I didn't really, really get it until my last job, for a hi tech company of about five hundred souls. It was there that i found out that the highest paid programmer got about 120K/year and the highest paid salesman, about 2 million/year. I found this out from a friend who went to interview for a job as a salesman. They didn't exactly laugh at him, but they did patiently explain that he did not belong to the right class for the job. Evidently, the salesmen they employed were all ex CFO's more or less, which means they all went to elite schools and knew how to rub shoulders with others of their ilk...who had the power and money to decide to buy our software.
So the people who make everything work are one thing; and the people who make the deals are another. And the people who make the deals only deal with people like themselves. There is no way that a programmer could have sold our product to a man who had the power to make the decision to buy it. They would have belonged to two different universes.
And the older I get, the more disgusted, the more nauseated I get with that upper stratum and the whole logic of dedicating your life with getting to that level.
Travelling back and forth to Europe over the last thirty years, I can't help but notice that Europe is about ten years behind the U.S. So, it's not surprising that the corporate greed bug is biting the Europeans. And, of course, now that they have Eastern Europe in their back pocket (that European Mexico that Hitler was so desirous of using), they think they can get away with it.
We'll see.
Joanna
Carl Remick wrote:
> June 16, 2006
>
> U.S.-Style Pay Packages Are All the Rage in Europe
>
> By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
>
> Along with hip-hop and Hollywood movies, Europeans are eagerly
> importing another American phenomenon: soaring pay packages for chief
> executives.
>
> For decades, Europeans were far more restrained than Americans when it
> came to rewarding the boss. Now, executives overseas are less
> inhibited about asking for American-style compensation. And often they
> are getting their wish. ...
>
> "Here in France, greed has been legalized," said Pierre-Henri LeRoy,
> who heads the French advisory firm Proxinvest. "Executives compare
> themselves to the market in the U.S., not India, when they plan their
> compensation."
>
> Compensation experts say the changes have been striking. "This is the
> first time I've seen this [trans-Atlantic pay] gap closing in 30
> years, and it is closing quite a lot," said John Viney, founding
> partner of the Zygos Partnership, a London-based executive search
> firm. ...
>
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/business/businessspecial/16pay.html?hp&ex=1150430400&en=48a3678d197325c7&ei=5094&partner=homepage>
>
>
> Carl
>
>
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>