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The Beggar CEO and Sucker Culture

85 points by tomp 11y ago

OpenDrapery 11y ago
I think that there is going to be a fair amount of cognitive dissonance at play here for the people who have given up many many hours for free. That is to say, if you decide to share these ideas with your boss, be careful. It will cause him/her to introspect, and then likely decide that all their time invested playing the "sucker" game was not a waste, and that you are, in fact, just lazy.
edoceo 11y ago
I used to be a worker, now I'm a CEO. Cheers to tomp for a well reasoned article; Jeers to the manager who whines about employee effort. Nobody will work as hard or as long as a founding CEO. Known rule of the game. Want more work from employees? Compensate. Bigger commissions for sales and time-and-half-again for hourly. Salary is dumb. Begging employees for more hours. And some only want 30 so they can work their side-gig. I wish they'd spend that time with me - this is where nurture and compensation come into play (again). Perhaps nurture and comp are other known rules of the game (that any "CEO" should know). :p
- tomp 11y ago
  Haha, thanks, but not my article. I saw it on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3uu0gh/the_beggar_ceo_and_sucker_culture/ https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3uu0gh/the_beg...
- ericzawo 11y ago
  Wow, now you're a boss I'd like to work for.
chippy 11y ago
> The real problem isn’t Victoria, and it isn’t sucker culture itself — it’s the fact that going home after 8 hours is the new original sin. Actually, this "sin" isn't new - it has been around for a few hundred years. It's the Protestant Work Ethic. It states that by working hard you can get into heaven. Not working hard is therefore a sin. It's often translated into believing that it is inherently good that you should work hard for your family or for a good quality of life - with the emphasis more on the working hard than the ends. It's often shown up when people comment about the laziness of other countries or cultures, or conversely about the goodness of hard working immigrants, etc. It's deeply entrenched within the origins of America, in particular. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic
- JDiculous 11y ago
  It's ridiculous because how hard you worked doesn't mean jack shit. All that matters are the results.
minimuffins 11y ago
> I’ve spent a career working 50 to 70 hours per week...This post is not me complaining that work is hard and I want to do less. Would that be so wrong? How many of us are tired of the Do What You Love And Work Will Set You Free mythology? Why are tech workers always the most gullible with the DWYL cult? I wonder how many Victorias there are out there. In my dealings with executives they've all been pretty much like her - oblivious of life outside business and devoid of empathy (all non-SV but of course most of the world is non-SV).

85 points by tomp 11y ago

I think that there is going to be a fair amount of cognitive dissonance at play here for the people who have given up many many hours for free. That is to say, if you decide to share these ideas with your boss, be careful. It will cause him/her to introspect, and then likely decide that all their time invested playing the "sucker" game was not a waste, and that you are, in fact, just lazy.

edoceo 11y ago

I used to be a worker, now I'm a CEO. Cheers to tomp for a well reasoned article; Jeers to the manager who whines about employee effort. Nobody will work as hard or as long as a founding CEO. Known rule of the game. Want more work from employees? Compensate. Bigger commissions for sales and time-and-half-again for hourly. Salary is dumb. Begging employees for more hours. And some only want 30 so they can work their side-gig. I wish they'd spend that time with me - this is where nurture and compensation come into play (again). Perhaps nurture and comp are other known rules of the game (that any "CEO" should know). :p

tomp 11y ago
Haha, thanks, but not my article. I saw it on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3uu0gh/the_beggar_ceo_and_sucker_culture/ https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3uu0gh/the_beg...
ericzawo 11y ago
Wow, now you're a boss I'd like to work for.

chippy 11y ago

> The real problem isn’t Victoria, and it isn’t sucker culture itself — it’s the fact that going home after 8 hours is the new original sin. Actually, this "sin" isn't new - it has been around for a few hundred years. It's the Protestant Work Ethic. It states that by working hard you can get into heaven. Not working hard is therefore a sin. It's often translated into believing that it is inherently good that you should work hard for your family or for a good quality of life - with the emphasis more on the working hard than the ends. It's often shown up when people comment about the laziness of other countries or cultures, or conversely about the goodness of hard working immigrants, etc. It's deeply entrenched within the origins of America, in particular. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic

JDiculous 11y ago
It's ridiculous because how hard you worked doesn't mean jack shit. All that matters are the results.

minimuffins 11y ago

> I’ve spent a career working 50 to 70 hours per week...This post is not me complaining that work is hard and I want to do less. Would that be so wrong? How many of us are tired of the Do What You Love And Work Will Set You Free mythology? Why are tech workers always the most gullible with the DWYL cult? I wonder how many Victorias there are out there. In my dealings with executives they've all been pretty much like her - oblivious of life outside business and devoid of empathy (all non-SV but of course most of the world is non-SV).