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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

#91

Post by asynchronous »

ceejayoz wrote: post #55
monero-xmr wrote: post #38

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.

The amount of executives that play golf and include golf as working meetings blows this argument out of the sand trap.

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

#92

Post by toomuchtodo »

Aloha wrote: post #72
rtpg wrote: post #40

A recurring theme in so many startups I've seen inside is how the CEO in particular is extremely aloof with regards to presence. 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. So long as the alignment is good they don't care, but when it's not aligned, they just assume nobody is ever around and get real pissy abou…

We just send out an email when the boss is in town and ask folks to come in, and enough people do to make the office seem full - and that works, we will even fly people in sometimes.

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?

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

#93

Post by slibhb »

fourseventy wrote: post #71
andirk wrote: 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…

Everyone on this site is so anti-C-suite it's crazy. All the standard "big company CEO bad, me entry level employee good" talking points. You would think that a site based on entrepreneurship would have people on it that have more of an understanding of what running a business is actually like.

HN is fairly ideologically diverse. There is a lot of the stuff you're complaining about but there's plenty of the opposite too.

Where I work, the people higher than me (remote or not) work constantly, around the clock, to the point where I worry about their health.

I also like going into the office 3 days a week. It's a nice space, I like the separation between work and home, and there's good food nearby. As long as I'm allowed to WFH a couple days a week and when I have an appointment or something.

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

#94

Post by whiterknight »

brandon272 wrote: post #70
rtpg wrote: post #40

A recurring theme in so many startups I've seen inside is how the CEO in particular is extremely aloof with regards to presence. 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. So long as the alignment is good they don't care, but when it's not aligned, they just assume nobody is ever around and get real pissy abou…

> 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?

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

#95

Post by ibash »

rtpg wrote: post #40

A recurring theme in so many startups I've seen inside is how the CEO in particular is extremely aloof with regards to presence. 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. So long as the alignment is good they don't care, but when it's not aligned, they just assume nobody is ever around and get real pissy abou…

Or… the ceo has a job where they need to be out meeting people. For sales, recruiting, etc

They generally expect people who can work from the office are working from the office. For example they wouldn’t expect to see forward deployed engineers sitting at the office twiddling their thumbs…

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

#96

Post by nradov »

bdw5204 wrote: post #49
andirk wrote: 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.

"Passive". Ha ha. Most of those businesses will fall apart within a few years if the owner isn't constantly on top of things.

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

#97

Post by llm_trw »

Aloha wrote: post #72
rtpg wrote: post #40

A recurring theme in so many startups I've seen inside is how the CEO in particular is extremely aloof with regards to presence. 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. So long as the alignment is good they don't care, but when it's not aligned, they just assume nobody is ever around and get real pissy abou…

We just send out an email when the boss is in town and ask folks to come in, and enough people do to make the office seem full - and that works, we will even fly people in sometimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFihTRIxCkg

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

#98

Post by asynchronous »

defrost wrote: post #78
fourseventy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone on this site is so anti-C-suite it's crazy. All the standard "big company CEO bad, me entry level employee good" talking points. You would think that a site based on entrepreneurship would have people on it that have more of an understanding of what running a business is actually like.

There's running a business with under 50 employees, running a business with under 100, and then there's running a coorporation with several thousand and more employees. The FAANG (and other letter group) global mega corp survivors have one or two valid grievances.

This 100 times, especially because a large portion of HN is former FAANG. We’ve seen the secret sauce at the top, it’s not special.

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

#100

Post by fsckboy »

itake wrote: post #88
zooq_ai wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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…

if it's not equally easy for all people to win, not a lottery.
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