In the News Retirees bristle at paying for perks

[susans]

Retirees bristle at paying for perks

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1751632.php

I have to say I agree on the side of the management.  Dept lunches, birthday cards, tickets to a movie can be motivational to employees.  I know I appreciated the time my boss took us out for a thank you lunch.  I see the numbers as pretty in line from when I did expense sheets, but it depends on how many actually work there in ways.    I can understand the seniors who live there want their dollars watched but..

[msmarieh]

I think that should be paid out of the property management's budget, not out of the retiree village's fund. That's THEIR company expense, not the retirement village's expense, in my opinion. Is that the only village they manage?

Marie

[jennika]

It says they have a 90 million dollar budget.  Maybe I missed it but I didn't see it saying it came from the village's fund.  I do agree that these expenses would help morale and could be justified, but as msmarieh mentioned, not out of the retiree's funds.   I wonder if they ever think of the retirees and some of those perks went to some of the retirees.

[msmarieh]

Actually it said:

The workers spent their own money and were reimbursed from accounts funded by Laguna Woods Village residents.

This spending is in addition to the more than $116,000 top managers charged on company credit cards in 2005 and 2006, about one-third of which paid for fancy food. All the bills were ultimately paid by retirees.

PCM general manager Milt Johns said the residents at Laguna Woods Village spend about $5 per household per year for these types of events,

Now, granted that is a very low amount of money, but for me it would depend at least partly on whether these employees were full time employees of the retirement village or not.

I think it was appropriate for the property management firm to do those things for employee morale, but I am not sure it was appropriate for them to reimburse themselves from the retirement village's coffers.

Marie