Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other executives take a big hit to compensation

[Windows Central]

Satya Nadella, Amy Hood, and Brad Smith all see a substantial drop in their compensation. Losing 11.71%, 24.4%, and 22.6% respectively as Microsoft misses its financial targets.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other executives take a big hit to compensation : Read more

 

[naddy69]

"Why are so many companies having layoffs?"

Because so many companies have too many employees for current market conditions. This ain't rocket science.

"It's hard not to think how many people's positions could have been saved if these 5 people had offered to reduce their compensation low enough to cover the normal cost of living in their area and offer the rest to keep as many employees as possible."

Why should they do that? While that sounds really noble, the fact is no one wants to take a huge pay cut to "help other people".

I have news for you. To a homeless person, YOU are "wealthy". Why don't you "offer to reduce your compensation low enough to cover the normal cost of living in your area" and give the rest to homeless people?

Not so easy, is it?

Top management at trillion dollar companies make lots of money for a reason: Very few people can do the job. If everyone could throw a 60 yard pass to a guy running down the sideline and score a touchdown, then NFL quarterbacks would be a dime a dozen.

This is how it's supposed to work. You can get paid whatever the market will bear. Not what some committee somewhere deems "fair".

Supply and demand. The market in action. Economics 101.

 

[Jcmg62]

That is not OK.

How is this poor guy going to make it through an entire year on just $4800000.

This is seriously going to impact on his plans to buy more helicopters, extend his 500 acre holiday ranch and add a couple of bugattis to his collection.

If I were him I'd quit. Clearly Microsoft are dissing him.

 

[The Werewolf]

"Satya Nadella's 2023 compensation was $48,512,537 down from 2022's $54,946,310 compensation."

Man, I know how he feels. I mean, how can anyone live on a measly $48M a year? /s

 

[The Werewolf]

"Why are so many companies having layoffs?"

Because so many companies have too many employees for current market conditions. This ain't rocket science.

"It's hard not to think how many people's positions could have been saved if these 5 people had offered to reduce their compensation low enough to cover the normal cost of living in their area and offer the rest to keep as many employees as possible."

Why should they do that? While that sounds really noble, the fact is no one wants to take a huge pay cut to "help other people".

I have news for you. To a homeless person, YOU are "wealthy". Why don't you "offer to reduce your compensation low enough to cover the normal cost of living in your area" and give the rest to homeless people?

Not so easy, is it?

Top management at trillion dollar companies make lots of money for a reason: Very few people can do the job. If everyone could throw a 60 yard pass to a guy running down the sideline and score a touchdown, then NFL quarterbacks would be a dime a dozen.

This is how it's supposed to work. You can get paid whatever the market will bear. Not what some committee somewhere deems "fair".

Supply and demand. The market in action. Economics 101.

Here's the problem with your analysis: a market has two parts - producers and consumers. Consumers are generally funded by jobs. When they don't have jobs, they can't be consumers anymore. Even with jobs, the max price for what they can buy is dependent on their income level.

We literally went through this in the 1920s (ironically) when the first major wave of automation came in and businesses used your logic to maximise profit by removing workers. It was seriously believed at the time that if businesses could lower their prices even unemployed people could still buy their products - the original 'supply-side economics' - and remember this was an era with essentially no social support system like unemployment or welfare. That (along with other factors) caused a run on banks... at the same time, a massive reduction in purchasing of goods and services.

Which led to 1929 and start of the Great Depression.

Consumers, ie: workers, are as important as businesses.

Those who do not learn from history, as they say...

 

[fenouille]

Employees are already pretty ticked off about layoffs, pay freeze, hiring freeze (meaning longer work hours to keep up). Whether it's due to the mechanics of the executive pay per incentive or not, it's the bare minimum that their pay gets reduced in the face of hardship of the regular (or former) employees. Significant amount of tech employees is on temp visa, and when laid off their entire families needed to promptly find a new job or leave the states. Yes, that does mean kids pulled out of school and flown away to a country 'of origin' they barely know. If you check Satya's origin story, he should have first-hand experience of that.
The comment about the need for executives to further optimize the organization for short term profit maximization is widely off the mark. This kind of thinking has driven so many companies to abhorrent culture which in the long term hurts the company's viability. On the contrary, a more conservative hiring at Microsoft during the Covid era led to less severe job cuts, yet still these cuts are going to be felt in the ability of the company to execute on its objectives (product delays, support quality dip, service reliability drop, regional data centers postponed).