The number of good people who have been laid off from large corporations today is larger than in many decades, and appears to be increasing as more and more corporations are cutting payroll. Most often the people being laid off were good workers producing the results requested and were positive contributors to their corporations. Yet, you were laid off anyway. WHY?

When you look closer at the real reasons for the massive layoffs you will discover that the CEO’s and upper executives failed. They frequently drove their corporations into the horrible financial conditions because they made numerous terrible decisions. They made decisions that were based upon their own personal greed and ego, most often ignoring what was best for the corporations. Their actions, decisions and public spin were conducted for only one purpose. Everything was focused on reporting short-term quarterly profits, (whether accurate or not) even at the expense of future profits, at the expense of the integrity of the corporation, and at the expense of the customers and employees. They cooked the books to present higher profits, whether real or not. (Re Kenneth Lay of Enron, Bernie Evers of World Com) They risked the future of the entire corporation to get high commissioned based short-term profits. (Re Jack Fuld of Lehman Bros., Stanley O’Neal of Merrill Lynch) They pushed high commissioned sales of worthless products (Re Angelo Mozilo of Contrywide, and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs)

The CEO’s of corporations did all of the above and more to push up the reporting of short term profits so they could cash in on their exorbitant stock options and excessive bonuses that were tied to reported profits and stock prices. They were paid lavishly even while they destroyed the corporations they lead.

Let’s look at some of the payments the above CEO’s received during the years they were destroying their corporations, and just before their corporations cratered.

Kenneth Lay –Enron $400,000,000
Bernie Evers-World Com Not sure but about $96,000,000
Jack Fuld-Lehman Bros. $186,600,000
Stanley O’Neal-Merrill Lynch $66,000,000
Angelo Mozilo-Countrywide $361,000,000
Lloyd Blankfein-Goldman Sachs $76,200,000

Total $1,185,800,000

The Total for these six CEO’s whose corporations they destroyed was $1,185,800,000.

Yep, That’s $1.185 BILLION DOLLARS

These six CEO’s could pay for 23,716 employees at $50,000 per employee, just from their personal compensations.

Yet, many CEO’s walked away with not only their money, but even more as they completed golden parachute agreements, except for Bernie Evers who is doing jail time and Ken Lay who died before he could be convicted of theft.

The travesty is that these and ALL CEO’s had a CONTRACT OF TRUST with their stockholders, their customers, and their employees to steward their corporations for the best interest of all three. Yet, they most often exhibited corrupt, greedy, selfish, and lazy practices to line their own pockets at the expense of everyone who trusted them.

For example, how many CEO’s jumped on the Credit Default Swaps (CDS) because of the easy, very quick and high commissioned profits? Yet, CDS were always very unsound financially, or even fraudulent. The CDS’s were a house of cards from the beginning, waiting to crumble. Just look at the Lehman Brothers and AIG stories, if they will let you. So were the sales of Subprime loans to borrowers who were unable to make even the minimum payments from the beginning. And the story goes on.

The key fact is that these highly paid CEO’s and upper executives failed their corporations and you, their employee. They had a CONTRACT OF TRUST to create the work conditions where you would assist the corporation to prosper, and both you and the corporation would thrive. They took the short cut quick way out to line their pockets and left everyone behind. The truths about what really transpired with these CEO’s are still unraveling, and will for some time. Do not forget, they failed you, their employees, their stockholders, their vendors, and even most of their corporate customers.