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Even your boss wants to quit

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Re: Even your boss wants to quit

#21

Post by martin_a »

WJW wrote: post #10
pixel_tracing wrote: post #2

As an executive you’re in a position to influence and make changes for folks below you, I guess they really don’t give a shit. Self > team I suppose

The older I get, the more I realize that middle managers (and even C-suite executives) are even more limited in what they can achieve than individual contributors. They have no way to do anything themselves and all "initiatives" they start inevitably get stuck in endless meetings and planning sessions with people that are very invested in status quo. Imagine how much harder the chinese telephone game gets if some peo…

Also: In the middle, bad stuff is raining down on you and bubbling up from the bottom. You can only lose.

Source: Daily experience. :-D

Re: Even your boss wants to quit

#22

Post by bachmeier »

johnwheeler wrote: post #3

I’ve been wondering how the great resignation narrative will fare with the looming recession.

You raise a good point, but not necessarily the one you intended. "Looming recession" is not an accurate characterization. "Possible recession" is, and frankly, the probability might not be that high. On the one hand we see stories about the great resignation and blaming the government for overheating the economy and causing inflation. On the other we hear claims, based on limited evidence, that we're obviously heading into a recession.

Re: Even your boss wants to quit

#23

Post by civilized »

> Asked if they'd taken any steps to help staffers mellow out, 20% of C-suiters said they'd banned after-hours emailing, and 35% said they make employees take breaks during the day.

Because the boss applying more corporate coercion to subordinates is clinically proven to help them relax.

Every morning I meditate on the peace that only a corporate hierarchy policing my every action can bring.

Re: Even your boss wants to quit

#24

Post by mikkergp »

cs137 wrote: post #12
beebmam wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boomers are leaving the labor market without as many people replacing them, creating a labor crunch. COVID accelerated that process. It's not much more complicated than that

That's a factor too, and I think that as Millennials and Xers realize that the BoomerJobs--the jobs in which you actually have some choice in what you work on, where you write your own performance review because the boss sees you as a friend rather than an exploitable resource--aren't going to be allocated to them, but written out of existence, we will see an acceleration of the discouragement and "presenteeism" that…

> BoomerJobs--the jobs in which you actually have some choice in what you work on, where you write your own performance review

Yes, boomers had better pay where a middle class blue collar job could afford you a nice house and kids in the suburbs, but this idea you quote, I'd need much more data on because the entire culture of being a boomer is much more top down, listen to your boss, do what your told then the modern culture.

Re: Even your boss wants to quit

#25

Post by subsubzero »

willcipriano wrote: post #4

I wouldn't want my bosses job. I don't think it pays all that much more than mine but it requires a lot of days full of meetings and late nights. I may even do better on a hourly basis. I think some people get wrapped up in the headline salary number (XXX,XXX per year, that's a lot of money!) and never break it down into a hourly number to see if it's actually a better deal.

What people don't realize is the job that pays 30% or so more than your current job requires alot more work and a ton more stress, and for me that is not worth the extra money - which by the way most of which goes to taxes anyway. I really feel like it doesn't "pay" to move up in an org mainly due to the extremely high tax hit along with stress the title comes with.

Re: Even your boss wants to quit

#27

Post by mikkergp »

There was some other comment about how objectively good things are right now and how good the future looks for most of the world(humans, not environment) and it makes me wonder if somehow the better things are the worse things get since wealth is still so unevenly distributed. With all the talk about work-life balance and the great resignation and worker power, I have to imagine that maybe 50 years ago if you were poor you had a better sense that there was no way out, but as your situation improves you get more hope that you become middle class and more frustrated when you don't achieve it.

Which is all to say that if executives are inspired to move to four day work weeks and better work-life balance, will this trickle down to blue collar/minimum wage jobs (i.e. Musk advocating for 9-9-6)

Re: Even your boss wants to quit

#28

Post by civilized »

nicolas_t wrote: post #20
WJW wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The older I get, the more I realize that middle managers (and even C-suite executives) are even more limited in what they can achieve than individual contributors. They have no way to do anything themselves and all "initiatives" they start inevitably get stuck in endless meetings and planning sessions with people that are very invested in status quo. Imagine how much harder the chinese telephone game gets if some peo…

That's been my experience moving from individual contributor to c suite exec. As an individual contributor, I was free to just do what I thought was best for the company and contribute to any project that I thought I could add the most value. As a c-suite exec, I spend most of my time in meetings that lead to very little change and I look on with a bit of envy on ICs who get to improve things without asking for permi…

You're at the top. Why can't you choose to do things differently? Who or what else are you waiting on?

Re: Even your boss wants to quit

#29

Post by idiotsecant »

subsubzero wrote: post #25
willcipriano wrote: post #4

I wouldn't want my bosses job. I don't think it pays all that much more than mine but it requires a lot of days full of meetings and late nights. I may even do better on a hourly basis. I think some people get wrapped up in the headline salary number (XXX,XXX per year, that's a lot of money!) and never break it down into a hourly number to see if it's actually a better deal.

What people don't realize is the job that pays 30% or so more than your current job requires alot more work and a ton more stress, and for me that is not worth the extra money - which by the way most of which goes to taxes anyway. I really feel like it doesn't "pay" to move up in an org mainly due to the extremely high tax hit along with stress the title comes with.

There isn't a tax bracket in the US where most of any income goes to taxes. There should be though!

Re: Even your boss wants to quit

#30

Post by galdosdi »

cs137 wrote: post #5
johnwheeler wrote: post #3

I’ve been wondering how the great resignation narrative will fare with the looming recession.

"Great resignation" is mostly that, a narrative. Workers aren't actually becoming powerful. They're just slightly less powerless, and everyone knows it's transient--barring an overthrow of corporate capitalism, but I think we all know that such things are unpredictable--which is why people are itchy to move now before things go back to how they were and everyone is stuck in place for a while. It's good for cappie PR…

I do not agree that the popular message about increasing labor power in the labor market is beneficial for the capital/employer class. A laborer will more easily dabble with unions or with negotiating harder, etc, when they feel the market is good for them. In fact, that's exactly what we have been seeing, an uptick in union activity. Even if the underlying market strength were not real, it could be a self fulfilling prophecy.

If anything the reverse is true, and a general message that it's hard to find a job is much more benefecial for the capital/employer class, who would then find laborers who are happy to accept anything they can get and have no interest in taking the risk necessary to start or join a union

PS: The last time unions started doing well in the US was also a time when labor was in scarce supply just after WWII. Europe had been destroyed and the USA was the China of the day, but even moreso, in that almost the entire surviving industrial capacity of the world was in the USA. A laborer in the USA, able and willing to operate a factory machine, was thus in terrific, just terrific demand. Unionization happens in good for labor times, to prepare for bad for labor times, not the other way around.

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