What happened to Shane?
Posted by Shane on April 16, 2008
One word, PROXY. Okay, it is really two words because it is a proxy statement but I like to call it the black hole that sucks all the fun out of work. How many shareholders of the company are really going to read this proxy statement? Short of a few institutional holders who are going to request a research analyst to summarize the details, no one is going to bother to open this crap. In short, the culmination of my last couple of weeks at work will be a stack of paper that will be thrown out as soon as it is received by ninety percent (90%) of its recipients. Well, there you have it; the proxy statement has sucked all the enjoyment (and time) out of my life and my work. And there was not that much to begin with.
What really irks me about the proxy statement is the manpower and man-hours it takes to put together this piece of document (remember, no one reads it) that doesn’t really bring in any additional revenue for the company. Rather, my work on the proxy actually prohibits me from completing tasks that actually bring in value. The proxy has undergone so much rework even its plastic surgeon will barely recognize it. All this to be either more SEC or NYSE complaint compliant so we do not get penalized or worse, made an example of . (Kudos to Applied Materials Inc.. I would have loved to work there only to put out this proxy as a sort of practical joke). If either of the agencies (I’m really just looking to you SEC but I thought I would be passive aggressive) could stop changing the rules every year, maybe, just maybe, I might get some sleep at night.
It is almost over now. The final version of the proxy was sent to the printers yesterday and I received a draft of the proof this morning and lo and behold, the printer screwed up the format. If the printer was trying to prove a point to me (that the last weeks spent staring at the proxy until late into the night was not worth it), they might as well have sent blank pages back except for the “Loser” sign stamped on each page’s right bottom corner.
It’s almost over now. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe after the proxy is finally complete, the executives will remove the chain that binds me to my desk and I’ll be allowed to see the sun again. Oh, I miss the sun. After all this, I tell myself, “It’s just a job.”
Daris said
Out of curiousity, who usually does the proxy at most companies? Does it ever get outsourced or would that defeat the purpose?
Christopher Cox said
The Proxy Statement is the most important document a company produces. It creates accountability to a company’s shareholders so that they can have a vote on who will have a vote on how the organization is run. Without a proxy statement shareholders would lose confidence in public companies, investment would cease and the US would be in the same situation as North Korea, except with nuclear missles that don’t have silly names like Taepodong-2.
Shane said
Christopher Cox – Funny you should post under the pseudonym Christopher Cox since the SEC just sent back a letter to the company asking us to make revisions to the proxy. The SEC being the SEC, they are unsatisfied with our level of disclosure this year. Imagine that.