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1. Eliminate every hourly wage position I could- I think hourly wages are inefficient for the most part outside of jobs which have no clear project goals or jobs which require a body (such as customer service). I would move as much as I could to project based assignments.
2. Free Healthcare
3. Elimination of sick day limitations- This is somewhat related to 1, but I believe that forcing people to be in an office just for the sake of them being there is ridiculous, especially when they are contaminating the work place.
4. Movement to telecommuting- I would move as many jobs to telecommuting as possible. Happy workers, lowered overhead, everyone wins.
5. Cap my salary at 3x the lowest worker, set the lowest workers pay at living wage- I figure that the CEO pay would probably be no higher than 100k, while the lowest worker would be no less than 30k.
6. Remove many of the corporate perks, such as company owned aircraft, cars, apartments, etc. Also get rid of anything that priviledges one set of employees over others, such as executive washrooms, or reserved parking spaces.
7. Create a company campus, such as Google or Apple. If the company is not big enough to support such a thing, investment in quality of work life, such as gym memberships, health incentives, company picnics, parties, outings etc.
8. Move to 100% casual dress outside of those meeting with outside clients
9. Have 100% transparency on corporate activities, and open forums- I dont think that the rank and file should learn of company happenings in the newspaper, nor do I think their ideas or input should be ignored.
10. Build everyone their own private office in so much space permits - I will eliminate cubicles like Jack Welch eliminated jobs.
11. Heavy investment in technology- Im tired of using dated equipment and programs
12. Eliminate worthless middle man paper pushers- I would concentrate on hiring problem solvers who dont need their hands held, and get rid of the glut of people who are paid to "supervise" and "pass orders down", but not actually do anything.
13. Create an emergency fund for employees- This fund would be used to make sure that if layoffs were ever neccessary, we would never be in a position to have to lay them off immediatley. We would also maintain contracts with job placement and assistance firms
14. Eliminate "standard" employee performance reviews - Instead, managers will be expected to evaluate each employee, anyone with average performance or better, will be given a raise that is 10% higher than the COL increase. Those with bad performance, will be submitted to CEO with corrective action plans, and CEO will select which employees to engage. The remainder will be given COL raises. Depending on the size of the company, either manager/employee/CEO will have meeting, or manager/branch manager/employee will have a meeting. The purpose of this is to eliminate nit picking good employees over stupid things, which serve no other function than pissing them off and destroying their confidence.
15. Eliminate all outsourcing and insourcing- I would immediately bring any overseas operations back to the USA, and I would suspend all H1-B programs and the such. We would have to exhaust all efforts to find a US worker before looking somewhere else (this does not mean "exhaust all efforts to find an American programmer willing to work for 25k")
If you were the CEO of a large company like Sprint Nextel Communications or Best Buy, or JCPenny.... would you implement all of those? If not, which ones would you choose to implement?
4. Movement to telecommuting- I would move as many jobs to telecommuting as possible. Happy workers, lowered overhead, everyone wins.
So are you going to ignore the studies which have shown telecommuters to be significantly less productive than those in a physical office?
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5. Cap my salary at 3x the lowest worker, set the lowest workers pay at living wage- I figure that the CEO pay would probably be no higher than 100k, while the lowest worker would be no less than 30k.
So essentially you want a company that has no top talent? What person at the senior management level would ever work for your company when they could go somewhere else and make significantly more money for the same work?
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6. Remove many of the corporate perks, such as company owned aircraft, cars, apartments, etc. Also get rid of anything that priviledges one set of employees over others, such as executive washrooms, or reserved parking spaces.
So you would rather pay more to have your c-suite staff fly commercial than save money by owning a jet?
You would rather NOT attract sales persons as they would never take a sales job where they had to pay for their own mileage?
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8. Move to 100% casual dress outside of those meeting with outside clients
So you want to open yourself up to harassment/sexual discrimination lawsuits due to sloppy dress? A single case can bring down a company.
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9. Have 100% transparency on corporate activities, and open forums- I dont think that the rank and file should learn of company happenings in the newspaper, nor do I think their ideas or input should be ignored.
So you are going to tell low level employees who do not have an equity stake in your company what your overarching strategies are so that they can take those and sell them to a competitor? Are you TRYING to bring your company down as quickly as possible?
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10. Build everyone their own private office in so much space permits - I will eliminate cubicles like Jack Welch eliminated jobs.
How would you come up with the money for this?
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14. Eliminate "standard" employee performance reviews - Instead, managers will be expected to evaluate each employee, anyone with average performance or better, will be given a raise that is 10% higher than the COL increase. Those with bad performance, will be submitted to CEO with corrective action plans, and CEO will select which employees to engage. The remainder will be given COL raises. Depending on the size of the company, either manager/employee/CEO will have meeting, or manager/branch manager/employee will have a meeting. The purpose of this is to eliminate nit picking good employees over stupid things, which serve no other function than pissing them off and destroying their confidence.
So you as a CEO are going to personally look at each employee? In what universe does that fall under the duties of a CEO?
How would you pay for ANY of this, given you are slashing salaries of top talent to the point where you would have mediocre employees, at best?
1) Hourly wages vs. salary vs. project. I think the main thing here is that hourly folks can paid overtime and tend to work more variable hours. For example, the guys on the shop floor might work 45-hours a normal week vs. 60 hours during peek weeks. The purpose of hourly wages, as far as I know, is to make sure those folks get paid for that extra time. Now, one thing that does annoy me is unpaid over-time for salaried workers. I'm not saying they need to be compensated for every hour - we're professionals, we're used to some overtime - but places that work the salaried folks 50-hours a week, but only pay them for 40 are just basically paying poor wages.
2) Free Healthcare: I'm not sure what you mean here... somebody has to pay for it. Now, I'm a big fan of disassociating healthcare from the employer. This would reduce costs (since employers foot most of the bill, and insurance companies can charge corporations more than individuals), and it would get rid of a financial reason to not hire anyone who's "old" or has health problems. If we can get auto insurance on our own, why do we need to go through an employer for health insurance? It makes no sense.
3) Eliminating sick day limitations: I agree on this - punishing people for not coming into the office when ill is just idiotic since they then share their illness with everyone else and productivity drops. If you're sick, stay home.
4) Telecommuting focus: This mostly works for certain jobs... probably sales positions. I also know a woman who worked for the patent office from home since she spent all day reviewing patents, there wasn't much point in being in an office. But in most environments, I have doubts this would work.
5) Salary cap: While I despise overpaid executive monkeys who seem to have no clue how to run a company, this wouldn't work unless everyone else did it. That being said, not giving out executive raises or golden parachutes as rewards for failure is a good idea and would probably sit well with shareholders.
6) Removing executive perks: Depends upon the business - some of them are needed, such as cars for salespeople, or maybe an executive jet if you're a mid-sized or larger company, but I get what you're saying - don't be wasteful.
7) Company campus and perks: I think the main thing here is to invest in quality infrastructure. If a company is trying to produce a product in a facility that is simply not set up for that, money and time will be continuously lost working around the problem. Having seen this happen in my own career, it can be very wasteful.
8) Casual Dress: Makes sense to me. There's no point in asking people to come work in monkey suits so they can sit in cubes all day. Obviously, you'll still need some dress standards (no "short shorts," wife-beaters, etc.) but I agree with the concept.
9) Transparency: While certain folks misintepreted this to mean "share the secrets with the peons," I know what you're saying. Be honest with the workers, tell them the company's future vision, and don't feed them BS and keep them in the dark. I think most sane people would agree with that concept.
10) Private offices for all: IMHO, this isn't that good an idea. Sadly, from what I've seen, offices are used as an excuse for people to hide from work and goof off - there's a reason having an office is a privelage since it lets the "leaders" do less work and get paid more for it. Personally, I'd focus more on decent cubicles and working environments - no leaking roofs, mice in the cubefarms, etc.
11) Heavy investment in technology: Makes sense.
12) Eliminate paper-pushers: A great idea - too many companies have too many twits who do nothing but go to meetings all day, while occassionally parroting orders from above. They are accountable to no one and contribute nothing, but companies sure have a lot of them.
13) Emergancy Fund: Not sure if this would really work, but running a company on the verge of collapse all the time isn't a good idea... maybe offer employees a chance to stay at reduced hours and reduced pay vs. being laid off when bad times hit?
14) Better Performance Reviews: I think the key thing here is to stop uselessly nickpicking of employees - the hell-hole at which I used to work focused on making sure every performance review was a nearly equal mix of good and bad points, and then gave out raises, rendering the whole thing pointless. Also, terrible employees need to be dealt with since they drag down the team and cost a fortune.
15) Eliminate outsourcing and insourcing: Well, eliminating it may not be possible, but I'm all in favor of cutting back on it. Heaven knows this nation is lacking jobs.
The subject of overtime for salaried employees seems to come up a lot. I can only speak for myself, but I know I am compensated for my overtime and I am salary. I knew before I started this was not a 40 hour a week job and the salary reflected that. If someone knows there is going to be overtime and accepts a position that is salaried I think it is hard to say you are not be compensated for those hours.
The subject of overtime for salaried employees seems to come up a lot. I can only speak for myself, but I know I am compensated for my overtime and I am salary. I knew before I started this was not a 40 hour a week job and the salary reflected that. If someone knows there is going to be overtime and accepts a position that is salaried I think it is hard to say you are not be compensated for those hours.
I always ask about expected hours in interviews and not once has a company said it would require any more than 45 hours on a regular basis. Lo and behold, 3 years and two jobs later I'm lucky to get a week as short as 45 hours. Most are 50 minimum and my current job was 60+ for almost 5 months. No OT pay whatsoever. I know for a fact that it's not due to me falling behind on my performance. In fact, I've exceeded performance targets every review I've had since each person outputs at least 1.5 peoples' work. Too expensive to hire (so they say) and record-breaking profits largely derived from our team aren't enough to persuade them otherwise.
In reality, all this overworking wouldn't be that bad if it was a true salary position. However, we have a minimum 8 hour day imposed on us. I see a true salary position as having both long and short weeks; the employee is paid according to contribution instead of being paid according to time. And companies wonder why they have so much turnover...
1) Hourly wages vs. salary vs. project. I think the main thing here is that hourly folks can paid overtime and tend to work more variable hours. For example, the guys on the shop floor might work 45-hours a normal week vs. 60 hours during peek weeks. The purpose of hourly wages, as far as I know, is to make sure those folks get paid for that extra time. Now, one thing that does annoy me is unpaid over-time for salaried workers. I'm not saying they need to be compensated for every hour - we're professionals, we're used to some overtime - but places that work the salaried folks 50-hours a week, but only pay them for 40 are just basically paying poor wages.
Most factory jobs have no clear objectives. These types of jobs that rise and fall based on fairly quick and unpredictable work loads would still be kept hourly.
However, on the other hand, there are myriad of office employees who have jobs that never change, but are hourly. They all become clock watchers, since their assigned tasks are done by 10am. I dont think there is any point for them to sit there all day. I'll pay you for the task assigned, and you go home after they're done.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
2) Free Healthcare: I'm not sure what you mean here... somebody has to pay for it. Now, I'm a big fan of disassociating healthcare from the employer. This would reduce costs (since employers foot most of the bill, and insurance companies can charge corporations more than individuals), and it would get rid of a financial reason to not hire anyone who's "old" or has health problems. If we can get auto insurance on our own, why do we need to go through an employer for health insurance? It makes no sense.
Oh, I agree health care is broken, and should be detached from employers. But how likely is that going to happen? What I did was just assume system stays status quo, and I would cover all my employees 100%. I had one employer who did this, and that was the only way they managed to hold on to employees, since they paid like crap. Its a tremendous perk and can deodorize many other downsides.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
4) Telecommuting focus: This mostly works for certain jobs... probably sales positions. I also know a woman who worked for the patent office from home since she spent all day reviewing patents, there wasn't much point in being in an office. But in most environments, I have doubts this would work.
I think that at least partial telecommunication can work for almost all jobs that dont actually require a physical presence, such as retail. Accounting, finance, sales, many administration jobs, computer coding, some IT, particuliary trouble shooting, call center work....all of it can be done from home or remotely.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
5) Salary cap: While I despise overpaid executive monkeys who seem to have no clue how to run a company, this wouldn't work unless everyone else did it. That being said, not giving out executive raises or golden parachutes as rewards for failure is a good idea and would probably sit well with shareholders.
Most people wouldnt be affected. Unless this was a huge global company where corporate officers make millions, I would imagine that the majority of people would be making sub 100k anyhow. The difference would be that, me as a CEO, wouldnt be making 500k+ while I have workers making minimum wage.
I do agree that this technique would be problematic at much larger companies, where the pay for higher level people would need to be competitive with the market.
In those cases, I would still make sure that my own personal salary though, was no more than 3x the lowest paid employees, even if I made significantly less than my officers.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
6) Removing executive perks: Depends upon the business - some of them are needed, such as cars for salespeople, or maybe an executive jet if you're a mid-sized or larger company, but I get what you're saying - don't be wasteful.
Well, I dont know if you can group cars for sales people in that group. Sales people need transportation, its a function of their job, and paying for them to fly, or rent cars all the time, would probably cost more than just leasing/buying them.
However, the actual goal of this point is not so much of removing waste, although thats helpful, but its more about not creating a "Im better than you" line by giving high level employees special crap that nobody else gets.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
7) Company campus and perks: I think the main thing here is to invest in quality infrastructure. If a company is trying to produce a product in a facility that is simply not set up for that, money and time will be continuously lost working around the problem. Having seen this happen in my own career, it can be very wasteful.
Well, quality infrastructure is part of it, but my main point of this was to actually build a good quality of work life. Of course, working on machinery that isnt fit to work on or work on for that purpose lowers that quality.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
8) Casual Dress: Makes sense to me. There's no point in asking people to come work in monkey suits so they can sit in cubes all day. Obviously, you'll still need some dress standards (no "short shorts," wife-beaters, etc.) but I agree with the concept.
Absolutely, dont come to work dressed like you are going out to shoot hoops, but also, no need for the button ups and ties. Jeans and a decent shirt everyday is fine with me.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
9) Transparency: While certain folks misintepreted this to mean "share the secrets with the peons," I know what you're saying. Be honest with the workers, tell them the company's future vision, and don't feed them BS and keep them in the dark. I think most sane people would agree with that concept.
Thats exactly the point I was trying to bring home. I've worked for way too many companies that I ended up hearing plans through the grape vine at work, from clients, or delivered on the day of impact. Its not fair to the rank and file to make them scramble like that. Obviously Im not advocating just opening up the trade secrets folder and passing out photo copies.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
10) Private offices for all: IMHO, this isn't that good an idea. Sadly, from what I've seen, offices are used as an excuse for people to hide from work and goof off - there's a reason having an office is a privelage since it lets the "leaders" do less work and get paid more for it. Personally, I'd focus more on decent cubicles and working environments - no leaking roofs, mice in the cubefarms, etc.
Well, the main goal of this was to remove the "elite" status of offices. So, I could go the other way, and put EVERYONE at a cube or an open air desk. It would accomplish essentially the same thing.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
13) Emergancy Fund: Not sure if this would really work, but running a company on the verge of collapse all the time isn't a good idea... maybe offer employees a chance to stay at reduced hours and reduced pay vs. being laid off when bad times hit?
Well, I wouldnt be trying to run a company on the verge of collapse. Id like that insurance though. Its like getting car insurance. You arent intentionally trying to hit something, but if it happens, its nice to have that cushion. Im really not a fan of the reduced hour thing, because that changes their work status. The goal of this is to eliminate short term impact of staffing changes. I want to be able to have the money in reserve to say, "ok John, we have no option but to let you go, but Im giving you your full salary and benefits for 3 months, and we are providing this job placement service to help you put together a resume and maybe find something else for you". What was done to me, I would NEVER do that to another person. Ever.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
14) Better Performance Reviews: I think the key thing here is to stop uselessly nickpicking of employees - the hell-hole at which I used to work focused on making sure every performance review was a nearly equal mix of good and bad points, and then gave out raises, rendering the whole thing pointless. Also, terrible employees need to be dealt with since they drag down the team and cost a fortune.
That is absolutey the key. I dont think a "review" is neccessary for any employee who is at least meeting the expectations for the job function. Instead, these companies pull everyone in, and will nail on you for any possible thing they can find, no matter how far they have to dig.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
15) Eliminate outsourcing and insourcing: Well, eliminating it may not be possible, but I'm all in favor of cutting back on it. Heaven knows this nation is lacking jobs.
Like I said, hiring an overseas worker would be an absolute last resort. Unfortunately, I think its usually a "first resort" for most companies these days.
...Why would anyone take on the risk, responsibility, and stress of being a CEO for only $100k?
Exactly.
Add in a Wall St secretary would make 70 or more, as even they get bonuses.
It is one thing to question CEO pay at 400x average worker, but 3 is even sillier in the other direction.
It destroyed his entire posts' credibility.
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