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Jack Welch has died

wsj.com

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Re: Jack Welch has died

#171

Post by tlb »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #141
martin1975 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with performance reviews is that they are mostly subjective instead of mostly objective. I've yet to see a company specify a clear objective criteria for advancement.

I have the same problem with behavioral interviews. "Tell me about a time when..." "I want to see how you think." "What your greatest..." 95% of my philosophy is don't be an asshole, work hard, know my stuff, and don't let the turkeys get me down. I spend no time dwelling on mistakes, as I internalize the lessons and throw out the reason I learned those lessons.

The reasons might come in handy later when you're trying to mentor younger colleagues and you're trying to explain why things are the way they are.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#172

Post by vl »

gowld wrote: post #169
vl wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welch also invented corporate raiding by management. When he started, employees owned 0, when finished 31 percent of GE, with majority of 31 owned by management. This effectively transferred 1/3 of value from shareholders to management. Since then same thing happens with most other corporations.

Was that 31percent purchased or seized?

Granted as stock options or restricted stock units.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#173

Post by ianai »

ethbro wrote: post #7
VLM wrote: post #5

Technically he's not dead, he's just been downsized to increase shareholder value.

Public figures are still human, with families...

If you want nice things to be said when you pass then do good things for people in your life.

It’s important to be kind to all, but it’s also important to give people space to grieve.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#174

Post by lotsofpulp »

amyjess wrote: post #165
lotsofpulp wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you need COBRA? You can go to healthcare.gov and buy health insurance that is probably as good or better than what most employers offer. And you wouldn’t have to pay for months you didn’t need healthcare.

Exchange health insurance is still pretty unaffordable if you're unemployed or underemployed, and it's much less likely than employer health insurance to cover medical conditions that aren't required by law to be covered (e.g. gender dysphoria). Our system is messed up.

I purchase health insurance for my businesses, and it all seems the same to me, cost and coverage wise. I guess it might be a little cheaper if the company has a very young workforce.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#175

Post by projektfu »

triceratops wrote: post #134
projektfu wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was more because of his restructuring in the early 90s. "As with a neutron bomb, the buildings are still standing but the people are gone." He didn't seem to understand GE's broad products businesses but did understand finance, so he continuously closed those operations.

> He didn't seem to understand GE's broad products businesses but did understand finance, so he continuously closed those operations. Uh...no. He was a trained chemical engineer, and understood products, manufacturing, and operations perfectly well. In his own words, here's why he emphasized finance: "My gut told me that compared to the industrial operations I did know, this business [GE Capital] seemed an easy way t…

I stand corrected.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#176

Post by telotortium »

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #159
VLM wrote: post #5

Technically he's not dead, he's just been downsized to increase shareholder value.

Wow Fidel Castro didn't even get this bad of a response: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13041886 I guess as long as you're a Republican you're free game, even in death.

To be fair, most commenters on Hacker News are more likely to have suffered the detrimental effects of Jack Welch's acts and philosophy than the effects of Fidel Castro's rule. Not every moral judgment needs to be made on pure global utilitarian principles

Re: Jack Welch has died

#177

Post by hfdh434535 »

reggieband wrote: post #136

My only memory of Jack Welch was a PBS interview I caught a slice of where he was asked what his number one piece of advice for management was. He said that a CEO's job was to create and promote culture. I can see a lot of negativity for the man in the comments here but I agree with him on the culture issue. I can understand the negative feeling people get with some of Welch's personal cultural choices. However, it d…

It's not so much that we don't want to learn from someone we dislike. It's that we don't want to scour the haystack of awful traits to find a needle we can compliment.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#178

Post by rchaud »

hugi wrote: post #158
WalterBright wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because you'll miss your mortgage or education payments and loose your health care. This is why the sensible thing to do is to save up a cushion of 6 months. You can continue with your employer health care with COBRA for 6 months or a year.

I feel desperately sorry for Americans when it comes to health care.

Which Americans though?

There are numerous Americans and American institutions whose work specifically involves pushing the interests of insurers, pharma and hospitals on Capitol Hill, against those of average people who work minimum wage jobs and can't afford basic coverage.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#179

Post by watwut »

gowld wrote: post #170
teej wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hiring folks to act as telomeres for your team seems so cruel.

Why? Those are people who couldn't get a better job anyway.

They were people who thought they are getting real job, but have been set up to fail from day one. Just because you pay people some money does not mean it is ok to use them like toys.

Re: Jack Welch has died

#180

Post by kelnos »

michaelgrafl wrote: post #152
WalterBright wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because you'll miss your mortgage or education payments and loose your health care. This is why the sensible thing to do is to save up a cushion of 6 months. You can continue with your employer health care with COBRA for 6 months or a year.

You‘re saying this as if it were realistic for the majority of people to save up a cushion of 6 months in a reasonable time frame (or ever).

It's not easy, but I think a lot of the people who don't save, actually could. Part of the problem is people don't think they can save "enough to matter", so they never start. Even starting with just tossing $5 or $10 a month into savings account can help. It kickstarts the habit, at least, and often people can later justify raising that amount or putting in a little more here and there.

For some other people, if they'd drop the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality even just a little bit, they could develop significant savings.

Yes, there are many people in the US who are just barely getting by, and can't meaningfully save without making cuts to essential spending, but that certainly doesn't describe everyone who currently lives paycheck-to-paycheck.

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