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The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

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Re: The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

#21

Post by dougmwne »

I am very pro work life balance and think anything over 35-40 hours per week will just lead to eventual burnout and reduced performance.

Having said that, I can't bring myself to be too bothered about this tweet. At least the expectation is clear: hit your KPI goal or else.

If you were to find yourself behind, you could either work harder, lobby to change the goal, lobby for more resources, pivot your strategy, or start looking for a new job. This guy is being a dick by threatening weekend work or the dole to push people to hit their numbers, but there are worse management sins.

Re: The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

#22

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

adlpz wrote: post #11

If people are behind the expected performance due to excessive workload or poor higher-level management, then this is unacceptable. If people are behind the expected performance due to incompetence, wasted time or poor self-management, then this is reasonable. We are all adults here.

I’d argue that working on weekends is not reasonable in either case, except for extremely infrequent work emergencies handled with some predefined on-call sort of scheduling.

If it is employee laziness or incompetence, the employees should be retrained, demoted or fired. Grinding them on weekends is only likely to make the productivity drain worse and if they are creating bad work outputs, you’re accelerating the compounding growth of their mistakes.

I like what was said in Peopleware about this, “You can kick someone to make him sit up in his chair, but you can’t kick someone to make him work.”

Despite all of the above, 99% of the time this sort of issue stems from toxic & incompetent management. Is your CEO using Twitter to bark workload policy at you? Well, then you know who the problem is.

Re: The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

#25

Post by stagas »

So the strategy is this: Assemble teams with a low salary, then offer the withheld salary as bonus promises as an excuse to have people working on weekends and justify firing. Yes, that sounds like something it'll work for long term and is not toxic at all for the employees.

Re: The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

#26

Post by nisuni »

adlpz wrote: post #11

If people are behind the expected performance due to excessive workload or poor higher-level management, then this is unacceptable. If people are behind the expected performance due to incompetence, wasted time or poor self-management, then this is reasonable. We are all adults here.

Based on the tone of the whole message, what would you guess?

Also, do you think that (given, again, the general tone) that the management would evaluate a low-performing employee in a fair and objective way?

Even asking people to work on weekend without compensation it's illegal in many countries.

Re: The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

#27

Post by HenryBemis »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #15
kemiller2002 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but I really think you're absolutely right. Some people really like working in that environment. Personally, it's not for me, but at least the CEO is upfront about what he expects. Really, he's being a good leader in that respect. I wouldn't want to work for him, but he's clear about what he wants which a lot of people in management miss. EDIT Let me explain why this…

On the other hand, there is a lot of toxicity in there. If your bonus is zero no matter how work you hard, and you are encouraged by the CEO to "push" your colleagues (some of which are working on weekends), it's a terrible company to work for, no matter what pay they offer (of course it's good, otherwise the CEO wouldn't have the balls to treat his employees in this way as everybody would just walk out).

It is a type of Social Engineering. Politicians are using this all the time. When one group is e.g. on strike, they ignore the 'problem' and wait until other affected groups start throwing rocks at them. Classic example of teachers striking everywhere on the planet. Politicians know that parents will revolt at some point.

This is a shitty CEO and an equally shitty HR director imho. You got problems with deadlines/projects?

Do a root cause analysis, find out what is wrong, fix THAT wrong thing. Don't ask Alice to threaten Bob!

Re: The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

#28

Post by deepsy »

HenryBemis wrote: post #9

Self note: never do business with the person that says: Bonus more important that weekend family time. If projects are behind, re-group, re-train, re-focus. Waving the whip and telling people "work on the weekends" was never my style (to instruct or to receive).

That's reasonable

Re: The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

#29

Post by kemiller2002 »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #15
kemiller2002 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but I really think you're absolutely right. Some people really like working in that environment. Personally, it's not for me, but at least the CEO is upfront about what he expects. Really, he's being a good leader in that respect. I wouldn't want to work for him, but he's clear about what he wants which a lot of people in management miss. EDIT Let me explain why this…

On the other hand, there is a lot of toxicity in there. If your bonus is zero no matter how work you hard, and you are encouraged by the CEO to "push" your colleagues (some of which are working on weekends), it's a terrible company to work for, no matter what pay they offer (of course it's good, otherwise the CEO wouldn't have the balls to treat his employees in this way as everybody would just walk out).

I'm not arguing that. I'm merely saying that he is giving people the option to choose if they want to work like that. At least he's being direct instead of waiting until after the bonus is paid (or not), and then firing them without telling them the expectations. In truth, if I saw that, I'd probably walk right then and there, but there are people who like that environment, and it's their choice if they want to continue there.

Re: The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

#30

Post by happytoexplain »

adlpz wrote: post #11

If people are behind the expected performance due to excessive workload or poor higher-level management, then this is unacceptable. If people are behind the expected performance due to incompetence, wasted time or poor self-management, then this is reasonable. We are all adults here.

I think this is absolutely wrong and, frankly, sickening. It is never OK for a superior to ask or even imply that employees should work overtime (barring jobs with very disproportionate impact). Incompetence on the part of an employee is not punishable by overtime work unless they want to do that on their own volition. You work with them to solve their problems. If you can't do so without requiring that they work overtime (again, unless it is of their own volition), then they are not a good fit for that job. Anything else is inhumane, disrespectful, and out of touch.
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