Leonard Abess Jr. says he values his employees and he means it. He had sold majority of his stake in Miami-based City National Bancshares in November, and he took $60 million of the proceeds and gave it to all his tellers, bookkeepers, clerks, everybody on the payroll. All his staff workers counting up to 399 received bonuses, and he also tracked down 72 former employees and gave them a share in the windfall.
For the employees who were with him for longtime were given bonus based on their service years which summed up to tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases it was more than $100,000.
Evelyn J. Budde who served for 43 years at City National Bank of Florida said "I retired seven years ago, and all of a sudden I get this wonderful letter and phone call.'' ''I was shocked,'' said William Perry. In 43 ½ years at City National, he grew from a janitor to vice president.
Leonard Abess Jr. did not publicize about his plans for the employees. He was not even present at the bank to stretch out to his employees' gratitude on the day the bonus envelopes were distributed.
When he was asked later Abess said he had long dreamed of a way to reward employees. He had been thinking of creating an employee stock option plan before he decided to sell the bank.
Leonard Abess - The Boss also said "Those people who joined me and stayed with me at the bank with no promise of equity -- I always thought some day I'm going to surprise them" "I sure as heck don't need [the money]."
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