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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

#131

Post by throw10920 »

seizethecheese wrote: post #17

This is engagement bait unless it has stats. What proportion of days are CEOs working remotely, what proportion are professional staff? As someone who has done shift work before, it seems to me that the real dividing line is between professionals and non-progressional, not CEOs vs professionals.

> This is engagement bait unless it has stats

This is correct, and unfortunately describes a nontrivial fraction of articles submitted to HN from traditional media outlets. Use that flag button!

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

#132

Post by klyrs »

theendisney4 wrote: post #114
toomuchtodo wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Best startup idea of the week. Unfamiliar buts in seats. UBIS! the guilt of not knowing anyone

BISAAS?

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

#133

Post by miffy900 »

fourseventy wrote: post #71
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…

Everyone on this site is so anti-C-suite it's crazy. All the standard "big company CEO bad, me entry level employee good" talking points. You would think that a site based on entrepreneurship would have people on it that have more of an understanding of what running a business is actually like.

People are just responding to the article which points out the hypocrisy from C-suite level execs.

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

#134

Post by ryandrake »

slibhb wrote: post #93
fourseventy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone on this site is so anti-C-suite it's crazy. All the standard "big company CEO bad, me entry level employee good" talking points. You would think that a site based on entrepreneurship would have people on it that have more of an understanding of what running a business is actually like.

HN is fairly ideologically diverse. There is a lot of the stuff you're complaining about but there's plenty of the opposite too. Where I work, the people higher than me (remote or not) work constantly, around the clock, to the point where I worry about their health. I also like going into the office 3 days a week. It's a nice space, I like the separation between work and home, and there's good food nearby. As long as…

I'd love to shadow a CxO one day and see for myself how much hard work it is. I have a (likely flawed) picture in my mind of someone who's jetting around the world, constantly on their cell phone all day from Paris in the morning and Tokyo in the evening, saying yes and no to people but not really doing any actual hard labor or much complex cognitive thought-work. But who knows, they live in this parallel universe, physically separated from commoners like me. I've never even seen anyone in my company with a CxO title or even any of their direct reports in the SVP layer. They might as well live in the North Pole.

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

#135

Post by throw10920 »

brigadier132 wrote: post #31
uhtred wrote: post #20

[flagged]

Why is this psychotic rhetoric acceptable? edit: and it always seems to be from keyboard warriors.

It's partially because articles like this draw a large number of zero-effort comments like "rules for thee and not for me" (which already appears five times here), which makes it easier for the psychopaths to feel comfortable enough to comment.

I always take a run through these comment threads and flag every one of these that I see, as they clearly break the HN guidelines. If other people start to do that too, then violent comments like the above will also become less common.

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

#136

Post by ryandrake »

theendisney4 wrote: post #119
randmeerkat wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit: Maybe you can? Check with someone who does local casting? And start an office pool on whether or not the boss even notices that they’re not real employees.

Give them good plot lines like: i dont think ive seen you here before? Do you normally work remote?

It's probably just enough to dress them in business casual, and have them walk around the office looking very serious and busy, talking on their cellphones about business-y stuff. All that matters is the "buzz" and "hum" and "pop" of SeriousBusiness getting done.

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

#137

Post by rtpg »

brandon272 wrote: post #70
rtpg wrote: post #40

A recurring theme in so many startups I've seen inside is how the CEO in particular is extremely aloof with regards to presence. Sometimes that translates to aloofness for staff, but what more often happens is that when the CEO _does_ come in they expect other people to be there. So long as the alignment is good they don't care, but when it's not aligned, they just assume nobody is ever around and get real pissy abou…

> Sometimes that translates to aloofness for staff, but what more often happens is that when the CEO _does_ come in they expect other people to be there. Anecdotally, I have seen companies that have "oscillations" in their WFH policy and this, in my experience, has often been the driver of it. Instead of putting trust in the process or the data, you will simply have a situation where the CEO or (especially) where a g…

yeah, I meant "fun" perhaps in a more open sense of "people are not just annoyed at everything all the time", perhaps "relaxed" is the right word.

I am not a superfan of actual closet office given, like, CO2 and friends, but having at least semi-closed spaces with some degree of privacy for groups of people feels totally reasonable. I always think about how some grad students at my university (paired 4 off to an office) had a nicer-feeling office space than any tech office I've been to short of a handful

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

#138

Post by pm90 »

rtpg wrote: post #40

A recurring theme in so many startups I've seen inside is how the CEO in particular is extremely aloof with regards to presence. Sometimes that translates to aloofness for staff, but what more often happens is that when the CEO _does_ come in they expect other people to be there. So long as the alignment is good they don't care, but when it's not aligned, they just assume nobody is ever around and get real pissy abou…

> And to a lesser extent other executives who have decided that their job is their life.

This is key. CEO is one individual, maybe you luck out with someone thats self aware and doesn’t have their head up their behind. But with the exec team, almost certainly there will be one motherfucker that needs their ego stroked by having minions around when they’re in an office, taking calls or meetings.

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

#139

Post by lvturner »

nradov wrote: post #101
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.

Should workers also not return to the farm, the factory, the mine, the hospital? Flexible work arrangements are great but it's only a tiny fraction of the privileged laptop class who even potentially have the option of remote work.

ok, and?

Why can't both segments of workers have better conditions? Maybe pay should be higher for those that HAVE to be in person, or hours lower?

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

#140

Post by [deleted] »

RangerScience wrote: post #65
rtpg wrote: post #40

A recurring theme in so many startups I've seen inside is how the CEO in particular is extremely aloof with regards to presence. Sometimes that translates to aloofness for staff, but what more often happens is that when the CEO _does_ come in they expect other people to be there. So long as the alignment is good they don't care, but when it's not aligned, they just assume nobody is ever around and get real pissy abou…

> A proper theory of the mind can often be quite absent. +1 spicy! > Make a fun space, and make people's work schedules be loose enough to where they can actually relax in the space, and some people will show up! I've tried to tell this to a couple of places that wanted me to work in a office. The conversations didn't go anywhere - perhaps because of your prior quote? :)

[deleted]
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