4 ms·

You'd be surprised at how many different careers pay very well to lose a lot of money. Are CEOs really worth 100x a line engineer? Especially when they oversee

You'd be surprised at how many different careers pay very well to lose a lot of money. Are CEOs really worth 100x a line engineer? Especially when they oversee the gutting or collapse of their company? Probably not. With most employees salary is tied directly to their output: How much can you get done? With higher level employees it seems to be: How much can you get away with? With the recent revelations of tech company wage cartels and systematic collusion against employees in SV by execs, I feel like the latter statement is somewhat accurate. It pays to take more than you return.

iopq 12y ago
If the CEO can make the company lose only 1 billion this year compared to losing 2 billion if another guy had the job... then he's worth 1 billion to the company. Is paying him a few million really that big of a deal?
- pdonis 12y ago
  > he's worth 1 billion to the company. No, he's worth minus 1 billion, whereas the other guy was worth minus 2 billion. He's worth 1 billion more than the other guy, but that doesn't mean he's worth anything in absolute terms. Granted, one year is probably too short a time frame to judge; if the CEO has the company making 1 billion a year after, say, three years, then he's presided over a recovery (minus 2 billion to plus 1 billion) and deserves credit (assuming the recovery is stable; even three years is probably not long enough to judge, but I don't want to make this post too long). But if his sole claim to fame is that he lost less money than the other guy, that shouldn't be worth anything.
- confluence 12y ago
  > If an employee only loses their company 50K this year compared to losing 100K if another guy had the job... then he's worth 50K to the company. Is paying him a couple of grand really that big of a deal? You know what would happen in this situation. The employee would be fired.
- confluence 12y ago
  Another thing: > Is paying him a few million really that big of a deal? Paying anyone, anything, is supposed to be a huge deal. Employees get fired for sub performing for even a few weeks to a month! And we're not talking millions of dollars here, we're talking thousands. How can anyone think of "a few million" as an afterthought? That's easily the salary of 50 people. If the CEO deserves it, show us how that he is better than the 50 people we could have hired. And I mean what he specifically did, and not the 10,000 engineers under him.
- lawnchair_larry 12y ago
  Where did we get this idea that a CEO is the one earning or losing every dollar that passes through the company? Is everybody insane?
- mulligan 12y ago
  No. He's worth only a little bit more than how ever much it costs to hire the 2nd best guy.

iopq 12y ago

If the CEO can make the company lose only 1 billion this year compared to losing 2 billion if another guy had the job... then he's worth 1 billion to the company. Is paying him a few million really that big of a deal?

pdonis 12y ago
> he's worth 1 billion to the company. No, he's worth minus 1 billion, whereas the other guy was worth minus 2 billion. He's worth 1 billion more than the other guy, but that doesn't mean he's worth anything in absolute terms. Granted, one year is probably too short a time frame to judge; if the CEO has the company making 1 billion a year after, say, three years, then he's presided over a recovery (minus 2 billion to plus 1 billion) and deserves credit (assuming the recovery is stable; even three years is probably not long enough to judge, but I don't want to make this post too long). But if his sole claim to fame is that he lost less money than the other guy, that shouldn't be worth anything.
confluence 12y ago
> If an employee only loses their company 50K this year compared to losing 100K if another guy had the job... then he's worth 50K to the company. Is paying him a couple of grand really that big of a deal? You know what would happen in this situation. The employee would be fired.
confluence 12y ago
Another thing: > Is paying him a few million really that big of a deal? Paying anyone, anything, is supposed to be a huge deal. Employees get fired for sub performing for even a few weeks to a month! And we're not talking millions of dollars here, we're talking thousands. How can anyone think of "a few million" as an afterthought? That's easily the salary of 50 people. If the CEO deserves it, show us how that he is better than the 50 people we could have hired. And I mean what he specifically did, and not the 10,000 engineers under him.
lawnchair_larry 12y ago
Where did we get this idea that a CEO is the one earning or losing every dollar that passes through the company? Is everybody insane?
mulligan 12y ago
No. He's worth only a little bit more than how ever much it costs to hire the 2nd best guy.