Back in the day, when GE was still one of the most powerful and valuable conglomerates on Earth, it had an array of substantial employee benefits, but none was as coveted as the SUPP—shorthand for the “supplemental pension.” The SUPP was bestowed at the sole discretion of the C.E.O., and provided a lifetime of annual pension payments derived from a formula based on a senior executive’s age, and their highest three years of compensation, all-in, inclusive of both salary and bonus. It was meant to be an employee-retention tool, and now has as many as 4,000 beneficiaries, both GE retirees and current employees. “It is very generous,” one SUPP grantee told me.