achates

Yahoo CEO Bartz Has a Lot of Explaining to Do

It's not that I'm a loyalist, it's just that I tend to post when I think someone is being unfairly described. I sometimes defend people I don't like and don't approve of, if I think the criticism is wrong.

I never post about company negatives - that's for comment inside the company, not with bloggers. That could, I realize, make it appear that I am blindly supportive.

I enjoy working at Yahoo! - it's still full of smart people and is cooperative and supportive, at least at the level of the engineering community. It's not perfect, but a lot of the perception expressed in the blogosphere bears no relation to the reality I see around me.

CEO compensation, here and elsewhere, seems bizarre, but so does lots of other high-earner compensation (sports, entertainment, banks, the market,...). I assume this is a problem with that free market thing. The Compensation Committee presumably arrived at numbers it was willing to pay (because they thought it was to the company's benefit) and Carol was willing to take. We are advised by free marketists to assume that was a rational decision. Why should I be more affronted by the $150K for a financial advisor than about the rest of the package? It's just what they agreed to pay hert.

If you have things to complain about in her actual performance of her job, feel free. My complaint is with you picking on things that have nothing to do with her performance. People are entitled to be paid what their employer agreed to pay them and they're free to do what they like with their pay. That seems basic.

[NB - I work at Yahoo!, but I have never met Carol or any member of the Board and have no special insight into their compensation.]