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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

#81
Being in an office is a exclusive lock that prevents you from having multiple remote jobs. Other than that is serves no useful purpose.

And what the "face to face conversations" narrative really means is: 1) I don't want to put things in writing, 2) I want to tell if you are lying.

RTO sucks

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

#82

So what? CEOs also get paid more. Where is this crying coming from? Create a company, become a CEO, do whatever you want.

Most people don't have the capital to create a company and become a CEO.

You can create a software company with 0 capital. Stop making excuses.

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

#84
post #49
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 honestly wonder if the secret to quality of life is just to save up money and buy a profitable small or medium sized business mostly financed against the business. If you want to grow it, you can. Otherwise, you can get relatively passive income out of it and experience as a CEO that allows you to apply to other CEO jobs if it fails.

IBM entered the personal computing market on the basis of non-proprietary duplication of existing tech - part of the reason for the company's success was its name. Nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM. Once the name is established, officers can remotely defy the FUD factor.

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

#85
post #2

Anyone surprised by this? I remember my first programming job it was FREQUENT that the execs would fly to other offices ~12+ weeks a year. Of course our office was in Orlando so every exec would also magically have their family flown in as well to go to Disney World. 5 jobs later, its been the same at any company that isn't a startup. Execs have never been in the office, they have "offsite" meetings.

Not only are directors and above immune to the RTO directives in most companies, they are also immune to location specific pay ranges in most companies. And for the few times they do require to go to the office, they can expense the entire trip, including airfare, dinners, hotels and more. The class asymmetry is ridiculous, but unfortunately most workers don’t know this fact. Edit: In case it wasn’t clear, this is no…

While I agree that it can be annoying to see C-levels jetting around the globe while you're sitting in front of the same computer every day, likely feeling underpaid - what is the "asymmetry"? Or the remedy? Do you think that if they tighten their budget of perks, or reduce their compensation, some of that money will somehow flow to you? Because no, it won't.

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

#86
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…

If this were true, you’d never see CEOs retiring.

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

#87
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 think executive pay has gotten out of control as much as the next guy, but "CEOs only do a few hours of work per week, plus playing golf with clients" has to be the least informed take I've ever heard. And that's putting it the nice way.

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

#88
post #73
post #2

Anyone surprised by this? I remember my first programming job it was FREQUENT that the execs would fly to other offices ~12+ weeks a year. Of course our office was in Orlando so every exec would also magically have their family flown in as well to go to Disney World. 5 jobs later, its been the same at any company that isn't a startup. Execs have never been in the office, they have "offsite" meetings.

[flagged]

The way I have started looking at it is CEOs/founders won the lottery. They control the keys, but they share a tiny fraction of the gold with the employees.

I come to this conclusion, b/c I think its extremely rare that the 'best' person to be the executive on day0 is rarely the 'best' person to be an executive in every stage of a company's lifecycle. but the executives can cling on, b/c they have low accountability (especially when they are the board).

Is it easy to win the lottery? No. Once you win the lottery, is life easier? Yes.

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

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Executives work insane hours. The jobs are there if you want to gun for them. Yes there are lazy executives, but successful companies focused on shareholder value tend to weed them out.

> Executives work insane hours. Often quite a bit less than it looks on-paper when you remove the "working lunch" and "client dinner" and "meeting (at the country club)" and "reading emails while lounging on the private jet" bits.

Hypothetically, if all the CEO did was, once a quarter, take a private jet to meet a potential client in person for lunch - and just one of those 4 meetings actually landed a customer - but a $1 billion revenue customer - is that a problem for you? CEOs shouldn't be measured by hours clocked in, like a factory worker.

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

#90
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…

These comical caricatures of CEOs "making a couple decisions a week intermixed with 'leisure activities '" bear no resemblance to any CEO/senior exec I've ever worked with.

Yes, I can imagine in some odd situations (say family businesses) you might have "figurehead" CEOs, but every CEO I've ever worked with put in a huge number of hours. I think there is plenty to honestly debate regarding CEO compensation, especially when it comes to egregious wealth inequality, but this idea that CEOs are just a bunch of lazy schmoozers sounds like an r/antiwork fever dream to me.

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