The Inside Job

GE's Jeffrey Immelt Says "No Thanks" to $12 Million and Bonus

By Liz Wolgemuth

Posted: February 18, 2009

General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt has turned down a nearly $12 million long-term performance award, along with his 2008 bonus, because the performance for which Immelt was being rewarded was not reflected in the company's stock price--now nearly a quarter its value in the fall of 2007.

It's a refreshing piece of news after Wall Street's bonus bonanza for a year in which the concept of pay for performance should have meant bonuses for few more than the office cleaning crews.

Immelt is not, however, in favor of salary caps for executives at companies taking large chunks of TARP funds. Businessweek reported on his comments at a breakfast held earlier this month:

The GE chief gave President Barack Obama a “B+/A-” for his performance so far on the job, but argued against new provisions to cap pay at $500,000 in firms accepting bailout funds. “What’s in the best interest of citizens right now is having Jamie Dimon running JPMorgan,” said Immelt, “and he’s worth more than $500,000.”

Immelt also told the group that he'd begun taking Amtrak--after first learning how to purchase a ticket.

GE starves their manufacturing businesses

I recently took an early retirement after a 28 year exempt career with GE Aircraft Engines. I still call it "Aircraft Engines" because it was their best times. I am angry and even bitter at just how badly GE has maintained their Evendale manufacturing facility.

They have put very little money into the infrastructure of the facility. Yes, they built a nice looking Learning Center in the Bldg. 500 parking lot ...... and tied it into the WWII rust belt factory sitting in the background.

Senior Management cut the facilities operations and maintenance budget every year since the mid- 1990's. They can't even keep paint on the fuel tanks, the outside air and steam lines, and other critical infrastructure equipment.

They do not get it. The problem began with the advent of the Six Sigma program which limited most career paths to that of a Black Belt Role. Six Sigma has it's place, but not everywhere. The black belt role is limited to 18 months. Persons in those roles are focused on one thing - to hit their short term project savings goal and then to move on.

This resulted in many nearsighted and short term decisions in the areas of Plant Utilities and Facilities Maintenance. Critical spare parts have been depleted. Much of the equipment, such as boilers, pumps, and water softening equipment are well beyond their intended life cycles.

They are running the physical plant into absolute ruin. It will not be recoverable unless they immediately take action.

Dave bullock of OH @ Oct 23, 2009 09:42:26 AM

Poor scheduling service

Our GE SS Profile refrigerator with freezer on the bottom is only 1 !/2 years old. We've already had to have a service call on the "board" in the back of the refrigerator. Now for the past week, there has been another issue... a very loud noise coming from the icemaker. When my husband called the 800 number out of Atlanta for scheduling service, he was denied service. Then he asked to talk to the manager. He told the manager the ice maker was making a very loud continuous noise and was again denied service because...it was still producing "some" ice cubes. The refrigerator was over $2,000 and we bought the extended warranty...but no service.

Later in the day, my husband told me to schedule service on line...which I did. The tech, Nick, came this morning and replaced the whole inside of the ice maker because there was a piece that had broken off. Nick is the best person GE has for trouble shooting. Too bad you don't let people schedule their service calls through the techs...they're the ones who are better able to figure out if it warrants a service call or not!!!

Our friends on Friday and Sat. evenings asked what that clunking sound was...it was that loud and continuous!

By hiring a company to reject service calls is poor business/service and it doesn't speak well for the company!

Joni Lindgren of IL @ May 12, 2009 11:57:21 AM

This letter is to Jeffrey Immelt at GE.

First I'd like to express my disappointment about GE products. I have had GE answering machines and cordless phones. They stopped working in less than a year, whereas other brands (such as Sony, AT&T, etc.) would keep working for years. I currently have a GE cordless phone, I have to shake it or keeping clicking on and off many times to get it to work (the battery is good).

On 02/11/09, I sent a brand new GE digital answering machine, Model #29871 to Thomson, Inc. in El Paso, TX for replacement. It did not take incoming messages, and it was a brand-new machine. I want to ask GE to not make cheap products that break or don't work. Why would you want to do that to ruin your long established reputation? You have these cheap products made overseas, and the middlemen take away all your profits. By the time the end users, the consumers, buy them, they get a piece of junk or lemon.

Believe me, I want GE to succeed, for I own GE stocks. This is the reason I'm writing to you to voice my disappointment in your products. At the same time, I want to encourage you to make better products to restore consumer confidence. You used to make good products, but not anymore. But you can shape up and rebuild, for your reputation and balance sheet are on the line.

I'm waiting for Thomson, Inc. to return to me a good GE digital answering machine. It cost me $10 to mail it on the $20 product. But I did it for a principle. GE management probably figures that consumers would discard the piece of junk, for it would not be worth it to pay 50% of the cost of the product to ship it to Thomson, Inc. I recently ran into a couple of rip-off reports about Thomson, Inc. Thomson, Inc. did not return goods to consumers or attempt to contact them after having received their defective products. If this happens to me, I will have no choice but to turn to public agencies for help.

Sincerely,

Linda

Linda of CA @ Mar 05, 2009 15:04:04 PM

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You're taking a break from your job-hunting and job-hopping ways and have decided to stay put in your current position. Liz Wolgemuth’s careers blog will show you how to make the very best of your job, each day.

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