This just goes to show that business magazines could care less how a company's employees are being treated. Both the Dallas CEO magazine and the Fort Worth Business Press have named Gerard Arpey, CEO of American Airlines, as the CEO of the Year. The said he was their pick because he took an airline that was losing money and made it profitable.
Of course they don't mention that he did it on the backs of the employees. While the airline was losing money, he talked the airline's frontline employees into taking large paycuts. Then when the airline starting making money, he betrayed those same employees.
The employees who had sacrificed believed they would be rewarded for their sacrifice when the airline became profitable. They were very wrong. Arpey did pass out several million dollars in bonuses, but only to himself and other executives.The employees who took pay cuts were given nothing.
If being a good CEO means screwing your employees, making the unions angry with negotiations coming up, and hoarding the rewards for yourself and your management buddies, then they picked the right guy.
Obviously, these magazines were thinking only in the short-term, because Arpey has created a lot of ill-feelings among the employees. And with union contracts needing to be re-negotiated very soon, this has created serious future problems for the airline. I doubt that the employees are going to want to continue to sacrifice while management is getting rich.
If this was the best CEO these magazines could find, then North Texas corporations must really have some poor leadership.
