@ AC 17:01 GMT
"You need that kind of salary to attract the best."
I call bullshit. What's needed is more of a K-Mart blue light special attitude toward hiring executives: maybe not quite as good, but a whole lot cheaper. Considering that Britain is essentially bankrupt, even if the IMF hasn't yet come knocking on the door to haul the chancellor away, where does the idea come from that the UK can even afford the best? Can't afford it, seems to me.
Frankly, most management positions could be filled quite well by wandering out to the nearest bus stop and tapping some random person on the shoulder. The management caste has managed (excuse the pun!) to put forth the meme that they're special. They're not; at best they act like a bunch of Dilbertesque pointy-haired bosses, at worst they actively terrorize their underlings, the people who actually do useful work.
When I was still working, I was moaning to my immediate supervisor about the CEO's penchant for fucking the dog and other assorted wasteful sillinesses. Reply? "Oh, but he's the CEO, he can do anything he wants!" My response? "He's paid a great deal of money and should therefore be held to a much higher standard of behavior."
I wish I had a photograph of the puzzled non-comprende look on the supervisor's face.
In moments when my imagination runs wild, I dream of a society in which there are two rules of management compensation. One, that no one in an organization can make than a fixed-by-law multiple of what the most poorly paid minion makes. A factor of 4.0 or maybe 5.0 would be about right. Two, that all managers must have at least 10% of the drones under them making more, on the grounds that anybody can "manage", but only a few can do truly specialized work demanding real talent, experience, and education.
Apologies to our Divine Moderatrix for going off on a rant, but over compensated, under worked, utterly unqualified managers are a particular peeve of mine.