CEO John Thain Is Unfairly Criticized!!

In this morning's post "CEOs are Just Glorified Sales Reps" I pointed out that the CEO job isn't all that difficult, and indeed was mostly a sales position with some (light) management responsibility.

In that post, I called for some kind of sanity when it comes to CEO compensation, echoing my remarks in last week's post "Pay Sales Reps Same as CEOS".

However, I think it's important not to go too far. Specifically, I think that the general public is being grossly unfair to John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch.

Specifically, he's getting a lot of guff for including a $35,000 commode (toilet) as part of the remodeling of his office suite. And that's simply not fair.
There's a saying that's posted inside many businesses: "Safety First!"

And, when it comes to executive compensation and perks "Safety First!" should be the ultimate touchstone, IMHO.

Now, while I admit that $35,000 sounds like an excessive price for a toilet, I have learned from private sources that the commode was a safety expenditure, intended to keep Thain from injuring himself and others.

It appears that the commode was titanium-reinforced in order to bear an extremely heavy weight, thereby preventing the collapse of the floor and damage to the building.

In other words, a $35,000 toilet was required because Thain (like many of his peers) is a really huge... well, you know.

Anyway, here's Mark Stevens, author of the book "Rich is a Religion", and CEO of a "global marketing and management consulting firm," defending Thain's recent pay raise:

Why do I get the feeling that this Mark Stevens guy also needs one o' them-thar $35,000 toilets?