When bosses face pressure to return their lucre upon leaving

AFTER selling his ailing company to Microsoft, Nokia's boss, Stephen Elop, is facing calls to return some of his €18.8m ($25m) pay-off. Finns are furious; the prime minister calls the compensation "outrageous". But compared to other controversial golden handshakes–in which the bosses were under pressure to voluntarily give some of the money back–it is rather tame. The boss of UnitedHealth, William McGuire, was awarded a whopping $286m when he stepped down in 2006 (though regulators forced him to return it and about $150m more). Many bosses have had to pay back some or all of their pay-offs. For example, Stan O'Neal of Merrill Lynch eyed $216m but settled for a mere $162m. Novartis' Daniel Vasella took $3m in cash and around $2m in shares–though initially expected $78m. Wendelin Wiedeking of Porsche was pressed to give half his pay-off to charity. In Mr Elop's case, he has reportedly refused to return his compensation because he is going through a divorce.