In the midst of the massive amount of press regarding the Dorchester Boycott, here’s a story you might have missed: The Wall Street Journal reports that after filing Chapter 11 and putting thousands of dedicated hourly employees out of work, Borders now wants to pay 8.3 million dollars worth of bonuses to its executives. (Could this be why employees in going-forward stores are being pressured to sell BR+?) Former and current employees share their thoughts on this.
Meanwhile, it’s Zombie Week over at I Read Odd Books. Click here for details on how you can win five new zombie books, including my new book Jack’s Magic Beans.
Can’t really say I’m surprised. They went through something like four CEOs in as many years, giving multi-million dollar severance packages to each after canning them for poor performance–and the executives of that company haven’t done anything good in a very long time. Meanwhile, can they even be bothered to pay their employees a living wage? Of course not. I was there damn near three years, and the only pay raise I ever got was a few cents near the beginning of my time there because Colorado raised the minimum wage. Or to put it another way, I’m doing about as well unemployed doing odd jobs and selling things on ebay as I ever did there, and I’m a shitload happier in this situation.
I’m just sad they’ll be out of business before I make my billions. I really wanted to buy them out and make the fuckers in charge suffer the wrath of Bob.
Can we boycott what’s left of Borders, too? B&N may not generally be all that much better from the customer’s point of view…but I wouldn’t feel that same twinge of shame walking through their doors that I now would feel going to a Borders.
Are you kidding me? When it rains, it flippin’ pours! You just have to love corporate greed.
Yay!
Dear Borders Executives,
FUCK YOU.
Sincerely,
Bryan Smith
Bryan’s comment on here needs to be made into a tshirt
That’s absolutely ridiculous. It sickens me to see how completely heartless people can be — giving huge packages to CEO’s and shafting their hard working employees?
I like Borders as a store, but I have to rethink shopping there if this is their behavior.