Cygnus Pay Cuts Due to Lagging Growth Numbers

There is, you may have heard, a bit of unrest at Cygnus. I won’t go over it again. Here’s the latest that I know.

This was recently reported by top management to employees at offices around the country via teleconference:

Last year, the company, as a whole, grew 1.8%. EBITDA also grew (amount unspecified). This year, 8% growth was budgeted, but only 5.5% was achieved due to an acceleration of print losses. The pay cuts were made to ensure a higher rate of growth, because, according to the manager running the call, “The way to get out of this is to grow.”

The manager also compared the current situation to a college student with a credit card: “Did anyone have a credit card in college and go crazy with it? The answer isn’t more borrowing, it’s getting your house in order.”

Employees on the call asked questions about sharing in the company’s eventual profits when things were turned around (the converse of what is happening now), and mentioned a high level of disgruntlement, citing that lower level employees are feeling unmotivated to work harder knowing that their only real incentive is to keep their jobs.