Avantages
A lot of great, smart, hard working people
Inconvénients
At one time the founders of this company cared about their employees. I believe that. But they are now so far removed from the daily operations and staff that they are simply stuffing their pockets with every.single.penny the company earns, and then some. All the while asking staff to make sacrifices, and not truly investing in the company. This past quarter the company had to lay people off to cut costs. But the founders/board didn't choose to pay themselves one penny less in dividends. ‘Just keep it coming’ is the only thing they do at this point, it doesn’t matter how much (or little) the company is earning, or how much employees are sacrificing. They have been draining their bank account to pay themselves, and they are serving only themselves at this point. But as profit has waned, their actions have gotten downright obscene. Here are the facts and numbers. In the last two and a half years combined, the operating profit, on which they base staff raises, bonuses, etc. has been $77 million dollars. In that time, the top FIVE shareholders/families alone have taken $102 million in dividends. That's 5 people, over 2.5 years, taking every single penny the company earns, and then drawing down the company bank account to cover the rest. Overall in this time, to its ~300 shareholders, a total of $177 million has been paid in dividends. Even though it's really earned $77 million. That’s not normal, and it’s not sustainable. In 2023 alone the company has operating profit of $9.5 million. And this year Neil, the founder, ONE PERSON, has taken $9.9 million in dividends. That means every single penny earned this year so far has gone to one person. And those top 5 shareholders combined have taken $20 million in dividends this year. THIS is what the board is voting to do, and THIS is what they are choosing to do with their ‘strong balance sheet.’ At some point it's just plain greed. Michelle will mention the PST is a shareholder and that dividends benefit employees. It’s true in the last 2.5 years total the PST has received about $35 million in dividends. But she leaves out the part about these other folks taking so much more for themselves. If they really wanted they could stop the dividend and use their bank account to help fund the PST. But clearly they aren't choosing to do that. And I wonder how the hard working staff would feel if she told them in the next town hall ‘were you aware that every single penny you all earned this year has gone to one man.’