Perks

Come summertime, many employees at public relations and marketing firm Imre Communications in Towson take off early Fridays to jump-start their beach weekend, spend a mother-daughter day at the salon or to run errands. At 1 p.m., "the stampede starts," said Martha Mallonee, Imre's vice president in charge of associations accounts. But Mallonee and the other 20 or so stampeders on a recent Friday weren't playing hooky. It's company policy. Imre's half-days on Fridays is one example of how employers are offering flexible hours and schedules during summer's hazy days when distractions are plenty, workplace consultants say. Of course, managers still expect work to be completed, deadlines to be met and offices to be staffed.

Some say the age of company-paid golf memberships, vacations and financial advice is waning for corporate bigwigs. "You're actually seeing CEOs coming along saying, `Take my country club - please!' " says Steven Hall, a New York-based executive-compensation consultant. If so, many local companies haven't heard. Executive perquisites are alive and well in Maryland - especially in Towson, where Black & Decker CEO Nolan Archibald enjoyed club membership, a car and driver, personal use of company planes and other perks worth $584,374 last year, according to a recently filed proxy statement.

My fully organic father-in-law retired from gardening and withdrew to an assisted-living community in southern Pennsylvania, where he still manages to plant leeks, tomatoes and shallots between the shrubs. (Please don't tell anyone; it might be a code violation.) He's a generous man, but now he only grows enough vegetables and herbs for himself and his wife, so we no longer expect to receive the gifts of Swiss chard, endive, peppers and carrots that used to come by the bushel. And did I mention potatoes?

Next month, a 3-foot Starbucks logo will adorn the historic Main Street facade where inside Revolutionary schemes were once traded over draughts of ale and cider. The opening of the city's third outlet of the worldwide coffee chain in late March will cap a year of securing city approvals and renovations in the Maryland Inn - but it is not likely to decaffeinate the controversy. For a few critics, including Mayor Ellen O. Moyer, another link of the worldwide gourmet coffee chain was about as welcome as the British Redcoats back in Washington's day. She called the idea "a missed opportunity for something really special."

Age discrimination is running rampant in America, and people older than 50 should take full advantage of it. Price discounts abound for the more mature crowd, but you have to know where to look. Joan Rattner Heilman knows. She has written the 2007-2008 edition of Unbelievably Good Deals and Great Adventures That You Absolutely Can't Get Unless You're Over 50. It's important information for the nearly one in four Americans older than 50. Their ranks are swelling every day, and businesses have noticed this group and its huge buying power.

No doubt a lot of people were appalled at the news that Thomas L. Bromwell, the former Baltimore County state senator soon to be tried on federal corruption charges, is getting $400,000 and 18 months of health benefits to voluntarily step down from a plum state job. But let's make sure the public is indignant about the right thing. The problem is not the amount of money involved (a sum determined at the time of his hiring) or his potential guilt (because that's yet to be decided). It's the Annapolis insider mentality that puts a veteran legislator in such a job in the first place and keeps him there as long as possible.

Jennifer Torgerson, a full-time lecturer at Coppin State University since 1999, frequently teaches six courses every semester, nearly double the instructional workload of a typical university professor. For her labors, the 38-year-old philosophy instructor with two master's degrees receives a base salary of about $33,000, plus overtime, but no health insurance, retirement plan or other fringe benefits afforded to most regular full-time state employees. Despite personal difficulties - she has $45,000 in debts from graduate school and can't afford the $4,000 annual cost of a health insurance policy - Torgerson hasn't considered quitting.

State lottery officials who once introduced pine-scented tickets to Maryland's gambling enthusiasts are banking that holiday shoppers will also fork over $20 for a shot at a $1 million stocking stuffer. The state's first-of-its-kind raffle will have a limited run -- 420,000 tickets -- with winners announced on television New Year's Eve. "The style of this -- with a definite start and stop date during the holidays -- we thought would fit well with gift-giving and office parties," said Jimmy White, a spokesman for the Maryland Lottery, the proceeds of which go to the general fund of the state treasury.

The top two SafeNet Inc. executives, who resigned last week as a result of a stock options investigation, have agreed not to cash in most of their options pending a determination of whether they were fired or resigned, a process that could take months. Anthony A. Caputo, former chairman and chief executive of the Harford County encryption company, and Carole Argo, who was president, chief operating officer and acting chief financial officer, agreed not to exercise options that the company finds were improperly dated and for which it will have to take a charge, according to a SafeNet filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Why hasn't Eli Lilly & Co. stock performed better? It's a big retirement holding of mine. - R.C., via the Internet Although the pharmaceutical giant will continue to be a big-time player, its lowered expectations for the rest of this year have taken a toll on its stock. After previously forecasting 7 percent to 9 percent sales growth for 2006, management now expects results in the lower end of that range. That's due in part to disappointing sales of its insulin drugs. It also faces increased competition for its Zyprexa antipsychotic medication, which is its top-selling drug but has seen its sales slip slightly in the United States.