Thursday, January 8, 2009

Cost Cutting

Due to the economic downturn, we're trying to cut costs at work before resorting to layoffs. The major component is pushing raises to October instead of April. I actually did the calculation on potential savings and it's tens of millions of dollars. Other stuff include eliminating the $3 subsidized dinners, drastically reducing the availability of free drinks, changing from bottled to filtered water, and no more free bagel/donuts on Fridays. A separate email came out from the CIO saying that we're not reimbursing home broadband Internet fees anymore.

With all my stock options underwater and worthless, we're just another company to work for now... no perks and very little upside other than salary. There is a management incentive bonus but it's for directors and above (I'm one step below director so I get 0%). That payout is still going to be >160% of budget at $40M; we beat a set of arbitrary metrics set at the beginning of 2008 even though our stock price has tanked by 36%. Since the executives decide what costs to cut, of course they're not going to touch their bonuses, which affects only a few, but rather push out the meager 2% raises out 6 months which affect everyone.

No comments: