Every so often in can seem a better idea to keep people on your side by making a personal sacrifice, and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner recognizes that fact.
Weiner took action in early February after shares in the professional social network tumbled by more than 43% in one day. The sharp fall came after the company announced its earnings, and Weiner didn’t want the news to hurt staff morale.
LinkedIn CEO donates stock bonus to staff pool
With that in mind Weiner decided to make a personal sacrifice in order to keep spirits up at the company, to the tune of $14 million. Tech news website Re/code was the first to notice that LinkedIn did not file a document for Weiner’s 2016 compensation package with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The reason the document is missing is because Weiner decided to share his yearly stock bonus with LinkedIn employees.
“Jeff did not receive an equity package this year at his request,” said LinkedIn spokesperson Hani Durzy. The CEO reportedly asked that the stock package meant for him be put into the bonus pool for all employees.
The bonus would have been worth around $14 million to Weiner. Last year he received a $13 million bonus.
Bonus payments as a morale boost for staff
The increased bonus packages should help to put smiles on the faces of staff at LinkedIn, shortly after the company posted disappointing figures for revenue and profit forecast for Q1 2016. The company did not meet targets because growth of its advertising business slowed down and its hiring services are under pressure outside North America.
Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey made a similar move in October last year. He gave one-third of the stocks that he owned in the company back to employees in an attempt to boost morale.
The stocks were equivalent to 1% of shares in the company, and now form part of an employee equity pool. Dorsey had some making up to do after laying off 8% of company staff in one of his first moves since taking on the role of CEO at Twitter for the second time.
