Wine perks might perk me up, too
How’s this for a great part-time job? A $200,000 pay package and a $5,000-a-year wine allowance. That’s the deal given independent directors at UST Inc., which sells tobacco and wine. Chairman and former Chief Executive Vincent Gierer Jr. got $6,500 for his wine allowance last year, despite making more than $6 million. The company says the wine has to flow freely to “foster use of the Company’s wine products at events supported by such directors.”
Some might find such lavish perks egregious, as if the interests of the executive cabal would take precedence over shareholders. Some say that it’s relatively cheap for a company to provide for such outlays, and that the ROI is substantial.
I say: level the playing field. Why should executives be the only ones receiving wine perquisites? An underling should be able to negotiate the same kind of deal. After all, it’s common for each of us to be asked what it is that we do to make a living. Every two-minute elevator speech we deliver about the companies we work for ought to be worth at least a tasting pour. I find I’m answering the question a handful of times every week. And I’m always terribly thirsty! So, I want it in my contract.
A bottle a week, that’s all we ask. No, better make that two bottles, and the keys to the executive washroom. Gotta start this negotiation somewhere.
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May 15th, 2007 14:11
Wine perks might perk me up, too…
Are executive wine perks too egregious? The winehiker proposes a more egalitarian system, one that rewards the rest of us for something we’re probably already doing….
May 15th, 2007 17:32
Everyone that works at Twisted Oak gets wine perks – full time tasting staff get that bottle a week, and it goes from there. By the way, we’re hiring!
May 15th, 2007 19:04
Yep, you gotta start somewhere. Glad we started with you, Jefe! You always perk me up.
May 16th, 2007 12:30
Slightly more seriously: you want your staff drinking your wine – getting to know it, eating food with it, sharing it with friends and acquaintances – so the perks are actually quite useful!
May 18th, 2007 09:40
El Jefe is exactly right. Which is why I never understood this one fine-dining restaurant where I worked. I hardly ever ate there over the course of two years because they didn’t even give us a discount. Hard to recommend something you can’t afford to taste.
Wine for all!
March 11th, 2009 13:19
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