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The CEO job is the most high pressure job in an organisation, and by definition comes with the greatest level of responsibility. Statistically speaking, you wou

The CEO job is the most high pressure job in an organisation, and by definition comes with the greatest level of responsibility. Statistically speaking, you would likely be a terrible CEO, and hate doing it.

bryanlarsen 9y ago
I remember reading a study saying that middle management had the most stressful jobs. The worst stress is caused when you have responsibility without power. CEO's have a lot of responsibility, but they also have a lot of power.
- Erlangolem 9y ago
  I’d add that failing as a middle manager gets you fired with very little, while failing as a CEO gets you fired with a golden parachute. Failing as a CEO also seems to do little to harm your future prospects.
  - lulmerchant 9y ago
    You're really only talking about a minority of CEOs here. Most of the time, failing as a CEO will mean the end of your career.
    - Erlangolem 9y ago
      That’s a fair point, I overstated things. I’d rephrase by adding “at a F500 company” after both “middle managers” and “CEO’s” in my original post.
      - lulmerchant 9y ago
        Putting aside the matter of competency for a moment (which I think is being too oversimplified in this discussion), this kinda touches on a positive feature of a free market. Which is that large organisations are by nature less efficient than smaller ones. This gives rise to the possibility of disruption and innovation. The ability to innovate quickly is generally what gives startups over well financed established players. If it weren't for this, then we would see antiquated businesses declining, and innovative startups rising from their ashes.
- lulmerchant 9y ago
  But we're not talking about how stressful a job is. You said being a CEO would be fun. For starters, unless you've got a lot of executive experience, if you had to turn up to work tomorrow and be the CEO, you'd be awful at it. So would I, so would anybody else that doesn't have that experience. I guess this wouldn't evenly apply to early stage start-ups, but they tend to not have much executive leadership anyway, regardless of whether they have a "CEO". Being the CEO is all responsibility. There's very little room for error, and you unavoidably have to deal with a myriad of issues that you will have no personal interest in whatsoever. It is absolutely the most high pressure and difficult job in an organisation. If it weren't, then anybody could do it, when obviously that's not true. Also, if you're measuring who is the most stressed in an organisation, then you're going to come up against a lot of selection bias. You'd expect CEOs to have a better responsibility to stress ratio, because you'd expect CEOs to be better at managing stress.
pmoriarty 9y ago
"The CEO job is the most high pressure job in an organisation" Oh please! What is the consequence of a CEO failing to perform up to expectation? They get a golden parachute, take off with a mountain of cash and stock, and get rehired as a CEO of some other company. Once you reach that level you pretty much never have to worry about money or your job ever again, unless you're massively irresponsible with money or start committing crimes that can land you in jail. Compare that with a typical worker whose entire family depends on them having a job, who's living paycheck to paycheck, and who is far from guaranteed to find another job if they're fired. They typically get absolutely nothing if they get fired, and if they don't find another job soon they and their family might be out on the street. How's that for pressure?
- lulmerchant 9y ago
  Compare your straw man to a CEO, who’s responsible for 10,000 families being able to pay their bills and feed themselves. All you’re describing is being lower down a hierarchy, which naturally tends to come with poor stress management and high sensitivity to negative emotions. You also seem to be quite ignorant to what a CEO does, and the stakes of the position. Failure for a CEO can end your career, regardless of whether you’ve already established yourself as entirely financially independent. It is also by definition the position of greatest responsibility in a company. There is nobody in a company that faces greater pressure to perform. If you fail at your job, it’s really unlikely that your failure will be dissected in the news paper for everyone to see. You could get fired and go out and get a new job. For a disgraced CEO, this is usually not an option. We could all point out a couple of examples of revolving door CEOs, but for most executives, this isn’t a career path or even an option.

bryanlarsen 9y ago

I remember reading a study saying that middle management had the most stressful jobs. The worst stress is caused when you have responsibility without power. CEO's have a lot of responsibility, but they also have a lot of power.

Erlangolem 9y ago
I’d add that failing as a middle manager gets you fired with very little, while failing as a CEO gets you fired with a golden parachute. Failing as a CEO also seems to do little to harm your future prospects.
- lulmerchant 9y ago
  You're really only talking about a minority of CEOs here. Most of the time, failing as a CEO will mean the end of your career.
  - Erlangolem 9y ago
    That’s a fair point, I overstated things. I’d rephrase by adding “at a F500 company” after both “middle managers” and “CEO’s” in my original post.
    - lulmerchant 9y ago
      Putting aside the matter of competency for a moment (which I think is being too oversimplified in this discussion), this kinda touches on a positive feature of a free market. Which is that large organisations are by nature less efficient than smaller ones. This gives rise to the possibility of disruption and innovation. The ability to innovate quickly is generally what gives startups over well financed established players. If it weren't for this, then we would see antiquated businesses declining, and innovative startups rising from their ashes.
lulmerchant 9y ago
But we're not talking about how stressful a job is. You said being a CEO would be fun. For starters, unless you've got a lot of executive experience, if you had to turn up to work tomorrow and be the CEO, you'd be awful at it. So would I, so would anybody else that doesn't have that experience. I guess this wouldn't evenly apply to early stage start-ups, but they tend to not have much executive leadership anyway, regardless of whether they have a "CEO". Being the CEO is all responsibility. There's very little room for error, and you unavoidably have to deal with a myriad of issues that you will have no personal interest in whatsoever. It is absolutely the most high pressure and difficult job in an organisation. If it weren't, then anybody could do it, when obviously that's not true. Also, if you're measuring who is the most stressed in an organisation, then you're going to come up against a lot of selection bias. You'd expect CEOs to have a better responsibility to stress ratio, because you'd expect CEOs to be better at managing stress.

pmoriarty 9y ago

"The CEO job is the most high pressure job in an organisation" Oh please! What is the consequence of a CEO failing to perform up to expectation? They get a golden parachute, take off with a mountain of cash and stock, and get rehired as a CEO of some other company. Once you reach that level you pretty much never have to worry about money or your job ever again, unless you're massively irresponsible with money or start committing crimes that can land you in jail. Compare that with a typical worker whose entire family depends on them having a job, who's living paycheck to paycheck, and who is far from guaranteed to find another job if they're fired. They typically get absolutely nothing if they get fired, and if they don't find another job soon they and their family might be out on the street. How's that for pressure?

lulmerchant 9y ago
Compare your straw man to a CEO, who’s responsible for 10,000 families being able to pay their bills and feed themselves. All you’re describing is being lower down a hierarchy, which naturally tends to come with poor stress management and high sensitivity to negative emotions. You also seem to be quite ignorant to what a CEO does, and the stakes of the position. Failure for a CEO can end your career, regardless of whether you’ve already established yourself as entirely financially independent. It is also by definition the position of greatest responsibility in a company. There is nobody in a company that faces greater pressure to perform. If you fail at your job, it’s really unlikely that your failure will be dissected in the news paper for everyone to see. You could get fired and go out and get a new job. For a disgraced CEO, this is usually not an option. We could all point out a couple of examples of revolving door CEOs, but for most executives, this isn’t a career path or even an option.