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CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

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Re: CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

#211

Post by hintymad »

alooPotato wrote: post #199
hintymad wrote: post #196

What I don't understand is why tech companies don't believe that they can enforce a high-performance culture without return-to-office. With or without remote work, the way we evaluate one's performance has not changed, right? Then, why can't we enforce the same expectation of engineers and teams? We break down a project into milestones, and we hold teams accountable to delivering the milestones on time and on budget.…

You let "hold teams accountable" do a lot of lifting. I think whats happening is that non-technical leaders can't assess why projects aren't being delivered. No engineer is going to say "sorry I wasn't really working that hard, thats why we missed". Instead there will be some rationale as to why the project couldn't ship on time - not enough resources, incomplete spec, tech debt, whatever. Non-technical leaders want…

> I think whats happening is that non-technical leaders can't assess why projects aren't being delivered

Which says a lot about the leadership. :-)

Re: CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

#212

Post by seoulmetro »

fourseventy wrote: post #75
davidmurphy wrote: post #37

Workers should not return to the office. WFH or remote work should be permanent for all -- CEOs and low level staffers.

[flagged]

Laptop class? You mean like the fresh outdoors class (labourers)? There's no hat benefit indoors.. Let's not let them wear hats outdoors as they already enjoy an extremely high quality of life.

This is all I hear.

Re: CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

#213

Post by mingusrude »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #174
andirk wrote: post #35

CEOs of medium/large companies are the face of the company which means making a couple key decisions per week (a few work hours) and meeting with current/prospective clients (leisure activities). Coupled with making far more $ than the rest of the employees, I suspect they're both bored at the office and feel downgraded to a regular employee. Thus, out-of-office with nothing to show. But if the company is _coincident…

I’ve worked closely with the CEOs of a few big companies. People see a few moments of glamor and think that is the job but the vast majority of what they do is an astonishingly shitty and thankless job. You have to be a certain kind of masochist to do what is required in that role day after day. You are also never off the clock, so they never really get a proper break to recharge and prevent burnout. No one with any…

I did a period of two years as the CEO of a smallish tech-company (~ 100 employees, turnover of 15M€) and it was stressful as hell even if we were doing OK financially. The big thing is that you're the last defender, everything difficult or uncomfortable task ends with you having to pick it up, for everyone it's a choice to pass it on to the next level but for you it isn't. This combined with the monthly "grades" in terms of commercial result which was new to me coming from a tech background was tough. In the end I chose to go back to tech but it's not something that I want undone, it was a learning experience and these days I'm a lot more careful to let things slip through to the next layer.

Re: CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

#214

Post by Scarblac »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #92
Aloha wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We just send out an email when the boss is in town and ask folks to come in, and enough people do to make the office seem full - and that works, we will even fly people in sometimes.

It’s a shame you can’t hire extras for the day to make the office lively. Edit: Maybe you can? Check with someone who does local casting?

Share an office with a completely different type of company, for fun?

Re: CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

#215

Post by hughesjj »

sbrother wrote: post #177
tayo42 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in hindsight its amazing anything actually ever got done

Realistically the actual work got done in the evening after going home.

Hell this is still the case for high meeting days

Re: CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

#216

Post by intended »

listenallyall wrote: post #184
intended wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a hypothetical- so no, of course not. I will ask: why is it your CEO doing this, not your sales team? And if your CEO is doing only 4 meetings a year, why can’t they do more ? If you have a billion dollars in revenue per client, how many potential clients can you have ? Won’t they run out of work in a few years? At that point what value does the CEO add ? Will they still be going on trips for meetings which will…

The CEO does it because he's the equal of the other CEO. It shows respect. In huge deals between mega-corps, the sales team has already pitched - likely a lengthy, multi-faceted process over the course of a few months - and the CEO-to-CEO meeting is the final step to close the deal. I'm sorry but this concept should be immediately clear, if not, you really shouldn't be discussing what a CEO should or shouldn't be doi…

I’ll address the argument, before I address the dismissal.

This additional information added narrows the options.

As stated, the CEO is simply a source of prestige, who satisfies the other party’s ego.

None of this, information changes my questions or makes them irrelevant.

If anything, it is clear that the CEO is completely fungible. They are only needed 4 times a year, to satisfy the ego of 4 potential revenue sources.

The core ‘work’ is done by the rest of the firm.

That means, of the 1 bn dollars in revenue that you ascribed to the CEO, they represent a very small part of the actual effort.

What shareholder value do they bring the rest of the year?

In essence - CEO positions are not immune to economic logic. They, like the firm, work for shareholders.

Based on the added data, it would seem that there is reason to take umbrage with CEO privileges - such as their ability to work remotely.

After all, if they are doing nothing the rest of the year, they can be paid less for it.

————

For me, communication is at its core, problem solving.

Stating that someone shouldn’t problem solve, while being oblivious to your own thin hypothetical, is perilously close to ignorance and close mindedness.

It is a certainly a form of gatekeeping, and blindness to one’s own biases.

Why not check our assumptions? They are obvious to you, but

1) Will anyone else come up with those same assumptions given a short 1 para of text?

2) How do yours assumption hold up to scrutiny unless they are exposed and discussed?

TLDR: Providing a hypothetical isn’t a full stop in a discussion. It’s the opposite.

Re: CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

#218

Post by orwin »

ok_dad wrote: post #169
teractiveodular wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the real pain comes from many managers discovering that if they're going to have remote workers, might as well go whole hog and hire them in Bangalore for 1/10th the price instead of paying SV salaries.

That’ll cause real pain for the management. Unless you pay near western market rates, you’re getting the bottom of the barrel in India or anywhere else, much like if you tried to hire US developers for even 50% of the market rate. The low priced contractors do such poor work it’s almost not useful.

Or they'll get hired, get taught really basic shit (chmod/chown) on the job, get a cisco/AWS certificate then leave 6 month later to join a better paying job.

Re: CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

#220

Post by pptr »

hintymad wrote: post #196

What I don't understand is why tech companies don't believe that they can enforce a high-performance culture without return-to-office. With or without remote work, the way we evaluate one's performance has not changed, right? Then, why can't we enforce the same expectation of engineers and teams? We break down a project into milestones, and we hold teams accountable to delivering the milestones on time and on budget.…

One argument I heard is that junior team members benefit from others being in the office.

So there might be a long term benefit to the team, even if individual productivity of high performers goes down slightly.

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