Sadly, as one of my friends wrote me this morning: This "[I]s the day the UJC senior management get to keep their full pay and benefits and 31 people get to lose theirs" at UJC. She concluded -- "Shameful." And so it is. But, tragically, "shameful" could be the descriptive for so much at UJC -- the willingness to sacrifice great professionals young and old rather than focus, engage and join with the federations in common purpose that might have continued full funding; a refusal by lay leadership to challenge destructive management practices; and on and on.
Friends, we...all of us...share responsibility for this latest round of terminations. We have been the enablers, we have stood on the sidelines watching the organization's slide into irrelevance. Many of us have patted this leadership on the back offering unquestioning support rather than the tough love it has so desperately needed. To this leadership your...our...pats on the back, our utterances of "isn't it a shame," have been the "loopholes" through which the current leaders have driven the bus straight and non-stop toward oblivion. So the shame is also on those of us who have saluted the Emperor in his New Clothes and who have condemned those who have criticized the same leaders for their continuing stream of failures that have brought us to this day as "out of touch," "undermining," "treasonous." Yep, it's those who have criticized fault. I wonder who is really out of touch? Really.
I wish all of those who will lose their positions today -- professionals and staff -- Godspeed. It did not have to be this way for all of you, perhaps, for any of you.
Rwexler
Sadly, as one of my friends wrote me this morning: This "[I]s the day the UJC senior management get to keep their full pay and benefits and 31 people get to lose theirs" at UJC. She concluded -- "Shameful." Shame on the unbelievably selfish senior management team. All of them. They've been enriching themselves for years at the expense of their (former) colleagues.
ReplyDelete2007 IRS Form 990
ReplyDeleteHoward Rieger
President CEO
40 Hours per week devoted to position.
Compensation: $555,000.00
Contributions to Employee Benefit Plans $44,503.00
Expense Account and other allowances $166,090.00
Total 2007 Compensation $765,593.00
The compensation has increased twice since then.
Sweet.
I am one of the 31 sacrificial lambs that UJC was sooo pained to dismiss. OUR many years of service meant nothing to them when they decided to give millions for their precious branding project in their new budget and cut our jobs that did not even add up to one million dollars. The women (yes, ALL women) that were so arbitrarily dismissed in the US offices meant NOTHING to them. There should be an audit of how much they are spending in their Marketing Dept. since they have done nothing but spend money on new initiatives and hire NEW high level MEN at HIGH salaries. Now they say they have no money to keep the WOMEN that have served them for years and have been the backbone of the organization. Their great idea last year was to move missions to Israel, now they are bringing it back after they realized they made a mistake. They should have cut some of the lazy highly paid MEN on top instead of the people that really work and makes a meager salary. Sam and Howard are sooo of touch in UJC.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the total salary of these 31? I am curious if the loss of one VP position would have covered them.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone see Reiger's heartless weekly email about these layoffs.
Not entirely sure, but the rumor floating around is they all hovered around $40-50K each. So, that's equal to about 3-4 execs.
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a few people at UJC who make more than $200,000 a year. And people would be surprised if they knew the number who were making at least $100,000 a year.
ReplyDeleteSalary cuts for the first group and salary freezes for the second group should have been mandated. These professionals should be thanking their lucky stars they still have jobs at all. And many of the valuable 31 would thus still be employed.
Instead, the very, very well paid professionals decided to lay off those who could least afford to be laid off...those who were not making high salaries. They are, plain and simple, selfish, uncompassionate pigs.
Clearly UJC didn't get the best practices memo about what other Federations are attempting to do to spread the burden around (see MetroWest and Colorado, for starters).