Hospital CEO With A Heart Finds An Unusual Way to Avoid Layoffs
By Susie Madrak Thursday Mar 12, 2009 3:15pmWhat a great, heartwarming story. Paul Levy, the guy who runs Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, called a meeting of his staff to present a proposal and ask for their support:
He looked out into a sea of people and recognized faces: technicians, secretaries, administrators, therapists, nurses, the people who are the heart and soul of any hospital. People who knew that Beth Israel had hired about a quarter of its 8,000 staff over the last six years and that the chances that they could all keep their jobs and benefits in an economy in freefall ranged between slim and none.
"I want to run an idea by you that I think is important, and I'd like to get your reaction to it," Levy began. "I'd like to do what we can to protect the lower-wage earners - the transporters, the housekeepers, the food service people. A lot of these people work really hard, and I don't want to put an additional burden on them.
"Now, if we protect these workers, it means the rest of us will have to make a bigger sacrifice," he continued. "It means that others will have to give up more of their salary or benefits."
He had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when Sherman Auditorium erupted in applause. Thunderous, heartfelt, sustained applause.
Paul Levy stood there and felt the sheer power of it all rush over him, like a wave. His eyes welled and his throat tightened so much that he didn't think he could go on.
When the applause subsided, he did go on, telling the workers at Beth Israel, the people who make a hospital go, that he wanted their ideas.
The lump had barely left his throat when Paul Levy started getting e-mails.
The consensus was that the workers don't want anyone to get laid off and are willing to give up pay and benefits to make sure no one does. A nurse said her floor voted unanimously to forgo a 3 percent raise. A guy in finance who got laid off from his last job at a hospital in Rhode Island suggested working one less day a week. Another nurse said she was willing to give up some vacation and sick time. A respiratory therapist suggested eliminating bonuses.
"I'm getting about a hundred messages per hour," Levy said yesterday, shaking his head.
Paul Levy is onto something. People are worried about the next paycheck, because they're only a few paychecks away from not being able to pay the mortgage or the rent.
But a lot of them realize that everybody's in the same boat and that their boat doesn't rise because someone else's sinks.
Paul Levy is trying something revolutionary, radical, maybe even impossible: He is trying to convince the people who work for him that the E in CEO can sometimes stand for empathy.
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Wow, no way in hell I'm giving up money for some chump. This isn't realistic on a national scale. It will work in only the most liberal of places.
Fine. Be a dick, but don't start whining if you're the one whose job is cut.
we heard so much about... eh?
and end up in front of the 7/11 begging for quarters
ill piss in your hand
hawkeyenick Dick is right!!! Go off somewhere to count your money.
Can we send this guy any money? How? Any link? I can spare $50.
Make this guy a HERO-- start a national trend.
Seems you've struck a nerve. See, where I live, when things get tough, Americans/neighbors come together.
But you're exactly correct when you write that such compassion can only occur in liberal places, because conservatives lack a spark of empathy towards others. (Unless there's something in it for them that is.)
It's a genetic fact. I'll give you the link if you like?
Looks like it's all about you and your self centered universe isn't it, Hawkeye?
You really suck, pal.
ol' pus eye. Always refreshing when one of you creeps trips up and spews out the truth. Compassion, courage, empathy, consideration and concern are liberal values and what this country claims to be all about. True liberals and progressives walk the talk.
"Compassionate conservatives" just don't get it and I find it oddly gratifying to see one of them acknowledge it.
Just remember skippy, karma's a bitch. When you fall down (through no fault of your own) chances are good a liberal will offer you a hand back up. Just the way we're wired.
I think that you have to be trained up to be this much of a jerk.
I did this with my company last Oct when it was obvious that revenue was not going to meet expectations. We only have 30 employees but they are all long time employees. They agreed 100% to a pay freeze until things got better. They also agreed to take an extra day off approximately every other week without pay. This was easy because they knew the person at the top (me) was also reducing his salary by a lot more than they were giving. They also know that when things get better, and they will, they will still have a good job with a good company. One that cares about them. I don't see why this would not work in even larger companies.
Because most large companies are not run by a decent human being like yourself. You sound like a great place to do business with. You should post the name of your company, maybe someone here will see it and send a little business your way.
The funny thing is that you seem to think that it's an insult to say that this will only work in liberal places. We are very proud of our generosity and willingness to work together. You are, apparently, proud of your selfishness and cynicism. How very sad.
That is wonderful.
I call it "America"...
Good for Mr. Levy. It's guys like him and the people who work at Beth Israel that make our world a better place. If only we could all behave that way.
Maybe I'll even write a letter.
But I'd like to call him a genuine human being. Maybe a saint. Kudos to you, Mr. Levy, and if there is a god, may that being bless you a thousandfold. I got chills reading this story. Someday, may a movie be made about this revolutionary man. I'd like to see more people in charge do this in the future.
"We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will hang separately."
Then go ahead, call names. It's got nothing to do with communism, it's about creating a company that works, and that people feel good about working at.
The attitude has become that CEO's are hired to come in and boost profits (and get their bonus). And they do that by letting people go en masse.
Does that make people want to work harder?
Does it increase retention of good employees?
No. It just increases profits or makes the company look good on the books in the short term.
Maybe, just maybe, it's actually good business to care about your employees. Maybe they'll work harder for you. Maybe they'll be more loyal to you.
I dunno about heart warming
Sounds like you need to be rushed to the hospital emergency room.
I hope... either that or you're having a really bad day... not like our usual ysb!
Actually I tend to be rather dark in my humor, outside of this site, although it gets the occassional taste, usually deleted by the site monitor. Just the other day I made a joke about the tent cities they're calling bushville, where I was joking about a father telling his kids there, "Hey kids, you can swing on daddy's lap, as soon as I hang myself from that tree."
Some people wonder why I don't smile, or on rare occassions when I do, that I look like I'm up to something. I've also been called cynical and sarcastic.
Otherwise events and life's cruelties will get a person down.
I think a lot of people forget what America stands for.
If the fat cats in New York had considered something other than themselves, we might have a country left.
They could be used after the trials...
...SOCIALISM! The greatest society in history was built by ruthless winners climbing that ladder of success all the way to the top. That ladder is made of the bones of your failed competitors (or co-workers)!! Americans shouldn't have to share, or sacrifice! Do you want to 'play nice', or do you want to WIN?? "Their boat doesn't rise because someone else's sinks"? SCREW THAT, the winners should be demanding bigger boats! Mega-yachts for us while the LOSERS drown in the pounding surf!! USA! USA! USA!
...ah, well... (cough)... I think I was channeling Glenn Beck there for a sec. Sorry 'bout that.
But you know that's how 'they' will spin this.
have been the ones that took care of their employees.
Only recently have companies been judged purely based on how BIG a profit they turned THIS QUARTER.
From the IBMs to the Ben & Jerry's to the Googles, the biggest long-term winners, the blue-chip companies aren't the "dog-eat-dog" companies but the ones who fostered a healthy workplace.
Maybe they didn't turn 50% profits in a quarter, but they CONSISTENTLY turned profits, and that's why investors stuck by them, year-in and year-out.
I have seen that myself, even though it was only in small businesses (and I mean small - less than 5 people). Those who told customers the truth, charged fair prices without tacking on incomprehensible 'fees' and 'surcharges' to every bill, and were fair with employees - made tons of money. The ones who were greedy went all to hell. What I don't understand is why no one with a 'business degree' understands it.
I worked in a small company where the work was somewhat seasonal (less in winter, but still enough work to do.) One winter it got tight, and my boss (sole owner) mortgaged his house to keep us on staff all winter. He said, "I can't toss you guys out into the street." He also broke down in tears. We loved him and were loyal to him, like crazy. We'd do anything for him, because we knew he cared about us. We got through the winter, spring brought a boom time, he paid the money back, and all those guys still work there-- some over 30 years now.
Then his son took over, and well, that's another story. I'm not there anymore.
People shared/borrowed ideas and moved to companies that encouraged initiative. Engineering is a prime example of companies making products to improve the general level of good things to be used (by other companies).
I have always been of the opinion that the 'good' companies not only make stuff to sell, but also make tools for other companies to use, so improving the general state of industry.
And if you make a better mousetrap, the world does come knocking on your door.
It will show people what they are, at heart. It's time people knew.
I think it's wonderful that he's doing this but I can't help being curious about whether he is taking a cut from his own CEO salary as well. Where I work, we had a recent round of lay-offs and we had people offering to take pay cuts to keep them. The offer was turned down flat. And of course our CEO still got a bonus big enough to keep about 40 people on the payroll.
Happened recently at my place. people who upset bosses too many times etc. Not complaining too much, allowed me to move into sideways into a safer job.
I believe (been told) the company that I work for is the only one in town that is still doing a 40 hour week, times are that hard, the highways here are almost deserted on thursday/fridays at commuter time.
Imagine, a CEO actually bringing all of his employees into one room and asking them what they think. This is unheard of in corporatist America with its top down hierarchies. You won’t see this happening in large corporations. Multi-million dollar CEO’s are much too important to fraternize with the underlings.
....what did the CEO offer, besides the opportunity for hourly-wage staff to donate to allow others to keep their jobs? What did he offer to cut? The vice-presidents? The managers?
At our hospital, all housekeepers have been cut by one hour a day. Nurses now have to use a vacation day before sick pay kicks in, and we are having our hours cut to the point at which staffing is downright dangerous. While I applaud the idea that everyone can make cuts to ensure that jobs are not lost, it must be everyone.
This is indeed a heartwarming story and a proposal that others have made but few have acted on. And what it shows more than anything else is the concern all those "selfish" (if we're to listen to right-wing spin) workers have for their colleagues.
But still, before my cockles get overheated, I'd like to know what Paul Levy is going to give up as his contribution to the cause.
It does make me wonder, though: Is there something about being in one of the bluest states that generates compassionate bosses?
about this
Mr. Levy will be smeared all over the place
I think this is a step in the right direction. Its a shame other companies, especially those at the top level, won't even consider this as an option.
greed, selfishness, and apathy. According to the right wingers that's socialist and un-american. Hopefully this will set enough of an example to catch on, most likely not but one can hope.
a change must come over the people of the us, that having shit is not the american dream
if that happens because of the crisis...that will be a good thing
next thing is to get state and local gov to go along with the same plan
but i still believe that we need to march on wall street and hang the bastards
Levy does deserve praise, but those employees are equally impressive. I guess Levy gets another pat on the back for hiring a good number of them. What great co-workers!
I kind of know how this guy feels. I worked in Bosnia for a while..and was once directed to fire half of my staff....I spent several weeks scrounging the camp to secure jobs for everyone I had to fire....I had one 70 year old Serbian woman who I could not find any suitable job for, and I thought I'd have to remove her from the camp access list....which was a financial death sentence.......but I finally got her a job scrubbing latrines, though I was embarrassed to tell her that was the work......I'll never forget that she hugged me for a long time....and when I left they gave me a hat that said, "Bobichka"....or, our king!.....helping people almost always feels good...
Regards,
O'Guillory
Suggestions missing were actual cuts in pay. Why is nobody willing to reduce their take? Giving up a pay raise is like giving something nobody had in the first place. Same thing with vacation time and sick time. Why didn't the CEO ask everyone to join him in taking a pay cut?
We are still Americans. Things won't change until we are willing to work hard for less, and willing to push our elected officials to stop spending our tax dollars on stupid shit and pay our debts instead.
Suggestions missing were actual cuts in pay
Uh, no, that's not true: First, one quoted suggestion was working one less day a week. If you work a five-day week and are paid hourly as I'm prepared to assume virtually if not all of these people are, that's offering to take a 20% pay cut.
Inflation has almost come to a halt the past few months, but over the entire period of 2008 it was 3.85% and there's little reason to think prices will remain flat indefinitely. So second, giving up a pay raise that would essentially restore your buying power to a bit less than it was a year ago in effect is taking a pay cut.
Third, giving up some vacation and sick time may not reduce your gross money income but it does reduce your imputed income and in any event commits you to working more for the same pay - which is still a sacrifice, even if you want to argue it's not a financial one.
Oh, one last thing: Real median family income in 2007 (most recent figures available) was below that of 2000. Working hard for less is exactly what most of us have been doing.
The working class of this country has been worker harder and harder yet taking home less when you cosider the rate of inflation and the fact that the tax burden continues to be shifted to those making less in this country.
...it will make them suicidal. The mere thought of a human being giving up anything to help another, why what would Ayn say? Besides, we all know that the lower paid workers would all be better off if no one sacrificed anything for them and they lost their jobs, health coverage, and homes. After all, that is the natural order; the MORAL order of things.
This story is just downright depressing. If Americans start behaving like this and, heaven forbid, begin to view their fellow citizens as part of a social unit (perhaps I should say "hive" to humor the Galters) that is stronger and more important than everyone as isolated individuals, it will only be a matter of months before we have full-fledged communism enslaving us all.
See what "heart" can do to keep society running?
Why don't the financial institutions do this instead of grabbing every taxpayer cent they can and spending it on themselves and their interests?
Susie, I hope you do an update later and let us know what the hospital employees and Mr. Levy decide to do. What a great story!
if beth israel deaconess medical center is similar to the hospitals in my area, my suggestion is: stop the building boom. here in st.louis hospitals are constantly under construction. also the suits need to rein in thier over the top salaries.
Our local hospital has (like so many CA hospitals) now fallen below the recently enacted, updated CA earthquake standards and have (technically) until 2013 to meet the standards or be threatened with closure. It's either renovate or replace. Ours is a local district hospital so the voters have to decide on any changes via a bond measure. The bond has failed three times. They want 600 million for a new hospital (it gets higher with each bond initiative). Right now they couldn't get a bond passed for a swing set. Rock and a hard place.
BTW, nurses willing to forego a 3% raise will make that money available to redistribute to employees who would otherwise be laid off. The finance employee working 32 hours a week instead of 40, giving that 8 hours of pay to another employee (probably more hours than that if the finance employee is well paid). Foregoing bonuses and doing other small things may be enough to at least delay layoffs, make it so fewer employees need to be laid off and/or permit the company to offer a more generous severance package should lay offs become necessary.
I've been unemployed 4 1/2 months after having been laid off. I wished our company's owners had made the same sort of offer -- I might still be working.
May the kindness and selflessness be rewarded back many-fold to those who sacrificed.
I personally hired and fired every employee for 10 years. There is nothing more wrenching that to layoff employees when there is a down turn in business and the income in inadequate to support them. As the president I earned a flat salary but for the first year I earned nothing. Everything the business made was put back into the business to grow it and even then there were debts to pay for two years before we had positive cash flow. The last two years were the worst, though because the local economy had become depressed so even though we were a successful business, the income fell and fell. Toward the end, as employees were let go and my salary had dropped to zero again, and we had to sell our first home and move in with family in another state, I looked back on that experience and wondered: I did everything I could think of to keep that business alive and it still died. But knowing what I know now, that business would have survived. If it were now, I would not have given up. A business you create out of nothing but your savings and sweat and tears is something precious. A business that provides a useful product or service and employs honest, hardworking people deserves herculean effort to stay afloat. I loved my employees, and it haunts me that I let them down. I should have tried harder.
This story is too good to be true. But if it really is, then I think it is rightful to say that there are still good samaritans here on earth. Kudos to these employees and Paul Levy who make others' lives still worthwhile.
I mean isnt this what millionaire fat cat pundits call redistributing wealth???
What is this country coming to??? People willingly giving up money to save the jobs of others! Next thing you know we'll have universal health care and our nation on the path to energy self sufficiency by using renewable energy sources. Then we're all going to hell!!!!!!
Seriously, great story makes me want to vomit when I hear billionaires and millionaires whine about paying their fair share.
Here's the thing. Republicans promote this completely greedy ideology that says everyone is out for themselves. This story is touching and it proves that people ARE in fact willing to help their fellow men and women. I hope someday all of the U.S. can un-brainwash themselves from Republican rhetoric and come together and help each other when times are tough. Otherwise, this country's future doesn't look bright.
...reading some of the incredibly selfish comments from people all over the USA when the story of the starving western Alaska aboriginal villages broke nationwide. The remarks from the neocons were cruelly pragmatic -- in the same way I suspect many people once viewed Plains Indians and other lower-48 tribes.
These people proudly display their cruelty as openly as they wave around their guns, and they've latched onto the most repugnant representatives of their ideology.
The Alaskan villagers were suffering because of a "perfect storm" of early bad weather affecting stalled paid-for shipments of heating fuel, an abysmal fishing season (thanks to the AK government and Bush-sanctioned unrestricted commercial trawlers wiping out the salmon harvest) and frightful prices for food and other staples. They got NO sympathy from the self-righteous rightists.
BTW, Sarah Palin's PAC is bandying around the falsehood that she "toured the region" in answer to the villages' cry for help -- yeah, about 6 weeks after countless pajama'd bloggers donated thousands of dollars and many tons of food and staples to these same villages. She spent half of one day visiting two villages at about the halfway point between Anchorage and the coastal villages in need, bringing a televangelist (at her invite, not the villagers') and a plate of cookies.
sad, Karen. I feel like some of these people (like Sarah) are just terrible people - no real conscience. A real shame that some people seem to be built this way....
Okay, I admit it - I cried.
We need a lot more people like this in upper management of corporations in this country.
This guy was standing behind the door when god was handing out the "egregious greed"
*
will be fired. He is not a typical CEO and so will be replaced.
Is that when the economy rebounds, the stakeholders will demand even more production from the employees willing to cut hours now, because they proved they could work just as hard with 32 hours a week as they did with 40 hours.
I don't think he will lose his job. For one, the positive press he is already receiving is beyond valuable for the hospital. His bosses will love that. Also, if he cuts payroll by the same amount as he would have by firing the employees, then what do they care? 5% is 5%. Kudos to him for actually being creative and open to new ideas rather than consulting the Welch business model and slashing the bottom of the performance distribution.
BTW, I am a Business Management and Marketing major with a minor in Economics. I am entrenched in business, through and through. I would love nothing more than to spend my life proving that just because I am interested in Business and Management does not mean that I want to wring out Americans for every last cent they have just to boast a higher profit. People like Mr. Levy, and hopefully myself someday, show the world that a corporation is really just a bunch of people trying to make it by. Once we forget that, we fail as a company, society, and a nation.
The comapny shareholders and execs. will make you do it --(be a heartless prick, I mean). Wait and see. People are just numbers to them-- no faces.
that caters to the old notion, "Who in their right mind would cut off their nose to spite their face?"
First the service workers, then the nurses aides, etc.
Working as an RN, I've seen this kind of thing before. We ALWAYS get asked to donate our earnings toward the greater good because we tend to be caring people who like helping others. That's why we're nurses in the first place. But when we're worked to the bone, understaffed to the point of pt care being endangered, maybe it's time to hold that meeting with the MANAGEMENT staff and see what sacrifices they are willing to make. I want to keep people in their jobs...I know what a difference housekeepers and food service people make. But it has to be a SHARED responsibility with management. We didn't hear anything about that.
Leave it to the common people to do an uncommonly good thing. And I commend Paul Levy for being a leader with principle--out of good or easy solutions, he simply appealed to his workforce for a solution and got one---big time.
The power of compassion and generosity is the light of the world.
a link that he used in the following manner:
I just made a restricted gift for the purpose of Preventing layoffs
In honor of: Paul Levy
Link for others who want to do the same:
https://secure3.convio.net/bidmc/site/Donation2
But a lot of them realize that everybody's in the same boat and that their boat doesn't rise because someone else's sinks.
-------------------
What about Hank Paulson's boat? It has 500 million in it, from using the shareholders as his personal cash cow.
What an uplifting story , nice to know that good and descent people like this still exist , maybe there is hope eh ? Has got to the point that one gets to believing that people like those in this story just aren't around anymore , that they are an extinct "species" of human beings . These folks must be left wingers / progressives , sure as hell would not be characteristic of " the right ".
If I didn’t once have to rip him a new one. I live in NY. A few years ago, unbeknownst to me, my mom shattered her hip. Beth Israel kept her on a f**king gurney for a day-and-a-half. When I finally found out and called, I was told “We can’t schedule her surgery until we have a bed for her.” Funny how one of Levy’s minions found a bed for Mom within 10 minutes of my call to him.
-AF
My bosses are taking paycuts as well. Copy/Paste from my Inbox at work (Not the whole thing, just the meaty parts):
"Today, we are announcing a voluntary expense reduction program that will personally impact senior leadership. The vice president for medical affairs, dean of the College of Medicine, and chief executive officer of Hospitals and Clinics, as well as associate vice presidents, assistant vice presidents, associate deans, departmental executive officers (DEOs), and other senior leaders from Health Care will take a 5 percent reduction in pay for the remainder of FY 2009 and throughout FY 2010. More than forty (40) senior leaders will participate in this program.
In addition, this group of senior leaders will forego any annual pay increase on July 1, 2009.
The senior leadership group also will not receive any incentive compensation in FY 2010 related to FY 2009 performance. "
...is to cast light on the fact that no company anywhere needs its CEO and other top management. All companies should be run by workers who are elected by the workers. And the pay of the top dog of any company should be limited to no more than 5 times that of the lowest paid employee. The result will be a more efficient, more productive and much more humane company as well as better paid workers because the pay of all the workers rises as the CEO's pay rises. Too bad that most CEOs are the opposite of Levy: selfish pig parasites feeding on the blood of the workers.
It's so shockingly unusual to see the beautiful side of humanity in action.
it's always heartening to hear that it's not always the Lord of the Flies out there.
Good on them
I haven't heard the term First Responders since shortly after 9/11. Arent these people in that catagory? All I've seen lately is stories of local governments and essential businesses cutting back on the personel needed for the emergencies that will almost surely come.
I thought our vaunted Homeland Security Dept was supposed to make us secure. We have to have the means necessary to respond to threats to this country and people whether external or internal.
This isn't all about jobs.
I applaud efforts made by people who have a heart and try to make efforts to make economic cutbacks on those effected. But this shouldnt be happening in the first place. We need all the emergency personnel necessary to keep our country safe.
Where is all the rage from those who scream about national security?
xvet
Curious if Mr. Levy was the first to take a pay cut.
I have heard of this action in other businesses in different markets. Its a true act of American compassion for others. Its things like this that helps keep America strong.
for sure, American businesses both great and small need to find this kind of heartful approach to tough times and the people whose lives are on the line, workers doing unskilled but important jobs, supporting families, etc.
the only way to make it through reasonably unscathed is for everyone to hang together, to help one another, to be willing to sacrifice a little so the other guy can make it through, too.
during the Great Depression of the '30s, Americans found a spirit of cooperation and gritty sacrifice that allowed many many people to survive otherwise desperate and unsurvivable economic hardship. it's uplifting to know that we still have those untapped reserves of human decency in our hearts, and can do our own small part to make sure that everyone around us swims, and doesn't sink.
here's hoping many other CEOs follow this trend. it really reminds me that leadership isn't just calling the shots, it's also accompanied by responsibility.
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