7.
THE GIFT
By Harris A. Neil
Tom Lyle Williams at his
home in Bel Air California,
May, 1968 click to enlarge
On
a Saturday in late May, 1968 all eligible Maybelline employees
received a letter by registered mail with an announcement—and a
check. The announcement was in a letter signed by T. L., and routed
through the First National Bank of Chicago, Trust Department. “It outlined an employee gift that T. L. had put together, whereby each employee would receive a gift of $1000 tax free for each year of employment, from date of hire to December 31, 1967.”
The first year was not in the count, possibly to consider the recent
influx of new people in the Plough era. So the count began one year
after a person’s date of hire and ended on January 31, 1967. In
further detail, the announcement explained that, under current IRS
Regulations, there was a limit of $3000 allowed to both parties tax
free, so the total gift, if large enough, would be divided into
annual installments of $3000 each. The first check, as large as
$3000, was included with the announcement as the first or total
payment, depending on eligibility.
That
Monday morning the joy was everywhere, people cried and hugged each
other, and it was hard to get any work done. Over a short time the
word got out to the Plough group as they visited Chicago, and their
reaction was one of “sour grapes.” They already expressed views
that we were overpaid as a group, and now this! That didn't dampen
our collective joy; it was something they’d just have to get over.
It’s
hard to relate the impact of this gift across the Maybelline work
group. The amount, $1000 for each year of service, applied to every
employ without regard to pay level or position with the company.
Thus, you could say that it helped the lower-placed person more than
a more advanced supervisor or manager. Also, there was no upper
eligibility as to time of employment, so a more veteran employee was
in for a larger share. In the extreme, I believe this
meant
that the longest-serving employee came in for around $33,000, in
equal payments of $3000 annually with a final finishing payment to
cover all eligible time.
How
much was this gift worth, in total? I have no idea, except that it
ran into many thousands of dollars. Despite the magnitude of T.
L.’s generosity, the gift got absolutely no notice. It escaped
media attention, which was very much T. L.’s nature, and the way he
would want it.
Almost
more than the monetary value of the gift, it gave every person
receiving it a big morale boost right when they needed it. Soon
enough, the company would be moved physically, first to Memphis then
to North Little Rock, Arkansas. To my knowledge, only two people from
the “Old Maybelline” group made it to North Little Rock. It was
over.
Stay tuned tomorrow as Harris A. Niel Jr. continues...