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The CEO of RevolutApp on Slack: “Why Aren’t You Working on Weekends?”

185 points by deepsy 8y ago

DyslexicAtheist 8y ago
Money laundering is totally OK as long as you do it on a large enough scale /s: https://www.ft.com/content/527fe170-3b79-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca5d0 https://www.ft.com/content/527fe170-3b79-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca...
- HenryBemis 8y ago
  ML is bad. My apologies, but I fail to see how this is connected to Revolut CEO. Edit: Oh SNAP! :) Ok now I read it, a parallel HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279746 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279746
- pas 8y ago
  in case someone else hits the paywall: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279993
stagas 8y ago
So the strategy is this: Assemble teams with a low salary, then offer the withheld salary as bonus promises as an excuse to have people working on weekends and justify firing. Yes, that sounds like something it'll work for long term and is not toxic at all for the employees.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
w8rbt 8y ago
If you have only ever worked a 9 - 5 work week this may come as a surprise, but in the real world in America, lots of highly paid people routinely work weekends and nights and 12 or even 24 hour shifts. Doctors, Police Officers, Morticians, Firefighters, etc. They use schedules to spread the work and many only get one weekend off a month of totally free time.
- pixl97 8y ago
  And? That is just as unacceptable.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- bovermyer 8y ago
  Just because it's common doesn't mean it's right.
- apercu 8y ago
  > Doctors, Police Officers, Morticians, Firefighters Hold on. A firefighter is on call in the in the firehouse during their shift. The aren't (except in emergencies) working straight 24 hour shifts. I see them at the grocery store a lot during the day. How many teams of software developers are gaming, shopping and sleeping during their shifts? most patrol officers work 5 consecutive 8-hour shifts followed by two days off, though emergency callouts are part of the job. I don't know any morticians but I assume that is the same. Doctors are in a different category all together, and I'll bet their shifts and culture surrounding their hours are responsible for many, many deaths.
  - cloverich 8y ago
    Moreover Doctor's hours are controlled by doctor's themselves. If the mass of physicians would prefer lower salaries and better hours, they could and would achieve that.
- everdrive 8y ago
  Policemen, Firemen, and Doctors are at least doing worthwhile work: usually saving lives and protecting the public. Tech workers are merely making their CEO and some shareholders rich. They should only be working those long hours if it's going to benefit them, and they like the tradeoff. I'm not implying that it's OK to overwork Doctors / Firemen / Policemen: simply stating that there's real good in the world they do, whereas most tech companies are net loss for humanity, and not worth the work.
lohszvu 8y ago
I appreciate the CEO being direct. It gives you a chance to find another job before you get fired.
- kemiller2002 8y ago
  Honestly, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but I really think you're absolutely right. Some people really like working in that environment. Personally, it's not for me, but at least the CEO is upfront about what he expects. Really, he's being a good leader in that respect. I wouldn't want to work for him, but he's clear about what he wants which a lot of people in management miss. EDIT Let me explain why this is good. First as your boss, I'm not your friend. I'm not your pal. My sole responsibility is to ensure that I communicate clearly and effectively what needs to be done and make sure it happens. That's it. Does this mean, I'm not compassionate? No, of course not, but what it means is that I am tasked having uncomfortable conversations about things that need to be done and to make it understood. Have I asked people to work nights and weekends? Yes. Several times? Yes. Do I like doing it? No. This is the job. If you want to quit over this. No hard feelings. I make it clear that this is what we have to do. Have I fired people for under performing? Yes. Do I feel bad about it? No. That's my job. I feel bad, when I have to let someone go, because we don't have the money to keep them. When management says, "lose two heads, because we want to cut costs," and they were good employees. I feel bad then. Working weekends sucks, I agree, but sometimes you have to. If you've never worked for a company that is on the brink of bankruptcy, you really don't understand what it's like to have to lay things on the line. The CEO is being honest about consequences. We honestly, don't know the situation from that blurb. It sounds like he's being an ass, but there maybe an underlying reason for it. (Probably not, but you never know.) Whether you choose to keep going is your choice. A previous company I worked for, was on the brink of going out of business. Only a few of us knew (out of 200+ employees). We had a shortfall of money and we didn't know if we were going to make payroll that month. They didn't want to tell anyone (in fact I was instructed not to), but I knew, because I knew several of the executives. I pushed my staff, and myself for those three weeks, because I knew that if we didn't bill, the company could quite possibly go under. People say working weekends crosses a line. Knowing that your co-worker (or employee) may get evicted from the country, lost their house, etc., because you didn't do your job for those couple of weeks, I can't do that. That's crossing a line for me.
vasilakisfil 8y ago
Ok, won't use Revolut again.
- brbrodude 8y ago
  BTW https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-fintech-politics-storonsky https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-... They were using hiring process for unpaid work.
- pas 8y ago
  Can you recommend an alternative?
  - vldx 8y ago
    I’m happy with TransferWise. I was thinking to check Revolut as well, but now I’m not so sure.
  - chauffer 8y ago
    N26 does most of what Revolut does, and it's a real bank. The exchange rates are a bit worse than Revolut but still better than the average bank. They have a webapp but you cannot topup with other cards, you can only transfer money into it.
  - krn 8y ago
    Bunq[1] is an alternative to Revolut with a banking license in Netherlands. I personally don't trust N26 from the technical point of view[2], and Monzo is available to the UK residents only. [1] https://www.bunq.com/ https://www.bunq.com/ [2] https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-7969-shut_up_and_take_my_money https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-7969-shut_up_and_take_my_money
dwighttk 8y ago
I hate the idea of working on weekends... This guy was only talking about people significantly behind on their projects, for what it is worth. Of course they can be behind because they are wasting time or because the project requires too many man hours.
- pixl97 8y ago
  Do you visit the gas station and shop on the weekend? Or is working on the weekend something only the poor should be forced to do. Of course I think you mean to say "the idea of a 7 day work week is stupid"
  - dwighttk 8y ago
    Many gas stations work 24hrs a day without requiring an attendant 24/7. I would be fine if no one worked on the weekend. I might prefer the police and power company kept doing their thing, but those aren't exactly poor people being forced to work.
  - CoolGuySteve 8y ago
    Thanks Dr. Pedantry.
- bkor 8y ago
  > This guy was only talking about people significantly behind on their projects, for what it is worth. What difference does that make? If people are behind they're behind. There should be a discussion, not an "work overtime" response. I want to think I'm valued and not just blamed if things aren't going smoothly.
  - dwighttk 8y ago
    I'm mostly in agreement... the tweet makes it sound like he's just yelling at everyone in the company unless you zoom in on an image and read through the context.
- apercu 8y ago
  How do you know the deadlines were reasonable? One of the reasons I quit my last job was because of unreasonable revenue targets from shareholders and the need to push my team beyond what I thought was reasonable due to these pressures. This included some ridiculous deadlines.
dexen 8y ago
>I noticed that several product owners / team leaders >are significantly below targets >and still do not work on weekends to catch up. The CEO addresses it specifically to the middle management (POs/TLs) and not line employees. Given that, the vocal outrage, and the calls on Twitter for the line employees to unionize are both unproductive, and also misleading. Way to discredit your position.
- akuji1993 8y ago
  Those people shouldn't work on weekends either. If the only way you can make your KPI's is working middle management to death, you as a leader are making serious mistakes in management. If you can't build a working infrastructure for people and be able to sustain and grow your business on a 40 hour week (except for emergencies, unforseen things), maybe your product or company model is not that viable. We really shouldn't encourage this type of work ethic in any way or on any step of the ladder.
  - zwerdlds 8y ago
    This is exactly how i feel about all this too. Metrics not met? Sounds like you need to hire more people. How often I've seen management shirking and sending the management THEY should be doing to the next level down...
- happytoexplain 8y ago
  Can you describe why the sentiment being addressed specifically to middle management whose teams are behind on projects makes the "vocal outrage" and "calls to unionize" discrediting?
- leereeves 8y ago
  And what do you imagine that's telling middle management to do? Do the line employees' jobs themselves on weekends while the line employees are enjoying the weekend break? Not bloody likely. Obviously the pressure from the CEO is meant to trickle down to the line employees.
- Avshalom 8y ago
HenryBemis 8y ago
Self note: never do business with the person that says: Bonus more important that weekend family time. If projects are behind, re-group, re-train, re-focus. Waving the whip and telling people "work on the weekends" was never my style (to instruct or to receive).
- deepsy 8y ago
  That's reasonable
- RubenSandwich 8y ago
  Not only that, but by not having a consistent schedule, for example 40 hours a week, makes it impossible to know how long an upcoming feature is going to take. Because there are people who are willing to do those herculean tasks in the ridiculous timeframe and then burn out. So mangement never really learns anything and continues pushing features at the same pace. It is in your companies best interest to have a predicatable schedule.
adlpz 8y ago
If people are behind the expected performance due to excessive workload or poor higher-level management, then this is unacceptable. If people are behind the expected performance due to incompetence, wasted time or poor self-management, then this is reasonable. We are all adults here.
- nisuni 8y ago
  Based on the tone of the whole message, what would you guess? Also, do you think that (given, again, the general tone) that the management would evaluate a low-performing employee in a fair and objective way? Even asking people to work on weekend without compensation it's illegal in many countries.
- happytoexplain 8y ago
  I think this is absolutely wrong and, frankly, sickening. It is never OK for a superior to ask or even imply that employees should work overtime (barring jobs with very disproportionate impact). Incompetence on the part of an employee is not punishable by overtime work unless they want to do that on their own volition. You work with them to solve their problems. If you can't do so without requiring that they work overtime (again, unless it is of their own volition), then they are not a good fit for that job. Anything else is inhumane, disrespectful, and out of touch.
  - JeffRosenberg 8y ago
    I'm as offended by the CEO's attitude as the rest, but this seems like a way over-the-top response. It is literally NEVER OK for a superior to ask an employee to work overtime? Insisting that your employees work weekends for months on end is obviously unacceptable. Asking your employees to work occasional overtime in certain circumstances hardly seems monstrous to me.
- akuji1993 8y ago
  And of course, it's the easiest way to just fire those people without asking about the issues they might be having and that you could improve on by educating or supporting them in the right way. Of course there are bad apples, but the majority doesn't want to be bad at their job. Help them improve and get their workload to a sustainable amount and you gain a loyal worker instead of having to find somebody new.
mseidl 8y ago
People aren't robots they need breaks, vacations, time to decompress, time off when sick.
- batrat 8y ago
  "How do you dare to say that! Our ancestors took weekends off in the battlefield? GET IT DONE!"
- xvilka 8y ago
  Well, even robots do need periodical checks, maintenance and cooling down sometimes.
- krapp 8y ago
  >People aren't robots they need breaks, vacations, time to decompress, time off when sick. It's worth remembering that the only reason employees get these concessions is because unions and governments forced companies to do so under threat of (sometimes direct) violence, and that part of the "disruptive" philosophy of modern startup culture is an attempt to undermine and roll back these gains in labor rights under the pretense of free-market efficiency.
  - cloverich 8y ago
    I think that's a biased take. Ultimately you can't have concessions without enough economy to support it in the first place, so it cuts both ways. There's plenty of glamor stories about certain startup's having shitty work cultures, but in general a startup is a riskier place to work in the first place. That having a shitty work culture would attract employee's from safer, (culturally) better jobs seems unlikely (and contradicts my personal experience, at least).
  - hevi_jos 8y ago
    It is worth remembering the real reason there is a limit of 8 hours a day for work is because of a man called Henry Ford, that studied seriously productivity on his company's 300.000 workers and got to the conclusion that 8 hours a day means maximum productivity. This man along other industrialists started to lobby for 8 hours a day and they got exactly that.
aboutruby 8y ago
main thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279829 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279829
dougmwne 8y ago
I am very pro work life balance and think anything over 35-40 hours per week will just lead to eventual burnout and reduced performance. Having said that, I can't bring myself to be too bothered about this tweet. At least the expectation is clear: hit your KPI goal or else. If you were to find yourself behind, you could either work harder, lobby to change the goal, lobby for more resources, pivot your strategy, or start looking for a new job. This guy is being a dick by threatening weekend work or the dole to push people to hit their numbers, but there are worse management sins.
- maaaats 8y ago
  But what if the KPIs are unreasonable? I would say they are, given that it seems multiple teams are failing to meet them.
  - lewiscollard 8y ago
    > But what if the KPIs are unreasonable? I would say they are, given that it seems multiple teams are failing to meet them. Yep. Unless the employees are slacking off in their work week (I have no reason to think this is the case) this seems true by definition.
- apercu 8y ago
  Working on an assembly line, sure 40 hours a week is fine. Trying to do creative problem solving with complex issues? I have met very few people who can maintain peak performance at even 40 hours a week, week after week. In my experience most people burn 8-10 hours a week on water cooler chats and personal issues that need to be dealt with during the business day. Reasonable KPI's are good, and people should be able to work as much or as little (within reason) to meet those targets. The problem is ownership always wants more.
- pas 8y ago
  Plans rarely survive contact with reality. Target KPIs are just that. They are a planning-estimating-organizing tool. And KPIs are actually benchmark indicators [hence the name], not explicit targets. Sure, you can try to make goals, even have certain contractual rights or obligations pegged to them, and CEOs can even communicate these to employees, but demanding to meet those goals, to place these goals above personal well-being is a very short sighted strategy.
swalsh 8y ago
Is it like a rule that these "rising star unicorns" have to be ran by Sociopaths?
NoblePublius 8y ago
Never ceases to amaze me how friggin lazy and entitled are the British when it comes to being told they need to work long hours. It’s a high growth startup. They are vesting you with stock. Hell yes you need to come in on weekends, bruv.
- forgotAgain 8y ago
  Given the attitude displayed in the message I think its more than likely that they will be screwed out of their stock.
- chmod775 8y ago
  Do you think I'm a walking charity? That's what an employment contract is for. If you want me to work on weekends, put that in the contract. I can then negotiate an appropriate wage. If it's not in the contract, get lost. Alternatively propose a new contract so we can re-negotiate my compensation. If we negotiated for 160 hours of my time / month, then that's what you're getting. And if you can't wrap your head around that, you are not qualified to run a company and probably shouldn't be trusted with any kind of business transaction at all.
  - NoblePublius 8y ago
    I employ 105 people in five countries. 30 in the UK. Feel free to renegotiate your contract when asked to work long hours whilst I contact my recruiter to replace you.
    - chmod775 8y ago
      If my employer pulled such a palpable show of arrogance someday, you can bet I'd have quit before sundown. I know it'll probably take you half a year to fill my position, while I'll happily be working somewhere else within the week. Though from what I gleamed of your personality from your comments, it's likely you wouldn't have managed to get me on board in the first place. Also did you ever consider that some of your employees/contractors may be running their own companies/business when they're not working at yours? Do you really think they value your business above theirs? And even if they don't, do you think they value your company above their family/friends/life? Do you think your attitude even has a chance of inspiring different priorities? I highly doubt it. Your company sounds like a terrible place to work.
NoblePublius 8y ago
Standard working hours in China are 9-9 six days per week.
- chmod775 8y ago
  And that country is known for terrible working conditions. Let's very deliberately not do what China is doing.
  - NoblePublius 8y ago
    They work that long to win. Do you want to win? Or do you want to lose? Business is fundamentally a competition.
    - chmod775 8y ago
      The only thing the Chinese working class is winning at is subsidizing the west's lavish lifestyle with their cheap and exploitative labor. Some winning that is. If that's what winning looks like, don't sign me up.
    - celticninja 8y ago
      Who's winning? The employee in an early grave, who sacrificed time with their family for a company, to whom they are replaceable? Or the company, if it's the company well them employee is still losing and ultimately that's the real result that matters.
    - rndgermandude 8y ago
      Getting worked into the ground so some self-entitled person can "win" in "business" on the back of my labor and broken body and psyche, now that's a loss in my book.
- Markoff 8y ago
  yeah and most of that time consist of surfing on Taobao and checking WeChat, worked for years in China, productivity of white collars it's extremely behind their image in west, what foreigner for in one hour Chinese colleague will do whole day. same with time management, everything decided at 5 to noon and then rushing instead of property management and working at normal pace without overtime
baby 8y ago
Related: Revolut and Monzo are still amazing products. After moving to the US they make it quite impossible to use revolut or monzo (it’s expensive as fuck to top up). I’ve looked into simple/varo/chime but they look pretty bad in comparison to Monzo, they are also reserved to Us citizens only so fuck people with a greencard. I have chase/capitalone/schwabe and their app are just stuck in the past. I really wish Monzo would work here :/ anything I’m not aware of?
- falsedan 8y ago
  Use TransferWise to move USD to your GBP account? Or even more, use TW's borderless account? You swap a bright pink/orange card for a bright lime green
  - baby 8y ago
    Whats tw?
    - falsedan 8y ago
      TransferWise
    - bbx 8y ago
      TransferWise.
  - baby 8y ago
    I don't know about TW's borderless account, but it's not costless to move USD to revolut/monzo with TW (as opposed as moving money from a European account to a revolut account)
readhn 8y ago
RIP RevolutApp with such CEO leadership you are doomed to fail. Nikolay Storonsky - you will lose your best people and drive RevolutApp into the ground. EDIT: just read a wiki on Nikolay. It all makes sense - his dad is a high up in Putin's enterprise machine (Gazprom - russian gas related entity) = part of the corruption machine. Not surprised that the son has such morals and how he treats other people is probably coming from his dad. Regular folks are just lowlife slaves and peasants that exist to enrich him and his business (this is the way an average russian oligarch thinks).
- ulfw 8y ago
  Their CFO seems to be sick of weekend 'work' too: https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/01/revolut-cfo-peter-ohiggins-resigns/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/01/revolut-cfo-peter-ohiggins...
  - readhn 8y ago
    "Storonsky also responded to the Telegraph story with a blog post that denies any wrongdoing. He claimed Revolut suspended the use of “a more advanced sanctions screening system” and instead reverted to a previous one." haha they stopped flagging "certain" suspicious financial activity for a period of time. Its a well known fact that russian politicians and oligarchs launder their money through European banks... How "convenient" that they stopped flagging certain transactions.. Did his Dad or his Dad's buddies have to funnel some money through Europe?
  - readhn 8y ago
    CFO quitting might be something to do with "dirty" russian money ... Widening Russia Money Laundering Scandal Hits European Banks https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-05/dirty-money-scandal-widens-with-reports-on-nordea-and-lithuania https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-05/dirty-mon... ..."Revolut suspended the use of “a more advanced sanctions screening system”....
apercu 8y ago
I have never been very productive when trying to do knowledge work for more than 4-5 hours a day and more than about 28 hours a week. When I start working 50+ hours a week my productivity drops below what I would have gotten done in a 20 hour week, Things become harder, you get less creative, you start brute forcing your solutions. You write bad code or documents. These are things you typically learn with experience.
testcross 8y ago
Now the question is: what are the good alternatives to revolut?
- celticninja 8y ago
  Starling or Monzo
yourapostasy 8y ago
The rational response when those receiving the message are not compensated with exactly the same, non-dilutive equity share class as founders, is explained in Urban Dictionary [1] from the Goodfellas movie [2]. Pay peanuts, get monkey effort. If KPI's were negotiated simultaneously with compensation, then perhaps there might be some more negotiating leverage equity between parties and a more honest appraisal and synchronization between goals and compensation, but standard practice is compensation is negotiated on a lagging basis compared to how often KPI's are established/modified. The whole applicant's-must-book-sales-for-free schtick was so trashy they pulled it [3] once it came to light. [1] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fuck%20you%20pay%20me https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fuck%20you%2... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L4HHPTiZN8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L4HHPTiZN8 [3] https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/10/140531-digital-bank-revolut-takes-heat-for-clumsy-hiring-ploy-asking-applicants-to-source-200-new-accounts-to-be-considered/ https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/10/140531-digital-bank...
brbrodude 8y ago
Seen a lot of comments trying justify it, so check this which is where the pic comes from: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-fintech-politics-storonsky https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-... They were using hiring process for free unpaid work to reach those sweet KPIs... much worse. Each applicant was expected to bring 200 new paying customers to go to the next phase. Any problem yet?
chapium 8y ago
Another example of this executive behavior previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1455750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1455750
throwaway2016a 8y ago
It takes experience to know why this doesn't work and some CEOs / CTOs / PMs / etc get there faster than others. I was involved with a company once (larger than this one) where something very similar this happened. They threatened layoffs. What happened was that the team became immediately LESS productive. Effectively instant burnout. If not from the hours than from the loss of morale. One of the biggest "mistakes" is they told everyone when the layoffs would happen so all the top performers had better jobs lined up for that next Monday. The really high performers phoned it in just enough to not be fired early and took their severance package when they were inevitably laid off. Personally, I tried not to phone it in. But I actually lobbied to be laid off (there was a significant group of people that wanted to keep me). I built up my vacation time (in the US it becomes due to you as cash when you leave) and got a month severance on top of it plus a 20% raise. And I timed my start date for a week after getting laid off just to have some rest. I was a key player on the product team... the other key players left too and that entire product died a couple months later. It takes a while for people to realize that workers will stretch or compress their work to meet the schedule. If you expect them to work weekends they will just do the same amount of work just over 7 days instead of 5. Conversely, some studies have shown a four day week has no negative effect on productivity. Thinking to meet KPIs you throw more hours at it is a sign of a "leader" who hasn't figured that out yet. Maybe by their 5th startup they'll get it. Edit: As an aside. I too have asked my team to work weekends occasionally (I'm a CTO not CEO but same premise). It always goes like this: > I'm really sorry to have to do this but we really need you to put in some extra time on the weekend to meet the deadline next week. Pick a couple days next month to take off and we'll let you take them off without using your PTO. Thank you, I really appreciate it! As a company we'll try to make sure this doesn't happen very often.
- happythought 8y ago
  Perhaps try giving them 4 future days off in exchange for working two weekend days. Weekend days are more valuable than weekdays because your family is free from work/school and there are more events.
icu 8y ago
This tweet is the exact reason I choose to live in the UK, and not the US, when it came to pursuing my career in financial services. I do not believe that the US approach—in many sectors, but particularly in finance—of putting your career before your family life is a good use of the unknown and limited time we have on this planet. That said, I am an entrepreneur, and the buck stops with me, so if I need to work weekends than I will juggle that obligation while still being there for my son. Part of my reason for this approach is based on what my father once told me, that in life you'll juggle a lot of important balls, your career ball, your family ball, your health ball etc. The gist was, life is a juggling act, but his final word on it was something along the lines of, "Your family ball is made of glass, and if you drop it, it could shatter so much that you will never be able to piece it together again." Obviously what is happening in an employee's life will have an impact on their work life. Saying things like, "if you miss your KPIs than you're fired" isn't going to motivate your staff, especially the ones who need to up their performance. Firing people who don't perform creates a situation where staff members will live under fear and that doesn't usually create great customer experiences. And this leads to another point, if you are a good leader, you should never be in a position where you need to remind people that they need to work weekends if they are behind or they will get fired. He’s the CEO, the buck stops with him. If he communicated the problem they are solving, the company’s mission, and put in the right culture, hired the right people, you don’t need to say such things. IMHO a good ‘Culture’ would have the following values: 1. Spartan Wall – We win the battle for our customers by protecting/taking care of each other. 2. Obsessive Customer Empathy – We are our customers’ biggest advocate. 3. Unfiltered Brutal Truth – Feelings, rank, politics NEVER have priority over truth and what’s right. 4. Proactive Problem Solving – When we hit problems, we do not put our hands up, we find a solution. 5. Laser Focus – We only keep to the problem and the mission. 6. One Destination, Autonomously – While we work loosely together, we all have the same mission and we are all in it together. I bet you all the money in the word Nikolay Storonsky—the CEO of Revolut—doesn’t actually understand that a CEO’s job is to create the environment to find, motivate and retain people who are focused on the problem the company is solving, believe in the company’s mission, and are a fit for the company’s culture. IMHO venture success is the result of building an organisation that does this. I wish Revolut all the luck in the world but the fish rots from the head!
- 8y ago
p3nt3ll3r 8y ago
Culture starts at the top.
koonsolo 8y ago
It reminds me that I once worked for a manager who sets deadlines on Mondays instead of Fridays, so you still had the weekend to finish it. As with any such managers, the deadlines are set by their own optimistic guesswork, not by the people actually doing the job (and knowing how to do the job). Did I mention I workED for that manager?
toddh 8y ago
You have to wonder how agreed upon these targets really were. Perhaps milestones are being missed because they were driven top down and were never realistic to begin with? Developers with ownership are more likely to work to complete their goals. If they aren't then that's a symptom of problems, not the cause.
ykevinator 8y ago
In his defense, he tied kpis to bonuses.
sztanko 8y ago
Data Engineer from Revolut here. Feel free to ask me anything. To comment on the topic, my team was never ever told to work late hours or weekends. Opinions my own. Main thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19309597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19309597

185 points by deepsy 8y ago

Money laundering is totally OK as long as you do it on a large enough scale /s: https://www.ft.com/content/527fe170-3b79-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca5d0 https://www.ft.com/content/527fe170-3b79-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca...

HenryBemis 8y ago
ML is bad. My apologies, but I fail to see how this is connected to Revolut CEO. Edit: Oh SNAP! :) Ok now I read it, a parallel HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279746 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279746
pas 8y ago
in case someone else hits the paywall: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279993

stagas 8y ago

So the strategy is this: Assemble teams with a low salary, then offer the withheld salary as bonus promises as an excuse to have people working on weekends and justify firing. Yes, that sounds like something it'll work for long term and is not toxic at all for the employees.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

w8rbt 8y ago

If you have only ever worked a 9 - 5 work week this may come as a surprise, but in the real world in America, lots of highly paid people routinely work weekends and nights and 12 or even 24 hour shifts. Doctors, Police Officers, Morticians, Firefighters, etc. They use schedules to spread the work and many only get one weekend off a month of totally free time.

pixl97 8y ago
And? That is just as unacceptable.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
bovermyer 8y ago
Just because it's common doesn't mean it's right.
apercu 8y ago
> Doctors, Police Officers, Morticians, Firefighters Hold on. A firefighter is on call in the in the firehouse during their shift. The aren't (except in emergencies) working straight 24 hour shifts. I see them at the grocery store a lot during the day. How many teams of software developers are gaming, shopping and sleeping during their shifts? most patrol officers work 5 consecutive 8-hour shifts followed by two days off, though emergency callouts are part of the job. I don't know any morticians but I assume that is the same. Doctors are in a different category all together, and I'll bet their shifts and culture surrounding their hours are responsible for many, many deaths.
- cloverich 8y ago
  Moreover Doctor's hours are controlled by doctor's themselves. If the mass of physicians would prefer lower salaries and better hours, they could and would achieve that.
everdrive 8y ago
Policemen, Firemen, and Doctors are at least doing worthwhile work: usually saving lives and protecting the public. Tech workers are merely making their CEO and some shareholders rich. They should only be working those long hours if it's going to benefit them, and they like the tradeoff. I'm not implying that it's OK to overwork Doctors / Firemen / Policemen: simply stating that there's real good in the world they do, whereas most tech companies are net loss for humanity, and not worth the work.

lohszvu 8y ago

I appreciate the CEO being direct. It gives you a chance to find another job before you get fired.

kemiller2002 8y ago
Honestly, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but I really think you're absolutely right. Some people really like working in that environment. Personally, it's not for me, but at least the CEO is upfront about what he expects. Really, he's being a good leader in that respect. I wouldn't want to work for him, but he's clear about what he wants which a lot of people in management miss. EDIT Let me explain why this is good. First as your boss, I'm not your friend. I'm not your pal. My sole responsibility is to ensure that I communicate clearly and effectively what needs to be done and make sure it happens. That's it. Does this mean, I'm not compassionate? No, of course not, but what it means is that I am tasked having uncomfortable conversations about things that need to be done and to make it understood. Have I asked people to work nights and weekends? Yes. Several times? Yes. Do I like doing it? No. This is the job. If you want to quit over this. No hard feelings. I make it clear that this is what we have to do. Have I fired people for under performing? Yes. Do I feel bad about it? No. That's my job. I feel bad, when I have to let someone go, because we don't have the money to keep them. When management says, "lose two heads, because we want to cut costs," and they were good employees. I feel bad then. Working weekends sucks, I agree, but sometimes you have to. If you've never worked for a company that is on the brink of bankruptcy, you really don't understand what it's like to have to lay things on the line. The CEO is being honest about consequences. We honestly, don't know the situation from that blurb. It sounds like he's being an ass, but there maybe an underlying reason for it. (Probably not, but you never know.) Whether you choose to keep going is your choice. A previous company I worked for, was on the brink of going out of business. Only a few of us knew (out of 200+ employees). We had a shortfall of money and we didn't know if we were going to make payroll that month. They didn't want to tell anyone (in fact I was instructed not to), but I knew, because I knew several of the executives. I pushed my staff, and myself for those three weeks, because I knew that if we didn't bill, the company could quite possibly go under. People say working weekends crosses a line. Knowing that your co-worker (or employee) may get evicted from the country, lost their house, etc., because you didn't do your job for those couple of weeks, I can't do that. That's crossing a line for me.

vasilakisfil 8y ago

Ok, won't use Revolut again.

brbrodude 8y ago
BTW https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-fintech-politics-storonsky https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-... They were using hiring process for unpaid work.
pas 8y ago
Can you recommend an alternative?
- vldx 8y ago
  I’m happy with TransferWise. I was thinking to check Revolut as well, but now I’m not so sure.
- chauffer 8y ago
  N26 does most of what Revolut does, and it's a real bank. The exchange rates are a bit worse than Revolut but still better than the average bank. They have a webapp but you cannot topup with other cards, you can only transfer money into it.
- krn 8y ago
  Bunq[1] is an alternative to Revolut with a banking license in Netherlands. I personally don't trust N26 from the technical point of view[2], and Monzo is available to the UK residents only. [1] https://www.bunq.com/ https://www.bunq.com/ [2] https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-7969-shut_up_and_take_my_money https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-7969-shut_up_and_take_my_money

dwighttk 8y ago

I hate the idea of working on weekends... This guy was only talking about people significantly behind on their projects, for what it is worth. Of course they can be behind because they are wasting time or because the project requires too many man hours.

pixl97 8y ago
Do you visit the gas station and shop on the weekend? Or is working on the weekend something only the poor should be forced to do. Of course I think you mean to say "the idea of a 7 day work week is stupid"
- dwighttk 8y ago
  Many gas stations work 24hrs a day without requiring an attendant 24/7. I would be fine if no one worked on the weekend. I might prefer the police and power company kept doing their thing, but those aren't exactly poor people being forced to work.
- CoolGuySteve 8y ago
  Thanks Dr. Pedantry.
bkor 8y ago
> This guy was only talking about people significantly behind on their projects, for what it is worth. What difference does that make? If people are behind they're behind. There should be a discussion, not an "work overtime" response. I want to think I'm valued and not just blamed if things aren't going smoothly.
- dwighttk 8y ago
  I'm mostly in agreement... the tweet makes it sound like he's just yelling at everyone in the company unless you zoom in on an image and read through the context.
apercu 8y ago
How do you know the deadlines were reasonable? One of the reasons I quit my last job was because of unreasonable revenue targets from shareholders and the need to push my team beyond what I thought was reasonable due to these pressures. This included some ridiculous deadlines.

dexen 8y ago

>I noticed that several product owners / team leaders >are significantly below targets >and still do not work on weekends to catch up. The CEO addresses it specifically to the middle management (POs/TLs) and not line employees. Given that, the vocal outrage, and the calls on Twitter for the line employees to unionize are both unproductive, and also misleading. Way to discredit your position.

akuji1993 8y ago
Those people shouldn't work on weekends either. If the only way you can make your KPI's is working middle management to death, you as a leader are making serious mistakes in management. If you can't build a working infrastructure for people and be able to sustain and grow your business on a 40 hour week (except for emergencies, unforseen things), maybe your product or company model is not that viable. We really shouldn't encourage this type of work ethic in any way or on any step of the ladder.
- zwerdlds 8y ago
  This is exactly how i feel about all this too. Metrics not met? Sounds like you need to hire more people. How often I've seen management shirking and sending the management THEY should be doing to the next level down...
happytoexplain 8y ago
Can you describe why the sentiment being addressed specifically to middle management whose teams are behind on projects makes the "vocal outrage" and "calls to unionize" discrediting?
leereeves 8y ago
And what do you imagine that's telling middle management to do? Do the line employees' jobs themselves on weekends while the line employees are enjoying the weekend break? Not bloody likely. Obviously the pressure from the CEO is meant to trickle down to the line employees.
Avshalom 8y ago

HenryBemis 8y ago

Self note: never do business with the person that says: Bonus more important that weekend family time. If projects are behind, re-group, re-train, re-focus. Waving the whip and telling people "work on the weekends" was never my style (to instruct or to receive).

deepsy 8y ago
That's reasonable
RubenSandwich 8y ago
Not only that, but by not having a consistent schedule, for example 40 hours a week, makes it impossible to know how long an upcoming feature is going to take. Because there are people who are willing to do those herculean tasks in the ridiculous timeframe and then burn out. So mangement never really learns anything and continues pushing features at the same pace. It is in your companies best interest to have a predicatable schedule.

adlpz 8y ago

If people are behind the expected performance due to excessive workload or poor higher-level management, then this is unacceptable. If people are behind the expected performance due to incompetence, wasted time or poor self-management, then this is reasonable. We are all adults here.

nisuni 8y ago
Based on the tone of the whole message, what would you guess? Also, do you think that (given, again, the general tone) that the management would evaluate a low-performing employee in a fair and objective way? Even asking people to work on weekend without compensation it's illegal in many countries.
happytoexplain 8y ago
I think this is absolutely wrong and, frankly, sickening. It is never OK for a superior to ask or even imply that employees should work overtime (barring jobs with very disproportionate impact). Incompetence on the part of an employee is not punishable by overtime work unless they want to do that on their own volition. You work with them to solve their problems. If you can't do so without requiring that they work overtime (again, unless it is of their own volition), then they are not a good fit for that job. Anything else is inhumane, disrespectful, and out of touch.
- JeffRosenberg 8y ago
  I'm as offended by the CEO's attitude as the rest, but this seems like a way over-the-top response. It is literally NEVER OK for a superior to ask an employee to work overtime? Insisting that your employees work weekends for months on end is obviously unacceptable. Asking your employees to work occasional overtime in certain circumstances hardly seems monstrous to me.
akuji1993 8y ago
And of course, it's the easiest way to just fire those people without asking about the issues they might be having and that you could improve on by educating or supporting them in the right way. Of course there are bad apples, but the majority doesn't want to be bad at their job. Help them improve and get their workload to a sustainable amount and you gain a loyal worker instead of having to find somebody new.

mseidl 8y ago

People aren't robots they need breaks, vacations, time to decompress, time off when sick.

batrat 8y ago
"How do you dare to say that! Our ancestors took weekends off in the battlefield? GET IT DONE!"
xvilka 8y ago
Well, even robots do need periodical checks, maintenance and cooling down sometimes.
krapp 8y ago
>People aren't robots they need breaks, vacations, time to decompress, time off when sick. It's worth remembering that the only reason employees get these concessions is because unions and governments forced companies to do so under threat of (sometimes direct) violence, and that part of the "disruptive" philosophy of modern startup culture is an attempt to undermine and roll back these gains in labor rights under the pretense of free-market efficiency.
- cloverich 8y ago
  I think that's a biased take. Ultimately you can't have concessions without enough economy to support it in the first place, so it cuts both ways. There's plenty of glamor stories about certain startup's having shitty work cultures, but in general a startup is a riskier place to work in the first place. That having a shitty work culture would attract employee's from safer, (culturally) better jobs seems unlikely (and contradicts my personal experience, at least).
- hevi_jos 8y ago
  It is worth remembering the real reason there is a limit of 8 hours a day for work is because of a man called Henry Ford, that studied seriously productivity on his company's 300.000 workers and got to the conclusion that 8 hours a day means maximum productivity. This man along other industrialists started to lobby for 8 hours a day and they got exactly that.

aboutruby 8y ago

main thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279829 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279829

dougmwne 8y ago

I am very pro work life balance and think anything over 35-40 hours per week will just lead to eventual burnout and reduced performance. Having said that, I can't bring myself to be too bothered about this tweet. At least the expectation is clear: hit your KPI goal or else. If you were to find yourself behind, you could either work harder, lobby to change the goal, lobby for more resources, pivot your strategy, or start looking for a new job. This guy is being a dick by threatening weekend work or the dole to push people to hit their numbers, but there are worse management sins.

maaaats 8y ago
But what if the KPIs are unreasonable? I would say they are, given that it seems multiple teams are failing to meet them.
- lewiscollard 8y ago
  > But what if the KPIs are unreasonable? I would say they are, given that it seems multiple teams are failing to meet them. Yep. Unless the employees are slacking off in their work week (I have no reason to think this is the case) this seems true by definition.
apercu 8y ago
Working on an assembly line, sure 40 hours a week is fine. Trying to do creative problem solving with complex issues? I have met very few people who can maintain peak performance at even 40 hours a week, week after week. In my experience most people burn 8-10 hours a week on water cooler chats and personal issues that need to be dealt with during the business day. Reasonable KPI's are good, and people should be able to work as much or as little (within reason) to meet those targets. The problem is ownership always wants more.
pas 8y ago
Plans rarely survive contact with reality. Target KPIs are just that. They are a planning-estimating-organizing tool. And KPIs are actually benchmark indicators [hence the name], not explicit targets. Sure, you can try to make goals, even have certain contractual rights or obligations pegged to them, and CEOs can even communicate these to employees, but demanding to meet those goals, to place these goals above personal well-being is a very short sighted strategy.

swalsh 8y ago

Is it like a rule that these "rising star unicorns" have to be ran by Sociopaths?

NoblePublius 8y ago

Never ceases to amaze me how friggin lazy and entitled are the British when it comes to being told they need to work long hours. It’s a high growth startup. They are vesting you with stock. Hell yes you need to come in on weekends, bruv.

forgotAgain 8y ago
Given the attitude displayed in the message I think its more than likely that they will be screwed out of their stock.
chmod775 8y ago
Do you think I'm a walking charity? That's what an employment contract is for. If you want me to work on weekends, put that in the contract. I can then negotiate an appropriate wage. If it's not in the contract, get lost. Alternatively propose a new contract so we can re-negotiate my compensation. If we negotiated for 160 hours of my time / month, then that's what you're getting. And if you can't wrap your head around that, you are not qualified to run a company and probably shouldn't be trusted with any kind of business transaction at all.
- NoblePublius 8y ago
  I employ 105 people in five countries. 30 in the UK. Feel free to renegotiate your contract when asked to work long hours whilst I contact my recruiter to replace you.
  - chmod775 8y ago
    If my employer pulled such a palpable show of arrogance someday, you can bet I'd have quit before sundown. I know it'll probably take you half a year to fill my position, while I'll happily be working somewhere else within the week. Though from what I gleamed of your personality from your comments, it's likely you wouldn't have managed to get me on board in the first place. Also did you ever consider that some of your employees/contractors may be running their own companies/business when they're not working at yours? Do you really think they value your business above theirs? And even if they don't, do you think they value your company above their family/friends/life? Do you think your attitude even has a chance of inspiring different priorities? I highly doubt it. Your company sounds like a terrible place to work.

NoblePublius 8y ago

Standard working hours in China are 9-9 six days per week.

chmod775 8y ago
And that country is known for terrible working conditions. Let's very deliberately not do what China is doing.
- NoblePublius 8y ago
  They work that long to win. Do you want to win? Or do you want to lose? Business is fundamentally a competition.
  - chmod775 8y ago
    The only thing the Chinese working class is winning at is subsidizing the west's lavish lifestyle with their cheap and exploitative labor. Some winning that is. If that's what winning looks like, don't sign me up.
  - celticninja 8y ago
    Who's winning? The employee in an early grave, who sacrificed time with their family for a company, to whom they are replaceable? Or the company, if it's the company well them employee is still losing and ultimately that's the real result that matters.
  - rndgermandude 8y ago
    Getting worked into the ground so some self-entitled person can "win" in "business" on the back of my labor and broken body and psyche, now that's a loss in my book.
Markoff 8y ago
yeah and most of that time consist of surfing on Taobao and checking WeChat, worked for years in China, productivity of white collars it's extremely behind their image in west, what foreigner for in one hour Chinese colleague will do whole day. same with time management, everything decided at 5 to noon and then rushing instead of property management and working at normal pace without overtime

baby 8y ago

Related: Revolut and Monzo are still amazing products. After moving to the US they make it quite impossible to use revolut or monzo (it’s expensive as fuck to top up). I’ve looked into simple/varo/chime but they look pretty bad in comparison to Monzo, they are also reserved to Us citizens only so fuck people with a greencard. I have chase/capitalone/schwabe and their app are just stuck in the past. I really wish Monzo would work here :/ anything I’m not aware of?

falsedan 8y ago
Use TransferWise to move USD to your GBP account? Or even more, use TW's borderless account? You swap a bright pink/orange card for a bright lime green
- baby 8y ago
  Whats tw?
  - falsedan 8y ago
    TransferWise
  - bbx 8y ago
    TransferWise.
- baby 8y ago
  I don't know about TW's borderless account, but it's not costless to move USD to revolut/monzo with TW (as opposed as moving money from a European account to a revolut account)

readhn 8y ago

RIP RevolutApp with such CEO leadership you are doomed to fail. Nikolay Storonsky - you will lose your best people and drive RevolutApp into the ground. EDIT: just read a wiki on Nikolay. It all makes sense - his dad is a high up in Putin's enterprise machine (Gazprom - russian gas related entity) = part of the corruption machine. Not surprised that the son has such morals and how he treats other people is probably coming from his dad. Regular folks are just lowlife slaves and peasants that exist to enrich him and his business (this is the way an average russian oligarch thinks).

ulfw 8y ago
Their CFO seems to be sick of weekend 'work' too: https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/01/revolut-cfo-peter-ohiggins-resigns/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/01/revolut-cfo-peter-ohiggins...
- readhn 8y ago
  "Storonsky also responded to the Telegraph story with a blog post that denies any wrongdoing. He claimed Revolut suspended the use of “a more advanced sanctions screening system” and instead reverted to a previous one." haha they stopped flagging "certain" suspicious financial activity for a period of time. Its a well known fact that russian politicians and oligarchs launder their money through European banks... How "convenient" that they stopped flagging certain transactions.. Did his Dad or his Dad's buddies have to funnel some money through Europe?
- readhn 8y ago
  CFO quitting might be something to do with "dirty" russian money ... Widening Russia Money Laundering Scandal Hits European Banks https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-05/dirty-money-scandal-widens-with-reports-on-nordea-and-lithuania https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-05/dirty-mon... ..."Revolut suspended the use of “a more advanced sanctions screening system”....

apercu 8y ago

I have never been very productive when trying to do knowledge work for more than 4-5 hours a day and more than about 28 hours a week. When I start working 50+ hours a week my productivity drops below what I would have gotten done in a 20 hour week, Things become harder, you get less creative, you start brute forcing your solutions. You write bad code or documents. These are things you typically learn with experience.

testcross 8y ago

Now the question is: what are the good alternatives to revolut?

celticninja 8y ago
Starling or Monzo

yourapostasy 8y ago

The rational response when those receiving the message are not compensated with exactly the same, non-dilutive equity share class as founders, is explained in Urban Dictionary [1] from the Goodfellas movie [2]. Pay peanuts, get monkey effort. If KPI's were negotiated simultaneously with compensation, then perhaps there might be some more negotiating leverage equity between parties and a more honest appraisal and synchronization between goals and compensation, but standard practice is compensation is negotiated on a lagging basis compared to how often KPI's are established/modified. The whole applicant's-must-book-sales-for-free schtick was so trashy they pulled it [3] once it came to light. [1] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fuck%20you%20pay%20me https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fuck%20you%2... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L4HHPTiZN8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L4HHPTiZN8 [3] https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/10/140531-digital-bank-revolut-takes-heat-for-clumsy-hiring-ploy-asking-applicants-to-source-200-new-accounts-to-be-considered/ https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/10/140531-digital-bank...

brbrodude 8y ago

Seen a lot of comments trying justify it, so check this which is where the pic comes from: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-fintech-politics-storonsky https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-... They were using hiring process for free unpaid work to reach those sweet KPIs... much worse. Each applicant was expected to bring 200 new paying customers to go to the next phase. Any problem yet?

chapium 8y ago

Another example of this executive behavior previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1455750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1455750

throwaway2016a 8y ago

It takes experience to know why this doesn't work and some CEOs / CTOs / PMs / etc get there faster than others. I was involved with a company once (larger than this one) where something very similar this happened. They threatened layoffs. What happened was that the team became immediately LESS productive. Effectively instant burnout. If not from the hours than from the loss of morale. One of the biggest "mistakes" is they told everyone when the layoffs would happen so all the top performers had better jobs lined up for that next Monday. The really high performers phoned it in just enough to not be fired early and took their severance package when they were inevitably laid off. Personally, I tried not to phone it in. But I actually lobbied to be laid off (there was a significant group of people that wanted to keep me). I built up my vacation time (in the US it becomes due to you as cash when you leave) and got a month severance on top of it plus a 20% raise. And I timed my start date for a week after getting laid off just to have some rest. I was a key player on the product team... the other key players left too and that entire product died a couple months later. It takes a while for people to realize that workers will stretch or compress their work to meet the schedule. If you expect them to work weekends they will just do the same amount of work just over 7 days instead of 5. Conversely, some studies have shown a four day week has no negative effect on productivity. Thinking to meet KPIs you throw more hours at it is a sign of a "leader" who hasn't figured that out yet. Maybe by their 5th startup they'll get it. Edit: As an aside. I too have asked my team to work weekends occasionally (I'm a CTO not CEO but same premise). It always goes like this: > I'm really sorry to have to do this but we really need you to put in some extra time on the weekend to meet the deadline next week. Pick a couple days next month to take off and we'll let you take them off without using your PTO. Thank you, I really appreciate it! As a company we'll try to make sure this doesn't happen very often.

happythought 8y ago
Perhaps try giving them 4 future days off in exchange for working two weekend days. Weekend days are more valuable than weekdays because your family is free from work/school and there are more events.

icu 8y ago

This tweet is the exact reason I choose to live in the UK, and not the US, when it came to pursuing my career in financial services. I do not believe that the US approach—in many sectors, but particularly in finance—of putting your career before your family life is a good use of the unknown and limited time we have on this planet. That said, I am an entrepreneur, and the buck stops with me, so if I need to work weekends than I will juggle that obligation while still being there for my son. Part of my reason for this approach is based on what my father once told me, that in life you'll juggle a lot of important balls, your career ball, your family ball, your health ball etc. The gist was, life is a juggling act, but his final word on it was something along the lines of, "Your family ball is made of glass, and if you drop it, it could shatter so much that you will never be able to piece it together again." Obviously what is happening in an employee's life will have an impact on their work life. Saying things like, "if you miss your KPIs than you're fired" isn't going to motivate your staff, especially the ones who need to up their performance. Firing people who don't perform creates a situation where staff members will live under fear and that doesn't usually create great customer experiences. And this leads to another point, if you are a good leader, you should never be in a position where you need to remind people that they need to work weekends if they are behind or they will get fired. He’s the CEO, the buck stops with him. If he communicated the problem they are solving, the company’s mission, and put in the right culture, hired the right people, you don’t need to say such things. IMHO a good ‘Culture’ would have the following values: 1. Spartan Wall – We win the battle for our customers by protecting/taking care of each other. 2. Obsessive Customer Empathy – We are our customers’ biggest advocate. 3. Unfiltered Brutal Truth – Feelings, rank, politics NEVER have priority over truth and what’s right. 4. Proactive Problem Solving – When we hit problems, we do not put our hands up, we find a solution. 5. Laser Focus – We only keep to the problem and the mission. 6. One Destination, Autonomously – While we work loosely together, we all have the same mission and we are all in it together. I bet you all the money in the word Nikolay Storonsky—the CEO of Revolut—doesn’t actually understand that a CEO’s job is to create the environment to find, motivate and retain people who are focused on the problem the company is solving, believe in the company’s mission, and are a fit for the company’s culture. IMHO venture success is the result of building an organisation that does this. I wish Revolut all the luck in the world but the fish rots from the head!

8y ago

p3nt3ll3r 8y ago

Culture starts at the top.

koonsolo 8y ago

It reminds me that I once worked for a manager who sets deadlines on Mondays instead of Fridays, so you still had the weekend to finish it. As with any such managers, the deadlines are set by their own optimistic guesswork, not by the people actually doing the job (and knowing how to do the job). Did I mention I workED for that manager?

toddh 8y ago

You have to wonder how agreed upon these targets really were. Perhaps milestones are being missed because they were driven top down and were never realistic to begin with? Developers with ownership are more likely to work to complete their goals. If they aren't then that's a symptom of problems, not the cause.

ykevinator 8y ago

In his defense, he tied kpis to bonuses.

sztanko 8y ago

Data Engineer from Revolut here. Feel free to ask me anything. To comment on the topic, my team was never ever told to work late hours or weekends. Opinions my own. Main thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19309597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19309597