Tongue in Cheek: Giving an Office to the Former CEO

“Giving my predecessor a corner office was the worst mistake this company ever made,” fumes the current CEO of a Lowell, Mass., semiconductor manufacturer. “The parties, the late-night carousing, the exotic dancers hanging from the chandeliers at all hours of the day and night. I’ll tell you, for me to get any work done around here I have to leave early and spend the entire day holed up in my den.”

A Menlo Park, Calif., CEO at a biodegradable fiber-optics network echoes this sentiment. “When Chuck retired, we offered him a rent-free office down the hall. What we didn’t know was that as soon as he packed it in as CEO, Chuck was going to take up the accordion. From the time I get here in the morning till the time I leave at night, it’s ‘Lady of Spain,’ ‘Roll out the Barrel’ and ‘The Pennsylvania Polka’ rocketing down the hallways. The only way to get any work done is to wear headphones all day.”

Read the rest of the Chief Executive article here.