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Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’

fortune.com

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Re: Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’

#81

Post by throwaway74432 »

salad-tycoon wrote: post #62
hilbert42 wrote: post #61

"Bayer, the 160-year-old German company known for inventing aspirin, has been stuck in a rut:..." More accurately that should read: "Bayer, the 160-year-old German company known for inventing aspirin and co-inventing then widely commercializing heroin (diacetylmorphine), has been stuck in a rut:..." Bayer's chemist Felix Hoffmann synthesised heroin just short of two weeks after that of aspirin in 1897. Bayer thought…

It’s even worse than that. Bayer is infamous for its letters that survived of it negotiating to buy 150 Jewish women for experiments. They were on good condition, they all died from the experimental sleeping pill. They also tested vaccines. Also its parent company made zyklon B. Example of the letter: “Received the order for 150 women. Despite their macerated condition they were considered satisfactory. We will keep…

And people are flabbergasted at the healthy skepticism towards pharmaceutical companies, when they literally treat people like expendable cattle at every chance they get.

Re: Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’

#82

Post by detourdog »

huytersd wrote: post #78
csnover wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the time someone has entered the workforce it should not be necessary to be ‘checked on’ by some surrogate parental figure. In a functioning workplace, everyone agrees to do their work because it is part of the social contract of working on a team. They don’t need to be told what to do. If someone is falling behind, they’ll talk to other team members and work together to get back on track. You are there to help yo…

This isn’t realistic thinking. The above doesn’t exist anywhere.

The above definitely exists all over. The group usually hires based on personality. Generally these organizations are very centered and know what qualities they are looking for in a a team mate.

Re: Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’

#83

Post by nradov »

naasking wrote: post #27
azinman2 wrote: post #22

But how would this really work? Someone wants to create a new drug, but it’ll cost millions of euros and years of trials to bring to the market. Who approves and commits?

Build a coalition of people who work in various departments, legal, marketing, research, etc. with enough momentum that could be enough to earn the credibility required. Another possibility is straight up democratic voting. These large investments place the company in financial peril, so maybe everyone should have a day. There are many ways to organize, hierarchical top-down control is useful but overused.

Ultimately someone has to approve the expense. Who makes that decision?

Re: Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’

#86

Post by yau8edq12i »

huytersd wrote: post #41
smcleod wrote: post #12

I’ve worked in an environment where there are no managers for 4 1/2 years and it’s been fantastic. Here’s to getting rid of them in most (but certainly not all!) places.

Who checks on if you’ve completed your assigned work. This can only be possible in an academic/non profit environment where there are no deadlines or fixed client commitments.

No deadlines or fixed commitments in academia? Surely you're joking.

Re: Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’

#88

Post by [deleted] »

hilbert42 wrote: post #61

"Bayer, the 160-year-old German company known for inventing aspirin, has been stuck in a rut:..." More accurately that should read: "Bayer, the 160-year-old German company known for inventing aspirin and co-inventing then widely commercializing heroin (diacetylmorphine), has been stuck in a rut:..." Bayer's chemist Felix Hoffmann synthesised heroin just short of two weeks after that of aspirin in 1897. Bayer thought…

[deleted]

Re: Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’

#89

Post by kqr2 »

agent86 wrote: post #43

Valve - the PC gaming giant and owner of Steam - is very famously a flat organization. Their Handbook for New Employees[1] that goes into detail about how they operate has made its way out into the world a few times as well. [1] - https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/apps/valve/Valve_NewE...

That handbook is from 2012 so 12 years old now. Are there any updates?

Re: Bayer is getting rid of bosses and asking staff to ‘self-organize’

#90

Post by sargun »

jareklupinski wrote: post #77
bjornsing wrote: post #34

> Stewart Butterfield, former CEO of Slack, recently described a dynamic within tech companies behind much of the over-hiring. He noted on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast in late May that when there’s no real constraint on hiring, “you hire someone, and the first thing that person wants to do is hire other people.” The reason is that “the more people who report to you, the higher your prestige, the more your power in th…

> “You say you were the chief, how big was your tribe?” "Big enough to hunt woolly mammoth"

That will be my reply whenever the next person asks how big the team I used to run was.
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