Cog in the machine...

I've heard that Spirit management has been given little, if any, direction from our Execs as to the message they're supposed to be relaying to their represented workforce about the distribution of performance bonuses, save to only talk about it if directly asked. It's been said some have attempted to commiserate with their employees' frustration at the recent turn of events, only to fail with the admission of an inability to come up with the words that would help ease the frustration we're all feeling.

Fortunately, I've got lots of words to spare and I'm more than happy to share some of 'em with the Boss. Please... feel free to use any of these words that you think might help:

"I'm sorry that the Spirit Management Team was unable to convince our Board of Directors to grant our union-represented employees a share in the performance bonus pool the Board gave to Spirit's management and non-union employees.

We argued that certain charges -- IPO costs, the purchase of Spirit-Europe, our own Executive Incentive Plan payouts -- should not be considered when determining our represented employees' performance targets, because those were our Executives' actions and decisions, alone. The Spirit Management Team's belief is that we shouldn't penalize those who had nothing to do with the decisions and actions resulting in those large charges.

Our arguments were, unfortunately, unpersuasive. The Board denied our request, refusing to share our company's good fortune with all of the employees whose hard -- and, more and more often, overtime -- work got us there.

This doesn't mean your Management Team will stop fighting to get you a share of our Company's profits. We'll try again at next year's Board meeting to try to convince the directors to adjust bonus targets to more accurately reflect the employees' true performance, rather than relying on just their contracts' minimum protections.

If we're unsuccessful with the Board next winter, we'll publicly support any reasonable compensation proposals put forth by the unions during their next negotiations in 2008. Until then, however, there's little that Spirit management, as a team, can do. But there is something that I, as an individual human being can do.

I was fortunate enough that my bosses recognized the job our organization has accomplished to make our separation from Boeing a success and I have been granted over a million dollars in performance bonuses. So my plan would be to give each of my union-represented employees the tax-free "gift" of an equal share of the performance "incentive" the company gave me, because I couldn't have received it without all your hard work.

I realize this small amount pales in comparison to the reward the non-rep salaried employees were given, but it's the best I can do by myself right now. I hope it's enough for you to stick with me."

Or, if that kind of "leadership message" wouldn't be entirely honest and accurate, how about some words shorter and more to the point:

Flounder, you can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You effed up -- you trusted us! Hey, make the best of it!

Feel free to use any of those words you'd like when questioned by me and our represented coworkers, Boss. But at least have the decency to look us in the eye when you speak 'em...


-- Bill, who's surprised at how few of my coworkers -- and their managers -- seem to know that we negotiated Overtime Limits in our SPEEA contracts with Spirit, which we didn't have with Boeing...