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Cigarette Smokers For Daniel Bouton

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by Felix Salmon
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Jan 30 2008 12:00am EDT

Cigarette Smokers For Daniel Bouton

Last week, SocGen CEO Daniel Bouton offered his resignation to the board (chairman: D. Bouton) but it was not accepted. Today, SocGen chairman Daniel Bouton, along with the rest of the board, announced the unanimous support of CEO Daniel Bouton, in the face of pressure from the French government that he should resign.

Bouton doesn't just have the support of Bouton, however. He also has the support of his employees:

Mr. Bouton also got votes of confidence from workers lower down on the hierarchy. At 11 a.m., with the board meeting still going on, about 100 employees exited the tall glass building and spilled onto the sidewalk to show their solidarity with Mr. Bouton...
Word of the spontaneous show of employee support spread by email and word of mouth. The workers milled around in light rain, silently smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. After a half an hour, they all returned inside to work.

You take your support where you can get it, I suppose. But a cigarette break? Somehow I don't think that's going to keep Bouton in his job, not even in France.

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