I have been watching the news today with more than a degree of disbelief. Don’t get me wrong, I do not pretend to actually have any real working knowledge of the banking world, but surely, it won’t do any long-term good to put off the guys who can actually do their jobs, and do them well? I am but a mere lowly paid mortal as are probably most of my readers here, and have more than a healthy degree of dislike for the banker’s bonuses and pay scales in general, BUT, when you are hired to do a job for a set wage, which it would appear Mr Hester was, and then someone, NOT your boss turns around and says, “sorry mate, yes you’ve worked hard and done what was expected of you, but you can’t actually have what was promised you”, then I have a problem with that.
The amounts do defy belief in a way, his bonus alone is more than enough to set me and my son up for life both in security for life and a business of our own, BUT, in a way it is all relative, not one of us would like to take on a job then be told that we won’t be able to have what we are due, would we?
It’s not as though he awarded himself the bonus, a whole board of folks did that, including one notable board member representative from our own UK Government!
I find it incredibly unfair that this poor guy, who has simply set out to achieve what he was paid to do at the end of the day, has been singled out and lambasted by those very same money-grabbing oiks who have systematically claimed whatever they could get away with at our expense.
I did a small straw poll today amongst those of us to whom that bonus alone would have been a lottery win, and not one of them was actually against the guy getting what he was due, despite the vast difference in pay and lifestyle, so to me this is yet another example of a political smokescreen for something else.
Think about it folks, if the leader of RBS quits, ( and who right now could blame him?) who else is going to want to take up the reins, knowing they will get publically bullied and lambasted by guys ( and probably gals) who are already living quite comfortably off the state ( ergo us) and will no doubt have very lucrative ( and secretive) arrangements made in the private sector to fall back on once their political careers are over?
I don’t have an answer to this problem, but do feel for the one poor guy who got picked on to suit someone else’s agenda.
MibsBlog 