It's Time To Empty The Wells Fargo Wagon!

I mentioned last week that Wells Fargo bank, one of the original recipients of federal bailout money last fall, had been planning several lavish trips to Las Vegas for its employees. The company eventually cancelled the trips under the scrutiny of the media and federal lawmakers who had started to howl.

You would think that Wells Fargo would lay low in the wake of this embarrassment. But CEO John Stumpf is being defiant instead. He must have really loved those Vegas trips, because he's taken out full page ads in the New York Times, Washington Post (2/8/09, page A15) and other major newspapers, to complain about having to cancel them.

Stumpf writes, "The funds to pay for recognition events such as these do not come from the government, They come from our profits. We believe our profits actually increase by rewarding and recognizing our best performers in sales and in service. Competition to be recognized inspires everyone to work harder and smarter. We're as frugal as any company in spending our shareholders' money thoughtfully and responsibly. " He finishes his letter by saying, "Since we aren't thanking our award winners in person this year, we'll have to do it this way. Thank you, all our 281,000 team members."

Mr. Stumpf - perhaps before you start figuring out how to spend your profits, you should figure out how to pay back the 25 billion dollars you took from the American taxpayers. These taxpayers are also your customers. People who are depositing their hard-earned money and paying their hardgotten loans back to your bank.

You have many customers - and shareholders as well, no doubt - who are currently unemployed, and would love to have an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas. But those won't be paid out of Wells Fargo's profits, will they?

Times are tough for the rest of us, Mr. Stumpf. Perhaps you don't quite have your finger on the pulse of American society from your ivory tower, but you might find it helpful to know that some people in this economy might find the kind of largess you'd like to extend to your employees to be - frankly - a little tacky.

This is not to say you can't recognize your best employees - A nice (although fully taxable) bonus check could do the trick without all of the PR hassles of planning lavish trips.

A little humility can go a long way. You made a good start by thanking all of your employees in a newspaper ad.

It's just too bad you had to spend the rest of your full page ad having a temper tantrum .

Perhaps this latest PR faux pas will end with your forced resignation.

Can You Believe This Arrogance?

A House panel voted earlier this week to permanently ban cell phone use on airplanes - not because the use of the phones could interfere with the plane's instrumentation, but because it annoys them. Read on...

Cellphone calls on airplanes in flight are not only unsafe, they are obnoxious and they should be permanently banned, according to some members of the U.S. Congress.

Members of the House of Representatives, most of whom board airplanes almost every week, traded horror stories Thursday about their worst experiences with annoying fellow passengers who talk loudly on cellphones before takeoff and after landing. One lawmaker said his wife sat next to a woman who loudly discussed her sex life on the phone.

Another House member topped that with the passenger sitting him behind on one flight who got a "dear John" phone call from either his wife or sweetheart just before takeoff. The begging and pleading was just terrible to listen to, he said. Finally, with the plane ready to take off, a flight attendant had to threaten to have U.S. Marshals drag the man off the plane before he finally put his phone away.

A third House member raised the specter of national security, saying she had witnessed one man use his cellphone camera to take pictures of sensitive parts of the airplane.

With that, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved by voice vote a bill that would make the current Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communication Commission ban on cellphone use during flight permanent.

The committee's action comes as the European Union is moving to allow airline passengers to talk on their cellphones during flight. Some U.S. airlines are experimenting with in-flight Internet access. And some lawmakers worry that domestic airlines might try to get the cellphone ban lifted so they can charge passengers extra to sit in no-phone sections.

"I do believe this is important that we don't make what is already a crowded and difficult environment for the traveling public and flight attendants" worse by allowing cellphone use in-flight, said Rep. Peter DeFazio, a Democrat and sponsor of the Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace (HANG UP) Act.

But Rep. John Mica, a Republican, said there are a lot of annoying things on airplanes, including children with dirty diapers and noisy MP3 players, but that does not mean they should be banned.

"You are trying to legislate courtesy, folks, and that just doesn't work," Mica said.

Congressman Mica, I salute you! These lawmakers who don't want to be bothered should not be using their voting powers to try and legislate manners. I try not to use my cell phone in public settings, but when others choose to use theirs, I'm usually successful in tuning them out.

This is another one of those cases where Americans have to realize they have rights... If someone can make the case that the use of cell phones on planes is unsafe, that's one thing. But otherwise, give me a break. Banning public cell phone use goes in the same category as breastfeeding, chewing gum loudly, playing the radio as a high volume when the car windows are down, gunning a car's engine and many other social moronic activities. You may not like any of those things, but none of them rise above the level of annoying... and the bar on legislation should be set higher than annoying.

There are a lot of things that Congress does that annoys me, too... but I'm not holding my breath waiting for them to fix their behavior.

How about banning political robocalls? How about saving some trees and some postage and banning Congressional newsletters sent to my home? How about passing a law making it illegal to adjourn Congress at budget time without the budget being passed?

Don't hold your breath. Life's too short as it is.