Glenn Alperin

When Buybacks Are Bad

I really don't understand the logic about why stock options are supposed to be good for a company. I understand that it makes it more attractive to keep supposedly qualified and profit-driven executives, but since when should those executives get to keep the milk money from a cash cow when they are not rewarding their employees adequately for a job well done? I worked in retail for about 7 years, and if management didn't have us underlings to actually do the grunt work, there is no way the companies I worked for would have made the money they made to be able to afford to pay the management at the top so excessively, whether that is in cash or stock options. I'm all in favor of returning that money to the stock holders by way of dividends, but here is an even better idea? Why not return it to the hourly employees who worked their butts off in the first place? It sure would be a marvelous tool for keeping at bay one of the biggest expenses in running a retail business: employee turnover.

Right. Time to get my head out of my ass again and return to reality. Management doesn't care about employees as anything other than a line which they would prefer to be dispensable on the expense reports. For the most part, they don't care about their stockholders either. I wish you luck trying to change the corporate culture of such companies. You'll need it.