PERK HOGS.(The Talk of the Town)(long-term stock performance of perk-laden firms is much worse than that of firms that eschew executive perks)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 14-JUN-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

In the 1957 comedy "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" the late Tony Randall played an adman yearning to ascend the corporate ladder. Rock Hunter wants more authority and a higher salary, of course, but he's really after something more tangible: the key to the executive washroom. It is finally bestowed on him with all the pomp of a coronation, and as he catches his first glimpse of the inner sanctum he exclaims, "Oh, the beauty of it all!"

The perks have changed since then-- the washroom now comes with a Gulfstream V--but the zeal with which executives cling to them has not. At most large American companies, rank still has its privileges; the big shots need not trouble themselves with paying for the things that their immense salaries are supposed to enable them to afford. Park Avenue duplexes, burglar alarms, floral arrangements,...

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