golden - adjective (Business World) In business jargon: involving the payment of a large sum of money or other gifts to an employee. Used in a number of phrases humorously modelled on
golden handshake (a sum of money paid to an employee on retirement or redundancy), including:
golden handcuffs, benefits provided by an employer to make it difficult or unattractive for the employee to leave and work elsewhere;
golden hello, a substantial lump sum over and above the salary package, offered by a prospective employer to a senior
executive as an inducement to
accept a post;
golden parachute, a clause in an executive's contract guaranteeing a substantial sum on
termination of the contract, even if the employee has not performed well;
golden retriever, a
sum of money paid to a person who has already left an employer's staff in order to persuade him or her to return.
Etymology : All of these phrases rely on the association of gold with riches;
golden handcuffs,
golden hello, and
golden parachute consciously alter the earlier
golden handshake, while
golden retriever also relies for its humorous
effect on the pun with the breed of dog of the same name. History and Usage: The phrase
golden handshake dates from the early sixties, but it was not until the late seventies and eighties that the humorous variations on the theme started to be invented:
golden handcuffs came
first in the second half of the seventies, followed
by the
golden hello in the early eighties and the
golden parachute and
golden retriever in the late eighties. The theme of
gold is continued in
other areas of business and marketing in the eighties, for example in the expression
golden bullet for a product that is extremely
successful and
golden share, a controlling interest in a company (especially
one which has recently been privatized), allowing the
golden shareholder (usually the government) to veto undesirable policies. Managers...have private health
insurance , a better than
average pension scheme, a car, and perhaps help
with independent school fees from the company. These '
golden handcuffs' are a hangover from the days of labour shortages and
income policies and higher
tax rates. The Times 4 Apr. 1985, p.
30 It wasn't long before most of RJR Nabisco's top executives 'pulled the rip cords on their
golden parachutes'...Mr. Johnson's alone was worth
53 million. New York Times Book Review 21 Jan. 1990, p.
7 Hordes of graduate recruitment managers would appear on one's doorstep clambering and pushing to make the best golden hello/salary/benefits offer. World Outside: Career Guide 1990, p. 6
