Apologizing for Dickishness

One of our fine, captains of industry forced to do a mea culpa.

Tim Armstrong, the chief executive of AOL, did an about-face on Saturday, reversing an unpopular change in the media company’s employee benefits program and apologizing for publicly singling out two families’ health care issues as a cause of those changes.

AOL had recently altered its 401(k) program, switching its matching payments to one lump sum at year-end instead of throughout the year. The change would have disadvantaged AOL employees, especially those who left the company before Dec. 31. On an internal call last Thursday discussing the new policy, he had attributed the change partly to soaring medical costs associated with two families’ “distressed babies.”

In an email to employees late on Saturday, Mr. Armstrong announced the company’s reversal. ...

Apparently two spouses of two employees had the really bad manners to have difficult child births, and the medical bills were high. And the company's revenue flow was (apparently) impacted.

So ... little Timmy only got to take home $12 million.

But as we learn repeatedly from the Chosen Few, the .01% work way harder than everybody else, so their right to $12 (or more) million per annum is sacrosanct. As is their right to be dick wads.