Ball Bearings That Paid Off

I pause from my meanderings through mid-life as a hard charging member of corporate America, to throw major props to the Spungen family of Waukegan, Illinois.

Laurence and Florence Spunger were third generation owners of Peer Bearing Co., a ball bearing manufacturer. They recently sold their family owned company to a Swedish corporation, making this Thanksgiving a bittersweet one for the 230 employees of Peer Bearing.

Maintaining tradition, each employee received a turkey from the Spungens for their final Thanksgiving together. They also got a little stuffing with their bird.

6.6 million dollars.

The Spungen family chose to share their windfall of the company sale with their employees as a final sendoff of gratitude. Bonuses were determined by tenure with the company, yielding veteran laborers well in excess of $30,000.

Such a gesture is entirely unheard of in our current world of Wall Street corporate merge and acquisition, where loyalty given to the company is rarely recognized or returned.