Thanks for a job, well, done

Upon leaving my last job — granted, under less than amicable circumstances — my not-so-benevolent soon-to-be-ex-employer gave me a week’s worth of severance pay for every two years of my 16 spent in their employ.

Suffice to say that 3Com is being a bit more generous with its retiring CEO Bruce Claflin — as in $3.3 million, or two year’s worth of pay and projected bonuses for seven years of work with the company. While 3Com was already listing badly when Claflin took the helm five years ago, little has transpired in the interim to suggest an imminent resurgence of the once-powerfulcompany.

Granted, 3Com’s losses have dropped from $965 million in year one of the Claflin era to $196 million in 2005, but sales during that time plummeted from $2.1 billion to $651 million.

Call it sour grapes from the working class, but I can’t help but wonder what kind of parting gift the man might have gotten had 3Com actually thrived under his command.