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Comment by Jiocus | Hacker News Reader

The title is almost underwhelming in severity (which is a refreshing break from sensationalistic headlines),

“[€28m in bonuses] even after taking three billion euros in loans last year, and 100 million euros in State aid including 65 million from the Netherlands. The company also let go of thousands of people during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Booking.com isn't alone engaging in these practices. Many corporations seem to defend these payouts, by suggesting that these executives have gracefully managed the organisation during the pandemic distress. Such statements aren't very reassuring, because they feel more like sound bites of opinion, rather than arguments that can be debated and examined.

How many jobs could they have saved with 28 million euros?

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I think people make the mistake of thinking that the people who get bonuses are easily replaceable.

The executive market of people who have experience at these kinds of levels is extremely thin. Your company needs to be attractive to this high echelon of talent.

That means keeping a good record of treatment to executives.

I think the thought of: “just pay them less or they can leave” is pretty common. But it’s just not easy to recruit at this level and the responsibility is huge.

There is a slight PR angle to avoid looking greedy, but its moreso just the nature of the talent market at this level.

This isn't just up to the company, the execs can also choose to decline bonuses in order to save their employees jobs.

That they don't do that is very telling about the kind of people they are.

Sustaining performance with less employees is actually the goal of execs.

Does not make it less immoral.

IMHO the aid should have been loans only and executive bonuses should have gone to the government as collateral. If the company pays back the loan, the executives get their bonus.

I have no horse in this race but intrigued by one sided comments here.

Wouldn't people just be laid off of if govt did not give 65 mil to booking as benifits.(I assume this benifit is similar to short term work which is present in Germany). At the same time 25m is stock grants. So I feel both cannot be compared.

If the government says you get no aid, Wouldn't company just lay them off? From what little I understand, In EU, govt pays a part of salary for employees to prevent them from getting laid off

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