SiliconBeat

The compensation committee of Echelon’s board of directors has decided to “forgo specific financial or operating performance requirements” under its management bonus plan this year, “given the current uncertain economic environment.”

Instead, all its named officers will need to do to receive their bonuses, which are to be paid out in shares of company stock, is to remain breathing and employed with the company as of March 1, 2010, according to a filing today with the SEC.

Citing the “importance of continuity among Echelon’s management” the company decided to substitute a time-based vesting requirement for the disbursement of bonuses totaling 107,544 shares worth a combined $644,189 to five executives, with nearly $375,000 worth of that going to founder and chief executive Ken Oshman.

Let it be said that Oshman is one of the least-paid CEOs in Silicon Valley, who was paid a $105,000 salary in 2007 along with stock and options worth $1.5 million. Nevertheless, is Echelon really in danger of losing Oshman, the company’s single largest stockholder, who owns 4.45 million shares, or 11 percent of the company?

For many employees in Silicon Valley, their bonus this time next year will be simply still having a job.