Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Shi Shi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerry Krim who wrote (4459)	3/31/2001 5:10:32 PM
From: Brad Rogers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4462

CEO Isn't Happy With Workers, Which Is Sad News for Company's Stock Wall Street Journal 03/30/01 author: Thomas M. Burton and Rachel Emma Silverman It takes years to earn a reputation as a great place to work. But damaging that reputation can take only seconds, as medical-software maker Cerner Corp. discovered this month. In a fit of pique, Cerner Chairman and Chief Executive Neal L. Patterson sent senior managers an e-mail berating the work ethic at the Kansas City, Mo., company. "Hell will freeze over before this CEO implements ANOTHER EMPLOYEE benefit in this Culture," Mr. Patterson wrote in the March 13 e-mail, which someone later posted on a Web site last week. "We are getting less than 40 hours of work from a large number of our KC-based employees. The parking lot is sparsely used at 8 a.m.; likewise at 5 p.m. As managers -- you either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing; or YOU do not CARE…. You have a problem and you will fix it or I will replace you…. What you are doing, as managers, with this company makes me SICK." But as it turned out, nothing his managers had done hurt the company as much as Mr. Patterson's e-mail. It made its way onto a Yahoo! Web site, and since then Cerner stock has plummeted about 28%, closing Thursday in 4 p.m. Nasdaq Stock Market trading at $32.25, down $1.19. Some top managers and employees took offense at the e-mail, and the furor has lit up an Internet chat site. Late last week, a contrite Mr. Patterson was back at the keyboard, typing up an apology. What precisely touched off Mr. Patterson's explosion isn't clear, and he couldn't be reached Thursday. But Chief Operating Officer Glenn Tobin said the company's management style is always "direct" and "pointed," and that, "We almost never look back. We'll get through it." The company is on Fortune magazine's soon-to-be-published list of 100 best companies to work for, a spokesman said. A profitable maker of computer software to manage medical and hospital records, Cerner has underperformed the Dow Jones technology/software index over five years but outperformed it in the past 12 months. David Risinger, a Merrill Lynch analyst who watches Cerner, said "the company has delivered very well, and its operating performance has been excellent over the past year." Even so, Mr. Patterson's first e-mail promised a Kansas City staff reduction of 5% and the institution of a time-clock system. Any unapproved absences, he wrote, would be "charged to the EMPLOYEES' vacation." His use of the word "employee" raised hackles at a company whose workers are used to being called "associates." (A spokesman said these changes aren't actually going to take place.) Recommending that managers start scheduling 7 a.m., 6 p.m. and Saturday morning team meetings, Mr. Patterson said the company parking lot would be a key measure of success. "It should be substantially full at 7:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.," he wrote. "The pizza man should show up at 7:30 p.m. to feed the starving teams working late. The lot should be half full on Saturday mornings." Cerner employees and investors have vented about the memo on a Yahoo message board. One posting offers this suggestion: "Reduce size of parking lot so it looks more full from executive suite." Ignore this User \| Report Abuse < Previous \| Next > [ First \| Last \| Msg List ] Msg