AOL Reverses Course On 401K Match; CEO Apologizes 123
An anonymous reader writes "When we last checked in with Tim Armstrong, the AOL CEO was demonstrating 'Leadership with a Capital L' to employees of the company's Patch local news subsidiary by summarily firing an employee in the middle of a conference call for taking photos. Armstrong continued to serve up tasty material for tech bloggers this past week, blaming $7.1 million in extra expenses from Obamacare, and for $2 million in expenses for 'two AOLers that had distressed babies', for a decision to hold all matching funds for employee 401K programs until the end of each calendar year. After a small firestorm in the press, and a petition from AOL employees unhappy with both the policy change and the way it was presented, Armstrong reversed course, reinstating the per-period match and apologizing for mentioning the individual employee cases (TechCrunch is an AOL subsidiary). Incidentally, Armstrong was originally following in the footsteps of IBM, which made similar changes to its 401K program that went into effect last year."
down the drain (Score:1, Insightful)
So glad I no longer live and work in the US
Re:Distressed Babies? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Lemme guess... (Score:5, Insightful)
Eat the rich!
They probably taste lousy. I'd settle for the oppressive treatment they received in the radical days of the Eisenhower administration.
I wish people had a better understanding of history. Calling for a return to the tax structure (up to 90% on the wealthy's incomes), the percentage going to employee compensation, etc., that we had in the 1950's probably would get me branded a "socialist" (by people who don't even understand what the word means). Yet that's what we had in those idyllic Ozzie and Harriet days that so many, including the right wing, see as a lost golden era.
Re:Distressed Babies? (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, most large companies are self insured. They will farm out the “operations” part (billing, negotiating rates, etc.) to a insurance company but will pay all of the costs out of their own pocket.
Re:Distressed Babies? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not so far wrong. (Score:4, Insightful)
I like AOL. It started the internet super-highway after all, and if not for it, we would all be on modems, gets our software by CD, yada-yada-yada.
AOL spared users the complexities of the Internet Suite of the '90s.
I still have the boxed set of manuals from Delrina. Clients for Telnet and BBS services, FTP. Archie Veronica, Gopher, IRC Chat, Usenet, a Browser, basic photo editing tools, compressed file management and so on.
AOL's clients were written for use by ordinary mortals. They played nice with third party software like mIRC.
GUI. Automatic updates. Fixed price monthly billing. Thousands of local access toll-free numbers. There was a lot to like about AOL and it is past time the geek got off his high horse and admitted it,