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Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

thinkgrowth.org

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Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#181

Post by rf15 »

sumedh wrote: post #84
AVTizzle wrote: post #34

>> "I was visiting with an ex-student who’s now the CFO of a large public tech company." >> "(By coincidence, the CEO was an intern at one of my startups more than two decades ago.)" Admittedly, this isn't adding to the discussion at hand. Just one amateur writer picking apart another's writing style, but... Is it just me, or do those lines serve no purpose except to boost the author's own ego and sense of self-impor…

I was skimming through the article when I read that line then I assumed the author might be someone important so started reading the rest of the article with more focus.

Shouldn't you care more about the topic and if you find it agreeable or even inspirational instead of judging it by the author's perceived importance?

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#182

Post by Caveman_Coder »

Clamhead wrote: post #139
RealityNow wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our CEO has flat out told us that it's incredibly hard for him to get honest feedback from anyone (except for maybe the board and investors), and another executive echoed this. Nobody wants to question the almighty CEO to his face. Nothing against the CEO. He's an extremely friendly and approachable person. Most people just fear questioning authority and power, and the CEO in a modern day corporation is revered simil…

It's not possible to implement some type of anonymous feedback system? My company sends out periodic anonymous surveys as an attempt to garner feedback from the employees. The only problem I see is if employees, for whatever reason, don't believe such a system is truly anonymous and thus refuse to give honest feedback. I don't see that being a common trend though. If so, it probably signals more serious problems betw…

When I worked at Google we did "Googlegeist" (our anonymous feedback system). Many of my peers would hold back because they thought management was keeping tabs on what feedback we gave...

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#183

Post by gaius »

sanderjd wrote: post #116
RealityNow wrote: post #99

This post rings eerily true. Recently had a company all-hands where the CEO said basically the exact same lines. The whole "if you don't love working here, then you should leave" bit made me cringe. Easy for you to say when you've got a significant equity share in the company. The saddest realization I've had working at companies is how power-hungry people are, how little respect the people in power often have for th…

I'll take the unpopular position of supporting a small room of a few "higher ups" making decisions. This is exactly what you want: a small number of people with a lot of skin in the game making important decisions. Good leaders gather feedback and counter-arguments beforehand, but then make a firm decision, and it's diminishingly rare for that decision to please everyone. The people who are not pleased should still f…

a small number of people with a lot of skin in the game making important decisions

The problem is exposure. Those people will capture all of the upside if they get it right, and their subordinates will take the downside when they don't.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#184

Post by gaius »

Caveman_Coder wrote: post #182
Clamhead wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not possible to implement some type of anonymous feedback system? My company sends out periodic anonymous surveys as an attempt to garner feedback from the employees. The only problem I see is if employees, for whatever reason, don't believe such a system is truly anonymous and thus refuse to give honest feedback. I don't see that being a common trend though. If so, it probably signals more serious problems betw…

When I worked at Google we did "Googlegeist" (our anonymous feedback system). Many of my peers would hold back because they thought management was keeping tabs on what feedback we gave...

The trackingest company on the planet not tracking its own employees seems very far-fetched!

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#185

Post by erikb »

RealityNow wrote: post #99

This post rings eerily true. Recently had a company all-hands where the CEO said basically the exact same lines. The whole "if you don't love working here, then you should leave" bit made me cringe. Easy for you to say when you've got a significant equity share in the company. The saddest realization I've had working at companies is how power-hungry people are, how little respect the people in power often have for th…

Maybe America wasn't founded on the principle of democracy. Have you watched the movie Killing Them Softly?

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#186

Post by elmar »

RealityNow wrote: post #99

This post rings eerily true. Recently had a company all-hands where the CEO said basically the exact same lines. The whole "if you don't love working here, then you should leave" bit made me cringe. Easy for you to say when you've got a significant equity share in the company. The saddest realization I've had working at companies is how power-hungry people are, how little respect the people in power often have for th…

Really legendary CEO's don't even give stock options to early employes.

When Steve Jobs Refused To Give Early Apple Employees Stock, Steve Wozniak Offered Them $10 Million Of His

http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-wozniak-gave-early-appl...

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#187

Post by erikb »

maxxxxx wrote: post #6

"But the CEO never noticed that the payoff had ended for the other 95% of his company." It seems a lot of C*Os forget this after a while. For a lot of rank and file employees the stock price makes no difference.

Most people have a hard time understanding other people's different situation. And they don't even try if they don't have to (which they mostly only do when it's their boss or their customer).

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#188

Post by erikb »

I'm surprised that Steve is working for such a long time in the start-up industry and seemingly hasn't caught on that the in-company politics won't evolve, because the meta-company politics of the start-up world are already efficient.

If you don't consider jobs and companies as something that should live longer than you, it's totally fine as it is. Switching jobs is not a big deal, if you have lots of new options and get paid well. When small start-ups get the next innovation loop better than the current set of big companies it's fine, because people still make money, just a set of different people.

People who want to make money by working, still make money. People who want to make money by investing, still make money. New innovation really happens, no matter if the current people on top get it or not.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#189

Post by [deleted] »

elmar wrote: post #186
RealityNow wrote: post #99

This post rings eerily true. Recently had a company all-hands where the CEO said basically the exact same lines. The whole "if you don't love working here, then you should leave" bit made me cringe. Easy for you to say when you've got a significant equity share in the company. The saddest realization I've had working at companies is how power-hungry people are, how little respect the people in power often have for th…

Really legendary CEO's don't even give stock options to early employes. When Steve Jobs Refused To Give Early Apple Employees Stock, Steve Wozniak Offered Them $10 Million Of His http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-wozniak-gave-early-appl...

[deleted]

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#190

Post by _vufv »

elmar wrote: post #186
RealityNow wrote: post #99

This post rings eerily true. Recently had a company all-hands where the CEO said basically the exact same lines. The whole "if you don't love working here, then you should leave" bit made me cringe. Easy for you to say when you've got a significant equity share in the company. The saddest realization I've had working at companies is how power-hungry people are, how little respect the people in power often have for th…

Really legendary CEO's don't even give stock options to early employes. When Steve Jobs Refused To Give Early Apple Employees Stock, Steve Wozniak Offered Them $10 Million Of His http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-wozniak-gave-early-appl...

Your point? If you wished to imply that because Jobs did it - it's the way to go, you're committing a fallacy of "appealing to authority" [1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority

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