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Alpha Stage
What's in a Promise
January 12, 2007






The New York Times is running an article entitled, “Hire by the Contract Now, Risk a Big Regret
Later.”

The article explains, “the average American worker might receive about two weeks’ salary for every
year they worked at a company.“ It continues, “the average chief executive without an agreement
received the equivalent of about 18 weeks of salary for each year of service.

Exit agreements offer chief executives far more than 18 weeks of salary. The article states, “at Home
Depot, (the C.E.O.‘s) contract entitled him to 568 weeks of salary for each of the six years he was
chief executive. Michael D. Eisner took home the equivalent of nearly 536 weeks of salary after he left
the Walt Disney Company. Of course, that pales in comparison with the former lieutenant he
dismissed: Michael Ovitz, Disney’s former chief operating officer, was paid the equivalent of more
than 5,000 weeks of salary after just over a year on the job.”
Read the article.


Discussion-Starters for Younger Children:

  • Ask your students if they’ve ever made a promise. What did they promise? Why?
  • You might consider making a list of different kinds of promises on the board and asking
    students if they can see any similar patterns (or differences) between the promises.

  • Ask, is it important for people to keep promises? Why/why not? Is there ever a good reason
    not to keep a promise? Encourage your students to explain their thoughts.
  • If your class has a problem with tattle tailing, this might be a good opportunity to
    discuss it. When should one student tell on another and when shouldn't he tell?

  • Ask your students if they have any suggestions as to how somebody can earn money. What
    kinds of jobs would they like to have? Why?
  • You might consider asking students to develop skits in which they demonstrate the
    types of jobs they would like to have.

  • Do your students think that the boss should make more money than the people that work for
    her? Why/why not?

Discussion Starters for Older Students:

  • Vocabulary Terms to Discuss: “Smoking Gun”; Demise; Orchestrating; and, Analysis.

  • Do your students think they should write down important agreements, in the form of a
    contract? Why/why not?

  • What benefits might a written agreement provide to both parties?Should verbal agreements be
    honored? Why/why not?
  • These questions might make for interesting class discussions.

  • Pose: Imagine that you sat on the board of directors of a company that was hiring a new chief
    executive officer. Would you prefer to give your top choice candidate a contract that
    guaranteed him many millions of dollars if was later fired, or hire your second choice
    candidate. What questions would you ask in trying to make this decision?
  • You might hold a mock board meeting in your classroom, in which students can debate
    the virtues of developing a golden parachute departure contract that would provide a
    huge bonus for a departing executive.

  • Tell your students to imagine that somebody asked them to develop a plan for determining how
    much money somebody who filled a specific position should earn. What kinds of jobs should
    be worth the most money, why? What kinds of jobs should be worth the least? Why?
  • You might consider asking students to consider three different jobs: the manager of a
    large factory; a cashier; and a bus driver. What are the different traits needed for each
    job? How much is each trait worth? Why have they assigned these specific values?
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(C) 2007, Andrew Pass Educational Services, LLC.