A few days back, I was half-listening to a morning talk show and something caught my attention.  It was one of those times I found myself wishing for a rewind button on the radio.  The talk-jock was reporting that executives from AIG had spent nearly $500,000 on an "executive retreat" after they were bailed out by the Federal government.

From the level of outrage coming through my car speakers, I gathered that the boondoggle was for the top few members of the executive team as some sort of last hurrah.

It turns out that isn't quite what happened.  There was an AIG conference held at the St. Regis Resort at tony Monarch Beach.  But it was held by the executives to "reward and incent" the top 100 independent sales reps for their performance.

It's been a common practice in the financial services industry to honor top sales performance with a lavish vacation, often including gifts, golf, and cash awards.  Spouses of top peformers are frequently invited as a way to honor their support of the hardworking sales rep.  And one of the perks of being an executive is attendance at such events to press the flesh and say thank you.

Then today, Wachovia Bank was revealed to be in process of staging a similar event for the top 75 brokers from a subsidiary.  The event?  An all-expenses included cruise of the Greek Isles, including spouses or significant others.  And a few executives to represent the holding company.

On the one hand, my experience tells me that at least the AIG event is not out of line, either in overall cost per person ($5,000) or intent (honoring excellence in sales) with what's been commonly done in the past.  I can imagine that arguments were made that these events are for past performance, that they'd been promised, that sales people needed to be rewarded for excellent performance despite the overall troubles of the company.  That it wasn't their fault and so they shouldn't be "punished" by having the event cancelled.

But on the other hand, isn't it (at best) unseemly to spend lavishly on any function when the government has just put up $85 billion to bail out your company?  Doesn't it make top management seem out of touch to send a few of your employees on a cruise when the rank and file are worried about keeping their jobs?

Company spokesmen defended the events as "an industry practice" and "an annual affair."

Such statements smack of being tone deaf.  Of not getting the level of anger and angst felt by average Americans--many of whom couldn't afford a $500 vacation this year, let alone a $5,000 blowout or a luxury cruise.

Where is the common sense in these two companies?  Why didn't someone put up his or her hand and say, "Excuse me, but is this the image we want to project right now?  I know we can justify this expense as 'business as usual' but business isn't usual right now."

I can only hope the negative publicity resulting from these two events will persuade other companies that it's more than the folks on Main Street who need to be tightening their belts right now.

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