Friday, February 19, 2010

Sun Sentinel production employee gets $25,000 bonus for his million-dollar suggestion


From: Tribune Communications
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 11:04 AM
Subject: Message from Randy and Gerry/Rewarding Performance

Yesterday morning at the Sun Sentinel, Publisher Howard Greenberg handed out one of the largest spot bonuses in Tribune's history -- $25,000 and a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean -- to Bob Simons, a production maintenance manager for the newspaper. Last spring, as the Sun Sentinel was replacing some outdated equipment, Bob did something we want all our employees to do-he spoke up. He suggested that there was another supplier the company should talk to before finalizing the purchase.

Bob's suggestion wound up saving the Sun Sentinel more than $1 million. But, the story doesn't end there. The Los Angeles Times was engaged in a similar process, replacing equipment at its printing plant. The vendor Bob suggested helped out there, too, resulting in additional savings.

Bob acted like an owner would-he took initiative and he helped save the company a lot of money. Our success as a company going forward is going to be defined, in part, by everyone acting a little bit more like an owner, and we've told our managers that when they find outstanding performance to highlight it and reward it. You'll see more spot bonuses in the months ahead.

One person really can make a difference. Just ask Bob.

Randy and Gerry

SOURCE: Romenesko

2 comments:

Old OC said...

Strange.....

Isn't that a "managers" job???

Isn't that what they get paid for????

Ronnie Pineda said...

Why would the employees want act like owners again? The last time employees were told they owned the place, hundreds of them lost their jobs! Employee Stock Ownership Plan! The employees own nothing and this should legally, have never been allowed to happen.

By the way, a $25,000.00 bonus doesn't compare to the bonuses Tribune Execs. bloat their bank accounts with, but calling this employee's bonus a "spot" bonus is suppose to defer your attention to the bonuses they've just given themselves.

Wouldn't it be nice to vote yourself a raise and bonus?

One last comment, fire the people that didn't do their jobs in the first place by not comparing prices themselves, afterall, these people could have cost the company a million dollars, right?

To answer Old OC, its the Senior Vice President of Operations job, the Director of Operations job and the Department Superintendent's job.