In the movie "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, spends the entire episode enduring annoying relatives and a variety of failures ranging from lights to the Christmas Tree, to the Christmas turkey. But what keeps Clark going is the hope that he will get the Christmas bonus he deserves from his boss.
Clark gets a rude shock to find out he doesn't get his Christmas bonus, which would pay for the pool he already ordered. Instead, his Scrooge-like boss, played by Brian Doyle-Murray, enrolls him in the "Jelly of the Month Club." Thankfully, the CEO gets the message and relents in time to provide a happy ending, except for the SWAT team crashes through the house to rescue him.
In this era of economic recessions and CEOs in the crosshairs, a boss is amazingly being punished for paying his subordinates a Christmas bonus out of his own pocket, according to Graham Wilson with Yahoo. He's University of Georgia football coach Mark Richt.
Early in the year, the national media was predicting Richt would join the ranks of the unemployed after his team lost their first two games. But an InsiderAdvantage poll at that time showed that two-thirds of UGA fans supported Richt. "Coach Richt clearly is more popular even on the 'hot seat' with UGA fans than any politician that we have polled," said InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery. "As to why he's so popular, I believe it's a combination of his overall record, which is impressive, and his character, which is at least equally impressive, what with Richt's devotion to his faith and to doing the right thing. That means a lot to the 'Bulldog Nation.'"
So what did Richt do that earned the wrath of the NCAA? He paid his assistants five and six figure bonuses. Some of them had school severance packages expire, while others didn't get the bowl bonuses the school would normally pay them (UGA cited tough conditions for not paying them), according to Washington Post. Oh, and those bowl bonuses that were not forthcoming were the result of the team winning every other regular season game, en route to an SEC East championship and a date with Michigan State in an important bowl game.
Just because someone earns a bonus doesn't mean everyone is going to get one. In the Reuters article "Forget the Christmas parties, employees want cash," (posted on Yahoo News), a Harris Poll revealed that while 75% of employees say they deserve a bonus, only slightly more than half expect to get one. For most of us, the Jelly of the Month Club sounds better than nothing. Imagine Clark's CEO getting in trouble for giving bonuses, and you get some idea of Richt's predicament.
But don't worry about Richt. His punishment is likely to be slight, according to Wilson. Meanwhile, he's gone from the hot seat to the hottest candidate out there, with Texas A&M, Penn State, and his own school vying for his skills, and character. Sometimes, nice guys like Clark Griswold and Mark Richt finish first.