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" it's a lot easier to get up at 5am, shake hands firmly, and dress for success" Let's not be superfluous. Being a CEO is hard, even the 5 am rising and 'hand

" it's a lot easier to get up at 5am, shake hands firmly, and dress for success" Let's not be superfluous. Being a CEO is hard, even the 5 am rising and 'hand shaking' parts.

enraged_camel 8y ago
>>Being a CEO is hard Not necessarily. It completely depends on the company and the industry.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  Yeah, some are harder than others but I can't think of a CEO job that isn't hard. It's always fraught with political risk, changing times, etc. etc.. From the 'inside' we might think it looks easy, we get a paycheque, it's all hunky-dory ... but from that top spot it's almost always hard.
  - tomgp 8y ago
    How hard is it really though? If someone said to me: "you can either work in an Amazon warehouse (either shift 7.00am-5.30pm or 5.45pm-4.15am) or be the CEO of Amazon but you're going to get paid the same whichever you choose" I know which I'd do.
    - larrywright 8y ago
      Whether a job is hard or not depends on more than just how many hours you work and the physical aspect. Which of those jobs is more stressful? CEO, hands down. The decisions you make as a warehouse worker don’t matter all that much - if you make a bad one, the impact of that decision won’t be felt far. If the CEO makes a bad decision, it could lead to his removal, the failure of the company, huge financial losses, people losing their jobs. Just because something isn’t physically demanding doesn’t mean it’s not demanding.
      - tomgp 8y ago
        I’m sorry, no, I believe the precarious warehouse job is many times more stressful. Especially in the US where time off is limited and health care is essentially contingent on your employers goodwill. Stress is very often a function of lack of agency.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - sonnyblarney 8y ago
      You would be a reliable stock picker, surely, but you'd also run Amazon into the ground, probably. I think you are misinterpreting what 'hard' means.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >but I can't think of a CEO job that isn't hard. It's always fraught with political risk, changing times, etc. etc That makes it volatile, not hard. And the stakes are much less for volatility when you already have several cool million in the bank...
    - sonnyblarney 8y ago
      No, it makes it hard. The CEO of an Ambulance company I know has about 500 staff, he's been doing it for 25 years, it all seems like a smooth operation but they're constantly facing issues. Labour and training problems, international actors that won't pay and their governments won't help, shipping problems, supply chain problems. Liability issues. IP issues with some special things they do. Orders come in batches, they might have a down year and possibly have to play people off. And I'm not even getting into the very basics of product development, financing the working capital i.e. the regular stuff employees do. People who think CEO's just show up and wear suits and have meetings, and kiss up to the board ... I don't think have any exposure to what the job entails.
      - coldtea 8y ago
        Again, that's not hard as in big "physical or mental toll". Being a miner is hard. Being a surgeon is hard. Being a mathematician working on big problems is hard. A CEO compared is a walk in the park. All those issues you've mentioned ("Labour and training problems, international actors that won't pay and their governments won't help, shipping problems, supply chain problems") are there in any business (even in a single person shop).
  - mikeash 8y ago
    I’m sure it’s hard if you’re a normal person with human feelings and take seriously your responsibility to your employees and shareholders. If you can avoid that, it must be a great job. Massive pay, no labor, people do what you say, and if you screw up the politics and get fired you’re still set for life. The implications of this are not great.
- gitgud 8y ago
  Well, regardless of the industry. Most people would consider the tasks of: -leading a company -dealing with finances -constantly making important decisions As a hard job.
  - CaptainZapp 8y ago
    I hope that any company worth its salt has a CFO to deal with finances. Not that the CEO should be completely out of the loop (she has to sign off, after all). But if a CEO is dealing with nitty, gritty details if finances there's a severe delegation issue at best and a detail obsessed control-freak at worst.
    - gitgud 8y ago
      True, I was mainly referring to making decisions with company money, like how much to invest in resources and development. Not managing the accounting details.
    - sonnyblarney 8y ago
      No, there are many cases where the CEO will be involved in financial issues, especially where it will affect the company as a whole. A European company with major cash holdings may want to diversify currency, but that could be seen as speculative. The working capital requirements and details of the revolving loans they have from the bank. The list goes on.
  - TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
    A stable company with good people will run itself. There may be execution issues, but the good people should be able to handle those. The value-adds from a good CEO are outstanding strategy, positive corporate brand creation, and investor/shareholder relationship management. The first two aren't hard in the bureaucratic sense, but in the creative sense. A lot of CEOs are terrible at them - see the long list of companies run into the ground by very poor decisions. The last one is helped a lot by having the correct class background. It's nightmarishly hard for outsiders, and can be anywhere from not hard at all to equally nightmarish for insiders.
  - 8y ago
- dx034 8y ago
  Unless your company is small, being a CEO is hard. Knowing about all projects and developments in the company (often several hundred projects and initiatives) and deciding on which opportunities to take is not an easy job.
  - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    Even when your company is small. I mean just the emotional pressure alone, you're still responsible for the well-being of however many employees you have, in addition to your own. No wonder a lot of top level executives are psychopaths, the emotional detachment must really help.
Kurtz79 8y ago
I appreciate that the work is hard, what I cannot come to terms with is the apparent and total lack of accountability of the role (speaking about big-company CEOs). Yes, a "bad" CEO will be fired, meaning that he will pocket a fat severance package and he will be able to try again in another company with almost no stigma attached. Even if he did it so badly making himself unhireable for similar positions, he will have already earned more money that most people (even with professional jobs) see in their lifetimes. "With great power comes great responsibility" seems not to apply to CEOs, more like "the house always wins".
- C1sc0cat 8y ago
  Not realy don't do what the trendy thing is in the city and any C level might get pushed out. on example was the campaign against a former BT CFO would not would print shares to go on a buying spree - like Vodaphone was doing
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  Most CEO's don't do 'bad' as in illegal stuff, this is very rare. If they do really bad stuff their equity disintegrates. The reason the golden parachutes exist is because CEO is likely going to be 'the end of the career' for most. There are so many reasons to get fired and it will probably happen. After that, there's not much else. Nobody in their right mind would be a 'Big Co CEO' without some kinds of rewards even on the downside - many of these folks can make quite a lot of money in some other C-level position and do just fine right there. Why put your head on the chopping block? You might also ask the question why athletes are paid gazillions for doing something fun, that they enjoy that comes with zero responsibility basically, and can often do very well even if they don't perform, although usually that's not the case. And FYI most CEO's don't make gazillions of dollars, that's just what we see in the news.
coldtea 8y ago
>Being a CEO is hard Much easier than many other jobs, from mining and nursing to jobs that single mothers do in 2 shifts. And with much more perks, respect, personal influence, and earnings...
- jjoonathan 8y ago
  The hard parts are "getting to the top" and "staying there," not performing the duties. I am sure the duties are "hard" in an absolute sense, but not relative to pay and accountability, not when compared to other jobs that are hard in an absolute sense, as you point out.
- manigandham 8y ago
  It's all relative. Someone in life always has it worse than you and these positions just cant be compared like this in any productive discussion. Being a CEO doesn't mean you're the boss. It means you serve everyone, from employees to customers to shareholders, and are responsible for every single thing that happens. If someone doesn't do well, it's your fault. And being responsible for others livelihoods with every decision you make is definitely not easy.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >Being a CEO doesn't mean you're the boss. It means you serve everyone, from employees to customers to shareholders, and are responsible for every single thing that happens. Golden parachutes ensure that this responsibility means almost nothing. CEOs have driven whole companies to the ground, losing the jobs of thousands, and got their fat check in the end. Heck, even white collar crime goes largely unpunished.

" it's a lot easier to get up at 5am, shake hands firmly, and dress for success" Let's not be superfluous. Being a CEO is hard, even the 5 am rising and 'hand shaking' parts.

enraged_camel 8y ago

>>Being a CEO is hard Not necessarily. It completely depends on the company and the industry.

sonnyblarney 8y ago
Yeah, some are harder than others but I can't think of a CEO job that isn't hard. It's always fraught with political risk, changing times, etc. etc.. From the 'inside' we might think it looks easy, we get a paycheque, it's all hunky-dory ... but from that top spot it's almost always hard.
- tomgp 8y ago
  How hard is it really though? If someone said to me: "you can either work in an Amazon warehouse (either shift 7.00am-5.30pm or 5.45pm-4.15am) or be the CEO of Amazon but you're going to get paid the same whichever you choose" I know which I'd do.
  - larrywright 8y ago
    Whether a job is hard or not depends on more than just how many hours you work and the physical aspect. Which of those jobs is more stressful? CEO, hands down. The decisions you make as a warehouse worker don’t matter all that much - if you make a bad one, the impact of that decision won’t be felt far. If the CEO makes a bad decision, it could lead to his removal, the failure of the company, huge financial losses, people losing their jobs. Just because something isn’t physically demanding doesn’t mean it’s not demanding.
    - tomgp 8y ago
      I’m sorry, no, I believe the precarious warehouse job is many times more stressful. Especially in the US where time off is limited and health care is essentially contingent on your employers goodwill. Stress is very often a function of lack of agency.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    You would be a reliable stock picker, surely, but you'd also run Amazon into the ground, probably. I think you are misinterpreting what 'hard' means.
- coldtea 8y ago
  >but I can't think of a CEO job that isn't hard. It's always fraught with political risk, changing times, etc. etc That makes it volatile, not hard. And the stakes are much less for volatility when you already have several cool million in the bank...
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    No, it makes it hard. The CEO of an Ambulance company I know has about 500 staff, he's been doing it for 25 years, it all seems like a smooth operation but they're constantly facing issues. Labour and training problems, international actors that won't pay and their governments won't help, shipping problems, supply chain problems. Liability issues. IP issues with some special things they do. Orders come in batches, they might have a down year and possibly have to play people off. And I'm not even getting into the very basics of product development, financing the working capital i.e. the regular stuff employees do. People who think CEO's just show up and wear suits and have meetings, and kiss up to the board ... I don't think have any exposure to what the job entails.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      Again, that's not hard as in big "physical or mental toll". Being a miner is hard. Being a surgeon is hard. Being a mathematician working on big problems is hard. A CEO compared is a walk in the park. All those issues you've mentioned ("Labour and training problems, international actors that won't pay and their governments won't help, shipping problems, supply chain problems") are there in any business (even in a single person shop).
- mikeash 8y ago
  I’m sure it’s hard if you’re a normal person with human feelings and take seriously your responsibility to your employees and shareholders. If you can avoid that, it must be a great job. Massive pay, no labor, people do what you say, and if you screw up the politics and get fired you’re still set for life. The implications of this are not great.
gitgud 8y ago
Well, regardless of the industry. Most people would consider the tasks of: -leading a company -dealing with finances -constantly making important decisions As a hard job.
- CaptainZapp 8y ago
  I hope that any company worth its salt has a CFO to deal with finances. Not that the CEO should be completely out of the loop (she has to sign off, after all). But if a CEO is dealing with nitty, gritty details if finances there's a severe delegation issue at best and a detail obsessed control-freak at worst.
  - gitgud 8y ago
    True, I was mainly referring to making decisions with company money, like how much to invest in resources and development. Not managing the accounting details.
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    No, there are many cases where the CEO will be involved in financial issues, especially where it will affect the company as a whole. A European company with major cash holdings may want to diversify currency, but that could be seen as speculative. The working capital requirements and details of the revolving loans they have from the bank. The list goes on.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  A stable company with good people will run itself. There may be execution issues, but the good people should be able to handle those. The value-adds from a good CEO are outstanding strategy, positive corporate brand creation, and investor/shareholder relationship management. The first two aren't hard in the bureaucratic sense, but in the creative sense. A lot of CEOs are terrible at them - see the long list of companies run into the ground by very poor decisions. The last one is helped a lot by having the correct class background. It's nightmarishly hard for outsiders, and can be anywhere from not hard at all to equally nightmarish for insiders.
- 8y ago
dx034 8y ago
Unless your company is small, being a CEO is hard. Knowing about all projects and developments in the company (often several hundred projects and initiatives) and deciding on which opportunities to take is not an easy job.
- Cthulhu_ 8y ago
  Even when your company is small. I mean just the emotional pressure alone, you're still responsible for the well-being of however many employees you have, in addition to your own. No wonder a lot of top level executives are psychopaths, the emotional detachment must really help.

Kurtz79 8y ago

I appreciate that the work is hard, what I cannot come to terms with is the apparent and total lack of accountability of the role (speaking about big-company CEOs). Yes, a "bad" CEO will be fired, meaning that he will pocket a fat severance package and he will be able to try again in another company with almost no stigma attached. Even if he did it so badly making himself unhireable for similar positions, he will have already earned more money that most people (even with professional jobs) see in their lifetimes. "With great power comes great responsibility" seems not to apply to CEOs, more like "the house always wins".

C1sc0cat 8y ago
Not realy don't do what the trendy thing is in the city and any C level might get pushed out. on example was the campaign against a former BT CFO would not would print shares to go on a buying spree - like Vodaphone was doing
sonnyblarney 8y ago
Most CEO's don't do 'bad' as in illegal stuff, this is very rare. If they do really bad stuff their equity disintegrates. The reason the golden parachutes exist is because CEO is likely going to be 'the end of the career' for most. There are so many reasons to get fired and it will probably happen. After that, there's not much else. Nobody in their right mind would be a 'Big Co CEO' without some kinds of rewards even on the downside - many of these folks can make quite a lot of money in some other C-level position and do just fine right there. Why put your head on the chopping block? You might also ask the question why athletes are paid gazillions for doing something fun, that they enjoy that comes with zero responsibility basically, and can often do very well even if they don't perform, although usually that's not the case. And FYI most CEO's don't make gazillions of dollars, that's just what we see in the news.

coldtea 8y ago

>Being a CEO is hard Much easier than many other jobs, from mining and nursing to jobs that single mothers do in 2 shifts. And with much more perks, respect, personal influence, and earnings...

jjoonathan 8y ago
The hard parts are "getting to the top" and "staying there," not performing the duties. I am sure the duties are "hard" in an absolute sense, but not relative to pay and accountability, not when compared to other jobs that are hard in an absolute sense, as you point out.
manigandham 8y ago
It's all relative. Someone in life always has it worse than you and these positions just cant be compared like this in any productive discussion. Being a CEO doesn't mean you're the boss. It means you serve everyone, from employees to customers to shareholders, and are responsible for every single thing that happens. If someone doesn't do well, it's your fault. And being responsible for others livelihoods with every decision you make is definitely not easy.
- coldtea 8y ago
  >Being a CEO doesn't mean you're the boss. It means you serve everyone, from employees to customers to shareholders, and are responsible for every single thing that happens. Golden parachutes ensure that this responsibility means almost nothing. CEOs have driven whole companies to the ground, losing the jobs of thousands, and got their fat check in the end. Heck, even white collar crime goes largely unpunished.