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Paying chief executives
高管薪酬
Fortune favours the boss
好運垂青老板
Big, controversial golden goodbyes to bosses are probably here to stay
老板們巨額而有爭議的黃金告別可能會被留下來
IS THE new boss of Time Warner Cable about to become one of the luckiest-ever winners of the great chief-executive pay lottery?
時代華納有線電視公司的新老板會成為偉大的首席執行官中最幸運的贏家之一嗎？
Robert Marcus is set to take over as boss on January 1st.
羅伯特·馬庫斯將于1月1日接任老板。
If rumours are to be believed, that will be just in time for the cable firm to be bought by one of a host of rivals that are now circling it.
如果傳言是可信的，那恰好有線電視公司被環繞的競爭對手中的一位收購。
A change-of-control clause in his contract means he could go straight back out of the door with a golden goodbye of over $56m.
合同中的變更條款意味著他可以擁有超過5,600萬元的黃金告別走出大門。
The biggest loser, in contrast, may be Philippe Varin, who will step down as boss of PSA Peugeot Citron, a struggling French carmaker.
相反，最大的輸家可能是菲利普·瓦蘭，他從一個苦苦掙扎的法國汽車制造商PSA標致雪鐵龍老板的位置上下來。
On November 27th, he issued a statement saying he would give up a pension provision valued at 21m.
11月27日，他發表聲明說，他將放棄價值2100萬的養老金保障。
The board will decide his future pension arrangements before he retires, probably with an eye on public opinion.
董事會將在他退休前安排他未來的養老金，可能會顧及輿論的反應。
He follows in the footsteps of Fred Goodwin, who presided over the collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland.
他步了弗雷德·古德溫的后塵，其導致了蘇格蘭皇家銀行的崩潰。
In 2009, again after a public outcry, the man known as Fred the Shred, because of his fondness for firing people, agreed to reduce his pension by 212,500 a year to a paltry 342,500.
在2009年輿論再次嘩然，那個喜歡裁人的被稱為弗雷德的同意將他的退休金的減少額從212500英鎊一年增加到區區342500英鎊。
It is rare for public disapproval of generous golden goodbyes to have so much impact.
公眾很少認為這些慷慨的黃金告別有這么大的影響。
Even the introduction of say on pay votes in countries such as America and Britain seems only to have curbed the most egregious excesses.
甚至在一些引進了薪酬話語權投票的國家如美國和英國似乎只能抑制最令人震驚的過激行為。
Ira Kay of Pay Governance, a consultant, says that in America, most company boards facing such votes have managed to win them by dropping overgenerous perks like the automatic vesting of the boss's share options even when he has kept his job following a takeover.
薪酬管理顧問艾拉凱指出，在美國，面臨著這樣投票的公司的董事會已經設法通過清理過于慷慨的激勵措施，如老板股票期權的自動歸屬權，甚至在被收購后還繼續他的工作。
The once-widespread practice of paying a boss's taxes on his post-takeover payout, a nice little earner known as the excise tax gross-up, has also ended, costing some chief executives millions of dollars, says Mr Kay.
凱先生說，在老板的稅收上過往的做法是在他退休后支出，一個很好的被稱為包稅的賺錢者也結束了，花掉了首席執行官們數百萬美金。
Bosses can no longer trigger big severance payouts by self-termination—quitting or retiring—adds Doug Friske of Towers Watson, another pay consultant.
另一家薪酬顧問公司韜睿惠悅的道格Friske說，老板們以后不能靠通過自行終止-辭職或退休增加巨額的退休金。
Topping up the pension fund for a boss who leaves earlier than expected is now frowned on too.
為提前退休的老板補足養老基金現在也行不通了。
Say on pay has also forced boards to get better at costing perks that once were wrongly regarded as practically free.
薪酬話語權也迫使董事會在之前被認為是隨意額外津貼上做的更好。
Yet the golden parachute is a chronic problem that I don't see changing anytime soon, says Donald Hambrick, a management professor at Pennsylvania State University.
然而，金降落傘是一個老大難問題，我沒看到最近會有什么變化，賓夕法尼亞州立大學管理學教授唐納德·漢姆布瑞克說。
The procession of bosses exiting with fabulous pay-offs continues.
老板們難以置信的離職金仍在繼續進行。
Pay consultants brought in by firms seeking a new boss often get blamed for regarding the most generous existing package in the market as the baseline for negotiations.
薪酬顧問為企業尋求新的老板常常會因為以市場最多的離職金為基準進行談判而被責怪。
But there is also a small cottage industry of elite lawyers who are used by any candidate to be boss, and who have mastered every trick in the book, Mr Hambrick says.
漢姆布瑞克先生說，也有一些曾是老板候選人的小企業中的精英律師，他們懂得書中的所有技巧。
By the time the public is frothing at the mouth about some fired corporate failure walking off with a fortune, it is usually too late to do anything about it.
這時公眾議論的是解雇失敗損失的錢，而這通常是來不及做任何事情補救。
Everything is negotiated up front; that is the time to be outraged, he advises.
他建議一切都協商都進行在前面，這是被激怒的時候。
Once a boss has failed and pulled the cord on his golden parachute, boards typically conclude that it is best just to pay up quietly.
一旦老板已經失敗并且拉著他的黃金降落傘的繩子，董事會一般認為最好是默默的把錢付了。
Even though recent legal changes have made it easier, even in America, to claw back some of the money paid to failed bosses, in practice firms will only try to do that if there is cast-iron evidence of fault, such as a financial misstatement.
即使在美國，盡管最近的法律變化使得更容易奪回部分支付給失敗老板的錢，在實踐中如果證據確鑿公司將嘗試這樣做，如財務失實。
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the myopic ways boards tend to work in practice.
董事會在實踐中的目光短淺對所有的人來說這一切都不應該是一件驚訝的事。
The moment when a company is paying off a failure is also the moment it is trying to attract the best possible candidate to sort out the mess.
當一個公司為失敗付錢的那一刻也是它正試圖吸引盡可能最好的人選來收拾爛攤子。
Contesting the last boss's deal could easily scare off the ideal new one.
爭辯最后老板的這筆交易很容易嚇跑新的理想人選。
The CEO wheel of fortune keeps on turning.
CEO的命運之輪仍在不斷向前。
