By Stacie Clifford Kitts, CPA

Throughout my years in the business community, I have heard of employees getting fired because he or she was not a “team player.” The underlying issues varied from self promotion which damaged the company to a general disregard for the job.

For whatever reason, employees who are not team players, do not have the company’s best interest in the forefront of their activities. In contrast, company’s who are successful in promoting team play, or a common attitude regarding the goals of the company, often see higher performing employees and as a consequence a bigger bottom line.

But has the notion of team play fallen away with our current economic crisis?

That seems to be the case at American International Group or better known as “AIG”. Today the New York Times reported that the company will pay out over 165 million dollars in bonuses to executives who work in the company’s financial products unit. The same division of the company that generated record losses and was the driving force behind the government bailout. Despite the objection of treasury secretary Geithner and other lawmakers, the payments will go forward because the company is contractually obligated to pay.

But with all this talk about the company’s obligation to pay, who is asking if the exec’s are obligated to take it? The fact that the company is going through with these bonuses suggests to a reasonable person that the executives are pushing for them.

Although it may be in the best interest of the executive, it certainly is not in the best interest of the company. And it certainly is not in the best interest of the taxpayers who are financing these bonuses for the same people who caused the problem in the first place.

I have to admit, I think this sticks.

In this particular case, the exec’s at AIG who are forcing the company to honor their contracts despite the economic instability of the organization certainly don’t come off as team players. But maybe that explains the company’s current predicament . Company Executive + greed – team player = government bailout

Too bad we can’t ask them to wear sandwich boards that say “I am an executive at AIG and I’m not a team player”. Yes I know that won’t solve anything, but it would make me feel a tiny bit better.