Money for (almost) nothing: Fat paychecks for very little work

[dogday]

(Mental Floss) -- Work hard, get promoted, succeed in your new post, and eventually you'll start earning the big money. This progression seems like a firmly ingrained part of the American Dream, and it's certainly worked for a lot of people.

However, these steps aren't absolutely necessary to fatten your bank account, as Washington Mutual CEO Alan Fishman learned last week.

When WaMu failed and was seized by government regulators, Fishman had been on the job for just 17 days. However, he was contractually guaranteed $11.6 million in cash severance on top of the $7.5 million signing bonus he got for taking the job.

Basically, Fishman netted just under $20 million for 17 days of work, which is a pretty nice setup for the head of a collapsing corporation. (In Fishman's defense, it's tough to blame WaMu's failure on his leadership alone; it seems highly unlikely that any CEO, however determined, could crash such a large thrift in just two weeks.)

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/10/01/mf.easy.money/?iref=mpstoryview

[amdezurik]

1. in regards to this part;

"(In Fishman's defense, it's tough to blame WaMu's failure on his leadership alone; it seems highly unlikely that any CEO, however determined, could crash such a large thrift in just two weeks.)"

Hell, dumbaya could have crashed it in ONE week!

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. "The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it"..

Unless you are one of these money for nothing fat cats, that is.

[n2doc]

3. There is no defense for Fishman

If he couldn't be held responsible for WaMu's crash, he certainly could not be praised for it either. His pay is criminal, a legalized bank robbery.

[The 12th Guru]

4. Is it his fault 18 billion dollars was withdrawn from his bank forcing it to collapse?

No, I don't agree with the payout, but it was a legal contract.

Its not lke he forced the company down the drain to collect his money and go retire, the financial incentives of him being CEO for 5 or 10 years was more lucrative and the severance package was put in expecting the company to be successful. Its not like they could foresee the massive panic that led companies and private citizens to withdraw 18 billion in cash over a few days.

CEO psrachutes are really not killing our economy are they, no, most of the ceo's who received these large payouts were from companies that still exist and paying a CEO the compensation and severence built into their contracts is better than letting them continue to run the corporation poorly, possible costing 10s or 100s of peoples jobs or billions in revenue oe profits by the company on a yearly basis in some cases.