I’m amused at the frequency the accusation is uttered that Jeff Skilling instituted the PRC, or Performance Review Committee, at Enron Corporation. I’m also amused that it’s usually uttered in a long, disjointed sentence, like: “Jeff Skilling started the blackout in California and millions of people were ripped off and he had off balance sheet companies and he started the PRC and also he killed Cliff Baxter.”
That last one was from Sherron Watkins, but the rest are just cobbled allegations from random people who generally do not have the “world stage” that Sherron has (she loves that phrase so I’m using it here.)
It is time to put this old yellow dog down once and for all.
Here’s my defense of the PRC in an oystershell: SO WHAT?
Fact is, if you have a job with any responsibility whatsoever, you are likely to receive performance reviews from your bosses, if not also your peers. An annual review or six month review is common. This is completely standard – even genre in business.
The PRC was a process of getting feedback from your bosses and peers. There was nothing sexy or glamorous or illegal about it. That’s all it was.
It is alleged in Conspiracy of Fools that Andy Fastow occasionally pulled some dirty tricks to screw other teams out of their bonuses, but that wasn’t common. One former Enron executive told me he was at the PRC and out of nowhere, Andy began to attack his guys, arguing that they weren’t producing. The exec stood up to him and he backed down. So it wasn’t even as if Andy Fastow could just blatantly take money from the pockets of others. He encountered resistance. And sometimes he backed down.
I think people who are offended by those stories are so fragile that they should live in hermetically sealed bubbles. They’re so unable to accept any sense of competition or aggression that even the ordinary clashes that are part of any organization terrify them into believing it’s illegal or wrong.
Personally I like the arguments. I like the clashing, the fighting, the strategizing. I like that there are some things that are important and worth fighting over. The men in those skyscrapers weren’t baking Lady Baltimore Cakes and knitting doilies. They were creative, aggressive men trying to create something important. I like having some red meat thrown at them to see who comes out on top.
Enron Online: The Enron Blog 
Could you tell us where, when and how often Sherron Watkins accuses Skilling of killing
Baxter directly or indirectly? That is not only wrong it is mean. She is supposed to have ethics now right? Is this false claim ethical? Does she have proof? How about her collaborating with Fastow and his team for over 6 months on the sales of the EBS Network to an off balance sheet deal and pitching it to Skilling and Lay. She knew things most employees did not and certainly the public did not know. She is a full blown insider trader. I guess she feels guilty so she has to point a finger at others to move the blame off of her.
All good points.
She wrote in her Daily Beast blog post that:
That was a coy remark about Baxter, I believe.
She is the lowest of the low. Andy Fastow was a bastard and a thief but he had least had the redeeming quality of being creative and inventive. Sherron Watkins doesn’t even have that. She’s a leech, constantly deriving from others. And Andy accused Jeff of a lot of dirty things, but he never went so far as to accuse him of KILLING SOMEONE.
Interesting…Mrs. Watkins had much more to do with Cliff’s death than any other single person. Whatever helps you get through the night, Sherron.
I agree with that statement. I think Sherron Watkins is a despicable person – a truly evil person.