Bank of America chief Ken Lewis may have taken home $28 million, but he’s still slashing wasteful perks such as free soup and crackers for employees.
The nation’s second-largest bank posted grim notices yesterday around its offices here and elsewhere that it no longer can afford giving employees any freebies.
The notice listed goodies it will eliminate at its employee kitchenettes: soup, crackers, flavored teas, sugar-free hot chocolate and hand soap.
The bank presumably will keep hand soap in bathrooms. City laws require it, but not necessarily at snack counter sinks.
Since there are no food or beverages to handle anymore at the kitchenettes, there’s no need for soap to wash hands – a found bonus for bean counters.
“We’ll continue to have plenty of soap in ’08,” a bank spokesman said dryly.
The 60-year-old Lewis is trying to contain damage from BofA’s bad bets on Wall Street deals that caused a 32 percent plunge in profits in the third quarter.
Lewis responded to the wipeout by firing 3,000 employees and starting a thorough review of its entire business strategy, including investment banking and soap.
At the time BofA reported its third-quarter results, Lewis told analysts, “I’ve had all of the fun I can stand in investment banking at the moment.”
He told analysts recently that he is “intensely focused on managing through the current market turbulence” and wants to “attract new customers and deepen relationships” in the long-term.
Those relationships however, apparently don’t apply to the ones at the office sink.