Letting down his Harvard MBA spouse.
Yeah I can relate to that.
Humblebrag.
Success at Work, Failure at Home
101–110 of 169 posts
Re: Success at Work, Failure at Home
#102So what I'm reading here is why CEOs shouldn't go to the office on weekends and check their mail at dinner. What's glaringly absent from the second part of this article is not asking the engineers to come in on weekends, either. Those guys have families and their negligible equity certainly doesn't justify 80-hour weeks. It sounds to me like the author would rather have gone home on weekends while the engineers staye…
Indeed: the writer comes off as a major narcissist, with a minor in status display ("Harvard MBA/VP Wife").
I suppose a near-total lack of empathy for your fellow man is, if not defendable, at least an understandable trait for a CEO working an engineering team to death, and then moaning about how "generously" buying them dinner every Sunday night was impacting his family life, until he could cash out based on their efforts.
Re: Success at Work, Failure at Home
#103So what I'm reading here is why CEOs shouldn't go to the office on weekends and check their mail at dinner. What's glaringly absent from the second part of this article is not asking the engineers to come in on weekends, either. Those guys have families and their negligible equity certainly doesn't justify 80-hour weeks. It sounds to me like the author would rather have gone home on weekends while the engineers staye…
I think you are reading into it too much.
Everybody can only speak from their own experience. I don't know Scott and never worked in his startup, but I suspect that what he may be angling at is the fact that as CEO he sets the tone of the company.
I can't speak for him, but I suspect that if he felt like he needed to enforce more work-life balance for himself, he would perhaps do the same for his employees....given that he sets the tone for the organization.
Re: Success at Work, Failure at Home
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Each time I read madness as 60h/w, 70h/w or the wtf 80h/w I am really happy to live and work on EU. I think I would fall in depression really fast if I had to sacrifice (because over a certain limit, to me, it is only sacrifice) so much of my time and passion. Also in my opinion, ever over a certain limit (For me is 50h/w), the productivity of an engineer just vanish. I prefer work to live against live to work.
And just think, Americans (and Canadians) also get much less vacation time than Europeans! Geniuses!
I guess the European peons did learn some lessons from all the centuries of oppression under the feudal nobility. The Americans never had that experience, so they bought into the company line hook line and sinker.
Re: Success at Work, Failure at Home
#105So what I'm reading here is why CEOs shouldn't go to the office on weekends and check their mail at dinner. What's glaringly absent from the second part of this article is not asking the engineers to come in on weekends, either. Those guys have families and their negligible equity certainly doesn't justify 80-hour weeks. It sounds to me like the author would rather have gone home on weekends while the engineers staye…
I think you are reading into it too much. Everybody can only speak from their own experience. I don't know Scott and never worked in his startup, but I suspect that what he may be angling at is the fact that as CEO he sets the tone of the company. I can't speak for him, but I suspect that if he felt like he needed to enforce more work-life balance for himself, he would perhaps do the same for his employees....given t…
Sure, but in reality they did work 7-day weeks and he did get a massive payoff. To express the theoretical desire to have better work/life balance is meaningless without a sincere expression of which part of his fortune he'd trade for it.
Re: Success at Work, Failure at Home
#106My wife and I are going through this right now. My wife has a senior director position in a multi-billion dollar financial company, and I am a programmer at a startup. We just had a child several months ago, and it's been very hard trying to balance work and life. It's actually the hardest thing we've both had to do in our lives. Her job is a minimum of 60-hrs per week, but luckily I'm able to limit my work to 40-hrs…
Nearly identical situation, newborn kid. I'm at a place now where working 40 hours a week is not unusual or looked down upon. It's still a successful web company. I ended up here having worked anywhere from 50-100 hour weeks in academia, by following the "deathbed principle:" when deciding whether to do X, imagine yourself on your deathbed, and decide if you would wish you had done X or more of X. It puts things nicely in perspective. I now sleep well at night (well, kid permitting) and don't feel bad about not killing myself with work. There are certainly coworkers who work more hours, and no doubt they will get better bonuses/promotions but that's fine by me.
Re: Success at Work, Failure at Home
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really depends on the kid's age. Younger kids (less than 10yrs) are not able to grasp the concept of money or earning money, so explaining that dad is out making money for a roof over their head and putting food on the table is not going to cut it. At that age, they just want close interaction with their dad.
Really? My 4-year-old gets anxious when I take the day off or even if it is a national holiday. She says I'm supposed to be at work so the family doesn't get hungry. Saturday and Sunday are family days she tells me. I'm not sure about children being born with the expectation of fatherly company. Historically it wasn't universal. Some native Americans had separate housing for men and for women and children. In other a…
sorry, but your story sounds like absolute bullshit to me.
Re: Success at Work, Failure at Home
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
And just think, Americans (and Canadians) also get much less vacation time than Europeans! Geniuses!
I guess the European peons did learn some lessons from all the centuries of oppression under the feudal nobility. The Americans never had that experience, so they bought into the company line hook line and sinker.
If you're going to attribute history to why the workforce in Europe is the way it is, then the American expectation of the peons to work all the time is because the US never got over having slave labour.
BTW that line of thinking is ridiculous. Europeans and Americans learned about feudalism the same way, from history books. No one who was around when labour laws were going into effect has first, second or third hand knowledge of feudalism, slavery or working conditions during the Industrial Revolution.
Re: Success at Work, Failure at Home
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not the point. The management team is showing solidarity with their team by serving them in the only (more symbolic than economically valuable) ways that they can. It's a symbolic (but real) sharing of the sacrifice, not a straight up bribe. Same reason I've come in on Christmas night (we scheduled the work after the families are reasonably in bed, but the calendar still said "12/25") to spend time with my tea…
But who plans a New Year's Eve datacenter migration? What kind of major site maintenance is needed on Christmas? It's one thing if it's an unplanned emergency. It's another entirely if it's planned. Planning for work on Christmas or New Year's Eve would be enough to convince me to find employment elsewhere.
exactly.
Re: Success at Work, Failure at Home
#110Thanks Scott. Great post, really resonated with me as a recently (successfully) exited founder. You were the most helpful, empathetic, & constructive "No" I got from a VC.