More bonuses?

I admit I’m pretty tired of hearing about the AIG bonuses, although that’s probably because I don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of coming close to a bonus these days. Hell, I’m lucky to still be gainfully employed. But although AIG is hogging the bonus fiasco spotlight, they’re not even close to being the only ones dishing out money they can’t afford to spend.

The New York Times reports at least 19 well known financial firms that are planning on doling out checks and/or stock to keep their bigwigs from jumping ship. And these bonuses, valued around $50.3 million, are scheduled to be paid out over the next couple of years, regardless of the executive’s performance or what condition the company is in financially. Where do I sign up for THAT deal?!?

Seriously, if the economy doesn’t improve before the money gets dished out, surely heads will roll over this. Don’t these firms watch the news? Anything? Has the AIG bonus debacle slipped under their radar?

And I’m sorry, but the term “retention bonuses”, and the whole concept in general, have become obsolete in the current job market when people are walking around wearing sandwich boards begging for work and pimping out their kids on the internet to get job leads. Do execs really need to be rewarded just for showing up for work every day? And, really, where else are they going to go? The “help wanted” section of the newspaper has dwindled down to 1/28th of a page and job search engines are kept afloat solely by the amount of traffic they get from the droves of people who are unemployed, brushing up their resumes and profiles and waiting desperately for a job opening to be posted.

Yes, most of the scheduled bonuses were promised before the fed bailouts started, but since when are bonuses guaranteed or expected? And I’m not saying that many of these folks don’t deserve every extra penny they get, but there is a time and a place and now isn’t it. Wouldn’t it be better for these firms to admit that things have changed (you know, just in case someone has had their head up their ass for the past year) and they regrettably won’t be able to payout at this time. Better that than dish it out only to turn around and demand it be paid back. What are your thoughts? Particularly those who were skipped over at bonus time, or given next to nothing compared to years past.