I know the bonus plan. Here it is for non-executives (of which Brad was NOT an executive) and it's not for SALES - and Brad was not SALES. Brad confirms this in his deposition. I believe that he was telling the truth - why? because it is obvious that Cisco is cooperating with the police, it's a payment that is either direct deposited (as he said his checks were) and it's virtually impossible for a regular old employee of a multi billion dollar company to "hide" money - he paid taxes, SS, probably had his whopping 1% employee stock purchase plan money taken out of it, etc. And - I believe it because it accurately reflects what I KNOW to be the Cisco bonus plan.
Overall base bonus: 14% of salary
Things that impact bonus:
Cisco's profitability, customer sat, on time ships, other performance metrics
The individual employee's performance - this is for an "average" performer. Top performers get more.
How it's paid:
7% in late Feb early March - Cisco's "mid-year"
Balance - in September - after Cisco's fiscal year close (July 31st) and performance reviews
Brad stated that his bonus for this past year (which would be Cisco's 2008 FY that ended in July - makes sense) was about $25K (don't remember the exact amount) He said it was his "total" bonus and that makes sense because that's how they sent the letters (it looks better) to state your "full year" bonus as the amount and then mention that part has already been paid. It was also right around the time he needed cash for the shrink and just prior to the depositions.... This past year, due to some cash shortages or whatever - Cisco paid 3.5% in February instead of the normal 7%. He also said he was a "top performer" - a total of about $25K is consistent with what a top performer with his base salary would have gotten in FY 2008.
The other poster is spewing WILD allegations that somehow he or his friends had access to Cisco confidential salary information. No freaking way.
Now - the other item is stock options. It is possible that Brad was issued some nice options (which are probably now worthless based on stock price) and that if they fully vested WOULD be worth $250K, or at least would have when we started talking about this in July. However, he also admitted that he had already exercised as many options as he could to pay bills (along with all the stock they bought) So - you can see how the legend of Brad's pay COULD be based in some SLIGHT reality - but not that he was cut a check for $250K. Also - he states in his depo that he is in charge of a team that does internal VoIP rollouts - NOT at customers.
He has had no trouble telling this - and what he has said is consistent to what I know to be true. it's also something to confirm very easily with a cooperative employer and since he was going through a separation - it WOULD have been discoverable. it was also very fresh in his mind because the bulk payment was recently received.
Latching on to wild and baseless assertions (like saying a Cisco customer has access to employee private data) and having that be so far off the mark from what is known and reasonable makes us look bad because it shows that we are very gullible to noncredible sources posting something that doesn't make "sense" and we run with it like it's gospel.
Not EVERYTHING he says is a lie.
