DEAR READERS: I'm going to begin this column with a current events/corporate priorities quiz. Your job is to figure out who was fired and who received a bonus. Please, no wagering.

-- Example One. When a bank robber pushed his backpack in Seattle bank teller Jim Nicholson's face demanding money, Nicholson said his instincts kicked in. He threw the bag to the floor and demanded to see a weapon. When the robber ran, Nicholson tackled him and held him until police arrived.

Fired? Or a bonus?

-- Example Two. The banking industry has written off approximately $1 trillion in losses since the recession began, in addition to receiving hundreds of billions in bailouts from taxpayers.

Fired? Or a bonus?

Answers:

-- Example One. Our robbery-foiling teller was fired. Nicholson foiled this bank robbery on a Tuesday, by Thursday he was fired based on the bank's policy of quickly complying with a robber's demands and avoiding confrontation. Did he potentially put some people at risk? Yes. A verbal warning seems appropriate for not following company rules, but firing him after he saved the bank's money and personally put the robber in jail? That doesn't seem very smart.

-- Example Two. Our wealth-flushing bank employees were given huge bonuses. The banking industry recently paid more than $1 million dollars in bonuses EACH to 4,800 workers after a year in which they lost billions and literally took capitalism to the brink. For example, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. distributed $8.7 billion, a sum far larger than the $5.6 billion in earnings the bank reported. Let me go over this again. The bonuses were larger than the amount of money the bank earned during the preceding year.

If you're keeping score at home, the guy who saved his bank money was fired, the people who lost huge sums of the bank's money got big bonuses. Funded by taxpayers.

We've lost our way when the synonyms for capitalism today are "entitlement" and "avarice," not "outcomes" or "performance." Here are a few suggestions as to how to nudge our corporations back to reality.

1. Bonuses can only be awarded when a company is profitable. Duh!

2. Executive pay should be slashed when a company fails to generate a profit. When a company loses money, the executives should share in the suffering, just like when they lay claim to the benefits when the company does well.

3. Layoffs need to be the last option or there won't be anyone left to buy anything. Every time a corporation lets an employee go, recovery loses one more consumer. We need to get much more creative in ending layoffs.

4. There is one place where we've not seen enough layoffs: the executive suite. I believe that every company that received government bailout checks or TARP funds should can its CEO. Immediately.

Oh, yeah. Jim Nicholson, the fired bank teller, is available. Guts and commitment should be rewarded and this is a darn good place to start.

WORKPLACE911 EXECUTIVE POINTS Continued...