Executives

When a company makes a profit, there are generally only a few things they do with that profit in normal economic times. Either the profit goes into the pockets of the executives as bonuses for a job well done or it goes into the hands of the shareholders through dividend payments. Now, most companies know to stop dividend payments in times of economic hardship, but there are very few companies that will take the next logical step and cut down on the salaries of the executives in order to preserve the overall health of the corporation.

In theory, this is quite understandable as the people that make those decisions would have to consciously choose to pay themselves less money in order to benefit a lot of people that they don’t even know. Layoffs are far more logical from the point of view of the executives. However, consider that layoffs will not only make your company far less productive, but they will also exacerbate problems with the economy as there will be less people in the position to be consumers since they have lost their disposable income sources.

It takes a special kind of person to understand that workers keeping their jobs is the best thing for the economy right now and it takes an even better kind of executive leader to make the conscious decision to limit executive bonuses until economic times are good again. You might resist this idea initially, but when you examine it closely you will see the logic to the idea.