Lenovo CEO Turns Fairy Godmother, Hands Over Bonus To Employees

Yes, both CEOs and Lenovo are frequent targets of our posts. We generally mock CEOs for lavish pay even with dubious accomplishments, and Lenovo for a general inability to sell and support products that consumers seem to really like. Despite our branding them an anti-capitalist prank, the China-based electronics company has had a record year, and CEO Yang Yuanqing received a pretty nice bonus of $5.2 million. So he did something crazy that most of his counterparts in the US would probably never consider: he divided $3 million of that bonus up among 10,000 employees.

We’re not talking 10,000 junior executives, either. The employees who received bonuses of 2000 yuan ($314) were apparently lower-level employees like secretaries and production line workers.

Is this a blatant PR move? Sure, most people reading this site are cynical enough to know that. But it’s a kind and symbolic blatant PR move. It indicates that Yang and other Lenovo leaders know that the people who really make a company great are the ones who answer the phones and make sure the netbooks ship on time. And that a gesture like this would make even cynical jerks like the Consumerist editors say something nice about the company.

CEO gives part of his bonus to employees [CNN] (via Engadget)

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