The latest cringe-worthy example: Bloomberg reported
on the highly-detailed specifications that Abercrombie & Fitch CEO
Michael Jeffries required for the flight crews on the company’s
corporate jet.
“Clean-shaven
males had to wear a uniform of Abercrombie polo shirts, boxer briefs,
flip-flops and a ‘spritz’ of the retailer’s cologne,” according to a
manual that has come to light through an age-discrimination lawsuit
brought by a former pilot. (Abercrombie did not directly employ pilots
for the corporate jet.) The 40-page set of “Aircraft Standards” also
prescribed the color of gloves attendants should use (black when putting
out silverware, white when setting a table), detailed menus for
Jeffries’ three dogs, and instructions on diction: the men should say
“no problem” instead of “sure.”
Jeffries
is apparently a frequent flyer as well as a fastidious and exacting
one. As Bloomberg reported: “In 2010, the board agreed to pay him $4
million to limit [Jeffries’] personal use of the company jet to $200,000
annually beginning with the fiscal year ended Jan. 29, 2011.” All this
at a company whose stock has fallen by half in the last 12 months.
CEOs
are very comfortable delegating the running of vast enterprises to
others. But they often obsess over the smallest details surrounding
private jets: what they look like, who gets to use them, how much they
have to pay to fly. In fact, the private jet—a Gulfstream, a
Hawker-Beechcraft—occupies a central role in American corporate culture.
CEOs may not get too exorcised about a falling stock price or declining
market share. But try to take away their plane, and they’ll scream
bloody murder. “The aircraft perk tends to be the most valued of any of
what’s provided to senior executives,” says David Wise, senior principal
in Hay Group, a consulting firm. The Hay Group found that in 2011, 68
percent of executives of large companies had personal use of a private
aircraft—making it the most popular perk. Read more here: http://www.thedailybeast.com
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