“It is expressly understood and agreed that the Executive may not be available for corporate matters during such times that he is providing care for his children.”
The contract provision goes on to say that “participation … in philanthropic, community education and/or charitable activities during the normal business week” will also be considered “in furtherance of the Executive’s duties of his employment…”
Our first thought was that this showed unusual, and unusually compassionate, flexibility in the face of what is presumably an extremely difficult time for Shacknai; none of the flexible working conditions were mentioned in an 8-K summarizing the agreement filed on June 30.
But in fact the agreement appears to have preceded both incidents at Shacknai’s house: It’s dated June 24, suggesting that the company was comfortable with this extreme form of executive flextime even in the ordinary course of business.
And it turns out that some of the flextime provisions have been in his contract for a while, in one form or another. For example, while his original contract (filed with the Medicis 10-K in August 1996), contemplated that he would “devote substantially all of his time, energy and skill during regular business hours to the performance of the duties of his employment,” an amendment on April 1, 1999 (filed with a 10-Q on May 15, 2001), specified that only 2-1/2 days of the workweek would have to be in the office. The amendment continues:
“The Executive shall be available to meet with Company personnel, attend telephonic meetings and participate in other corporate matters, as appropriate, from his home during the remaining periods of the normal business week, provided that the Executive’s children are not in his care at such time. It is expressly understood and agreed that the Executive shall not be available for corporate matters when his children are in his care. The Executive has elected to apply his vacation time to facilitation of this amended schedule.”