in pay, even though their salaries remain the same. It's a bummer, but we felt fortunate that my partner had retained his job.
Well… here we are looking at an upcoming vote to give the board of directors pay raises. READ THE ROOM, PEOPLE. Like, you can't wait until next year even?
One kind of funny thing is that the company has recently moved to issuing more profit-sharing than cash bonuses, so many employees are going to be able to vote against raises for the board. Unfortunately, lots of employees just sell immediately. And, of course, many on the board are also stake-holders.
I know that all businesses are just about the bottom line, but, for gods' sake, if you're going to pump your underlings up about taking one for the team, the higher-ups have to participate, too.