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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

#251
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be willing to consider that some half baked theory about why CEOs are the manifestation of luck is actually just an unhealthy way of coping with failures?

More like survivor bias. For every eBay, amazon, Starbucks ceo, there's a multitude of failures that weren't as good or lucky.

So, bad CEOs are bad? What a revelation. We're not isolating this analysis to bad ones (who generally don't last very long). We're talking about a blanket, overarching, ill-informed and bitter "analysis" that contends CEOs are meritless lottery winners.

Have you ever seen any process of filtering job candidates that doesn't have massive failures? Look no further than sports. There is no profession with more accessible information about candidate qualifications, and we still see significant failures, signing people to hundreds of millions of dollars who never produce any value over a replacement player. Does that mean the process is no better than throwing darts at phone book? No. There are still actual skills that are hard to attain, and are decent predictors of performance.

When it comes to CEOs, despite the fact that this process doesn't value YOUR skills very highly doesn't mean it's purely random. It means you've either chosen to ignore this filtering process, you never learned what the process is, or you aren't good enough to stand out within it. But that doesn't mean it's a zero-signal filtration.

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

#252
post #125
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the introduction of WFH during the pandemic hurt a lot of IT workers in the long-run. In the interests of “fairness” they are being ordered back to the office post-Covid even when their work processes mean they can be done perfectly well remotely, and even if they have widely geographically-distributed teams. Anecdotal, but we had a team that was split with 50% working remotely before Covid, and we saw an imp…

I see the opposite. Conversations that used to happen in ear reach so I'd know what was going on with various team members and be able to contribute when I knew a solution are now conversation that happen in private chat or private VC. Productivity is way down. Even more interesting, a team lead lives in another country 6 times zones away. Some times they visit the main office for 1-2 weeks. Productivity shoots throu…

That doesn’t seem like a sustainable alternative. In the case you are describing, the productivity boost is highly dependent on actually having the right people within ear reach. You are relying on the right people happening to hear other conversations. What if your team is large, so that even if you are all in office, the chances of stumbling into the right conversation is lower? What if you are grabbing lunch, or in the bathroom, or meeting with someone else when that conversation is happening?

The most effective solution in my experience has been when working remote, and having a culture where a team has open discussions on their own Slack channel, with threads for particular conversations. That way, everyone can contribute to the conversation, it’s asynchronous so you don’t have to be in exactly the right place and right time to participate, and people can go back and review details very easily if needed.

You are right that that doesn’t apply if the conversations are happening in private DMs, but that’s a matter of team culture. You have to be intentional in a remote setting, just the same as you do in an office setting. But if you are it can work very well in my experience, perhaps even better than in person.

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

#253
Stunning how out of touch CEOs are with their own employees.

If there is one thing that would significantly improve the quality of living of all employees, it would be remote work. The fact that leadership wont give that (which costs nothing) I believe demonstrates some personality characteristic that is arguably sociopathic, and I do not throw that word around lightly.

If employees had a say in who gets to be leadership - which is how most of nature works - then CEOs would be be acting drastically different.

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

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think whats happening is that non-technical leaders can't assess why projects aren't being delivered Which says a lot about the leadership. :-)

What exactly?

Their job is to manage their teams and initiatives. If they are unable to determine why an initiative fails or how their teams are performing, it means they are incapable of doing their job.

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

#255
post #125
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the introduction of WFH during the pandemic hurt a lot of IT workers in the long-run. In the interests of “fairness” they are being ordered back to the office post-Covid even when their work processes mean they can be done perfectly well remotely, and even if they have widely geographically-distributed teams. Anecdotal, but we had a team that was split with 50% working remotely before Covid, and we saw an imp…

I see the opposite. Conversations that used to happen in ear reach so I'd know what was going on with various team members and be able to contribute when I knew a solution are now conversation that happen in private chat or private VC. Productivity is way down. Even more interesting, a team lead lives in another country 6 times zones away. Some times they visit the main office for 1-2 weeks. Productivity shoots throu…

> Conversations that used to happen in ear reach

Sorry, is this a real thing? I've never experienced this.

We all have cubes and sure, maybe sometimes I can hear someone kind of close to me. But not very often. And typically, people actually speak in a low voice as to not disturb others.

We have many floors in the office too, so all our meetings are on Teams. I can't remember the last time I went to a conference room.

I actually really enjoy the async nature of chats. Because you can come and go in the conversation, and you don't have to grind everything you're doing to a halt. Plus, I can go back later and refresh my memory.

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

#256
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the introduction of WFH during the pandemic hurt a lot of IT workers in the long-run. In the interests of “fairness” they are being ordered back to the office post-Covid even when their work processes mean they can be done perfectly well remotely, and even if they have widely geographically-distributed teams. Anecdotal, but we had a team that was split with 50% working remotely before Covid, and we saw an imp…

I think the real pain comes from many managers discovering that if they're going to have remote workers, might as well go whole hog and hire them in Bangalore for 1/10th the price instead of paying SV salaries.

From what I've heard, you aren't getting anywhere near the same quality in Bangalore for 1/10th the price these days. Maybe 1/3rd and that gap is shrinking.

At that price you might as well hire in Western Europe and have better timezone overlaps.

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

#257
post #230

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?

Just rent your office out as a co-working space. That way you can even run a profit off it. And keep an eye out how long it takes the board to realize that the assistant to the CEO is no longer a pure cost, but actually returning a profit for the company. /s

> Just rent your office out as a co-working space. That way you can even run a profit off it.

That’s a great idea, we could create a web portal and basically make a techy office management rental interface. Let’s pitch the idea to YComb together, we can call the venture OurWork.

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

#258
post #236

Many large corporations are just structured on modern feudalism with minor changes. They have a privileged nobility, an internal belief system (with attached clergy to match), and by definition a large majority "working the land". If you're talking about a small company, to some extent this makes sense. I mean, if Alice or Bob starts a company, they're risking more than you are; of course they get to decide. When you…

Disagree strongly. Modern work dynamics are vastly better than feudalism. You are focused on the hierarchical structure within (some) companies but the key feature of modern capitalism is the fierce competition between companies. There is now a highly competitive labor market; employees have extreme flexibility to move to a new employer at the drop of a hat or start a competing business if they believe that any other company would possibly treat them better.

It is the intense competition between companies (for the same customers, the same employees) that puts constant pressure on companies to develop better products, treat employees well and pay them well.

The main problem with feudalism was that nobles had family titles to the land, and serfs were effectively their property. Therefore competitive pressure to treat people well was entirely absent, and peasants were completely exploited. There is really no analogy to modern companies that compete with each other to shower perks on their employees.

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

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> a group of the top level execs are all in the office on a particular day when the office 'feels empty' > internal deadline being missed What indicators would justify a change in WFH policy?

I think they were talking about internal deadlines being missed at about baseline levels, but the timing coincides with when the execs happen to feel like the office is empty so they make a mental association.

A measurable increase in missed deadlines is not what I think they meant.

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

#260
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…

I work for a medium (~$10B) public company and when I check the CEOs calendar he's booked 12 hours a day, and it's a lot of hard staff meeting with complex outcome. Not sure where this idea that CEOs don't work come from

You, too, can have a busy calendar!

https://github.com/zylai/ical-fake-meetings-generator

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