When E.F. Hutton talks to its employees these days, they are expected not only to listen but also to take out their crayons. Last week the firm began distributing, at a cost of $50,000, The Hutton Neighborhood Coloring Book and a box of crayons to its 18,500 workers. The purpose is to boost staff morale, which was battered by Hutton's 1985 guilty plea to a check-overdraft scheme and further bruised by the company's $90 million loss last year.
The book tells of troubles in the E.F. Hutton neighborhood: slumping lemonade sales and rough times with kids like Merrill Lynch. Presenting a...