Did Patrick Hylton really set up his own private gym at NCB HQ office?

The boss is not happy.

He now finds out that his two top executive have kitted out and set up a gym adjacent to their offices for their exclusive use.

Having to address the lack of dividend pay-outs for over two years, customer complaints, lack-lustre quarterly performances, exorbitant compensation demands, Michael Lee-Chin has announced that he will be at the helm and running things from now on.

Rolling his sleeves up, he has now discovered that a private gym was set up and that his CEO and deputy CEO lived like kings while he was ensconced in Canada.

He put out a video on social media for all to see.

Some might say this is another nail in Hylton and Cohen’s coffin and that their legacy is being diminished as NCB goes forward with a new mantra – Efficiency, Governance and Customer experience (EGC), spearheaded by Lee-Chin.

Fat cat excesses are now a thing of the past.

Hylton and Cohen may well argue that spending over 12 hours a day at the office necessitated them needing to exercise. Having a gym nearby made them more proficient; a healthy mind needs a healthy body and all that.

There are senior executives that have equipment in their offices allowing them to get in a workout and then get back to work quickly. Fitness is essential for performance.

The question is did Hylton and Cohen tell Lee-Chin and the board about this? Perhaps they should have run it by them – corporate governance, transparency and all that .

Both NCB hot shots are approaching sixty so they have to watch it. They don’t want a “Mr Big” experience. When you get to a certain age you don’t want to overdo it at the gym. Both staff and shareholders would be mortified if either of them keeled over with a heart attack.

This wouldn’t have been an issue if they had a treadmill or exercise bike in their office with some weights.

In the United States, Al Denson, head of the Birmingham Airport Authority, put in his personal gym at the airport. He didn’t think the rules applied to him. The Birmingham Airport Authority board reported Denson to the Alabama Ethics Commission and hired outside lawyers to investigate whether the gym built for his personal use broke the law or was a CEO’s self-indulgence.

What’s becoming clear here is Hylton and Cohen didn’t aways dot their i’s and cross their t’s.

There’s little wrong in having an office gym, in fact that can most beneficial. I guess what grates here is the exclusivity of this set up.

Some have said that this was petty and after the billions they made for NCB, how can you now begrudge them, after all they practically lived at NCB.

Others are of the view that this was emblematic of the way the place was managed and the very least they could have done is informed the building maintenance manager that they would be putting in place a private gym.

We all need to hear both Patrick and Dennis’ side of the story.

As to the staff gym on premises – perhaps they felt uncomfortable exercising with line staff or perhaps they felt staff would feel uneasy working-out in close proximity to their bosses.

Who knows? Maybe it was a case of being able to get an instantaneous workout and massage and then get back at it without having to navigate the madding crowd.

Did NCB pay for this gym or did it come out of Patrick and Dennis’ pockets?

At the end of the day, the top boss was not happy and that is what comes across.