Nobody expects to get paid for volunteering. But when it comes to work, you better believe compensation is a big part of the picture. British Airways is asking its 40,000 employees to forget about the pay for a while — between one and four weeks, to be exact. Are they serious? BA's chief executive Willie Walsh isn't messing around and says the request is rooted in the airline's "fight for survival." Mr. Walsh is foregoing his salary for the month of July and other volunteers must step forward by June 24.
This comes off as a desperately outlandish request, but I suppose the reasoning is that it's better than exposing employees to another round of layoffs. Or is it? What would you do if you worked for the struggling airline?
Source: Getty
Tibi
My-Wardrobe.com
Marc by Marc Jacobs
I think that's interesting! I guess that's also a way of weeding out the people who don't really care or who don't truly enjoy it. I mean, I'm sure it will be very hard for people who are living paycheck-to-paycheck in light of the current situation, but it's better than losing your job altogether! I'm interested to see how this plays out.
1Flight attendants don't make enough money to just go without a paycheck for a month; I can't imagine that this will work very well at all, as they will be limited to people who really don't need the money. What a terrible thing to do to their employees.
2Instead of working for free, perhaps they could just ask everyone to take a pay cut or cut some hours. Or perhaps the CEO could ask other high ranking employees to forego their pay for a few weeks as I'm sure that would lighten the payroll significantly. They can't ask the people at the bottom of the totem pole to go without pay; how will those people pay their bills? They're the ones that need the money the most...
3i have a friend who has to take a week unpaid
4but 4 is a little extreme
If I were a CEO or VP, this would probably be OK. But if I were a flight attendant or in customer service I would be like "oh hell no."
5omg, 4 weeks? that is absurd. as if the bills these people have won't be piling up during those 4 weeks. i expect the employees will find other ways to get what is coming to them. this is probably a stock i'd get rid of.
6The people at the top should work for free. I'm sure a few of them can sell off their Bentley sportscars to pay their bills. The people at the bottom who are barely making it can't afford to work for free. That's not fair. So, it's work for free or lose your job? I guess if you're desperate, you have no choice.
7My employer asked us all to take a temporary 50% pay cut instead of laying off people
8Post New Comment
Please share your opinion with our community, but make sure it is on topic and follows our Community Rules. We moderate comments and prohibit personal attacks, threats, spam, lewd images, or the promotion of your personal website.