the.com/golden parachute
Getting fired upward, with a bonus for the fall.
means A contractual guarantee of huge severance pay and benefits for a top executive if they lose their job, especially after a takeover or merger.
from Coined in American business and financial jargon around the early 1980s, during the era of hostile corporate takeovers — the phrase captured how executives rigged their own exits to be lucrative, so that even if a company was seized and they were pushed out, they'd float down safely, cushioned by cash. 'Golden' for the richness of the payout, 'parachute' for the soft landing after being dropped from a great height.
- origin
- term coined during 1980s hostile takeover boom
- logic
- bigger payout, less incentive to resist being fired
- irony
- failure often pays better than mediocrity ever did
- scale
- some exit packages exceed company's annual profit