5 ms·

CEO received compensation for good cost-cutting measures? What am I missing here?

by qtzaz 3y ago

sidcool 3y ago
CEO made bad decisions that many other companies avoided. CEO panicked and fired thousands unprofessionally. CEO received record compensation.
- rocket_surgeron 3y ago
  CEOs serve the board and the board serves the shareholders. Employees are irrelevant in this scenario, replaceable units whose purpose is to produce. Are either of the two relevant parties mad at the CEO? If you want employees to matter beyond the cold calculus of dollars per beating heart per quarter, Alphabet ain't inside that kinda system. Unions could help (because they explicitly acknowledge the $ per soul metric and seek to exploit it for the souls' benefit) but the U-word is a bad word to libertarian techbros.
- zzen 3y ago
  Tons of tech companies were firing employees in 2022, so much so Apple was far and wide an exception in just keeping the same numbers. Feels more like an economic cycle / preparing for the worse rather than result of bad decisions on behalf of Pichai. And yes - firing employees to protect the efficiency of the company is (an unpopular) part of a CEOs job.
- noisy_boy 3y ago
  > CEO made bad decisions that many other companies avoided. Like what? Over-hiring? Many other companies avoided? Like which big ones? Amazon, Microsoft etc.? > CEO panicked Sounds like hyperbole > fired thousands unprofessionally How do you fire thousands professionally? I thought ensuring market and shareholder satisfaction was the top priority for CEOs and they get paid to make those unpopular decisions as/when deemed fit?
  - querez 3y ago
    >> fired thousands unprofessionally > How do you fire thousands professionally? I thought ensuring market and shareholder satisfaction was the top priority for CEOs and they get paid to make those unpopular decisions as/when deemed fit? While true, it's fairly obvious that the Google firings have been badly mishandled. There are stories of SREs getting fired/locked out while still on duty. And in general, sending firing emails at 4am in the morning is very bad class in a company that claims where "don't be evil" and "trust your employees" are pillars of the company is, ... well, not good for PR.
    - jimsimmons 3y ago
      What would be your preferred time to receive an email about your layoff?
      - amscanne 3y ago
        I’m not sure if you are being intentionally obtuse, but the obvious answer is that rather than being locked out in the middle of the night, people would prefer to be told directly by a human (ideally their manager), and given the opportunity to say goodbye to their colleagues.
        jimsimmons 3y ago
        There’s a reason they don’t don that: what if a rogue employee among the thousands laid off decides to leak PII or trade secrets
        amscanne 3y ago
        That’s a complete straw man. Microsoft, Meta and others managed to pull off safely laying off employees while still treating them respectfully and allowing them to say goodbye.
        oblio 3y ago
        Guess what: Europe doesn't do instant termination and the roof hasn't collapsed.
- fernandotakai 3y ago
  >CEO made bad decisions that many other companies avoided. i don't think sundar is a good ceo, but this absolutely false. most big tech companies also had layovers.
- saiya-jin 3y ago
  Basically all your words are incorrect and project some bad kind of emotions you are housing, all points addressed all around here. Can't we do a bit better than tabloid outrage fueled by just raw emotions? He did correct the course which was right thing to do. Hiring previously was also the right decision at that time, properly nobody knew covid scare would taper off so quickly and people would revert some of the newly found (and often wrong and unhealthy) habits. No panic anywhere, this is business as usual in every sense of that phrase. He received normal compensation, just its done every 3 years - before getting headfirst into outrage, maybe first read some facts? I don't even get the outrage in this specific case - some, often under-performing (within given group) folks earning 300k + massive bonuses in stocks got fired, and either they 1) found immediately another well paid job; or 2) got already so rich they took 6/12 months sabbatical, plenty of HN posts about exactly this. I mean good for them, heck good for everybody. Why the envy, desire for CEO to burn in hell or at least end up bankrupt homeless on streets? Nothing good ever comes from such an approach, just stupid short term populist moves for the simpler minds who don't think much ahead or in complex fashion.
  - cudgy 3y ago
    “just stupid short term populist moves for the simpler minds who don't think much ahead or in complex fashion” Surely it was stupid to not realize that the last few years were temporarily fueled by Covid work from home trends and huge fiscal and monetary stimulus. If anything, the CEO making the same mistakes as all the other tech CEO’s indicates poor performance or at least average performance - not protection from criticism.
DrBazza 3y ago
> CEO received compensation for good cost-cutting measures? What am I missing here? CEO not being penalised for over-hiring and bad decision making in the first place? Turkeys are never going to vote for Xmas/Thanksgiving. CEOs and the board are never going to be punished or fire themselves for being awful.

CEO received compensation for good cost-cutting measures? What am I missing here?

by qtzaz 3y ago

CEO received compensation for good cost-cutting measures? What am I missing here?

CEO made bad decisions that many other companies avoided. CEO panicked and fired thousands unprofessionally. CEO received record compensation.

rocket_surgeron 3y ago
CEOs serve the board and the board serves the shareholders. Employees are irrelevant in this scenario, replaceable units whose purpose is to produce. Are either of the two relevant parties mad at the CEO? If you want employees to matter beyond the cold calculus of dollars per beating heart per quarter, Alphabet ain't inside that kinda system. Unions could help (because they explicitly acknowledge the $ per soul metric and seek to exploit it for the souls' benefit) but the U-word is a bad word to libertarian techbros.
zzen 3y ago
Tons of tech companies were firing employees in 2022, so much so Apple was far and wide an exception in just keeping the same numbers. Feels more like an economic cycle / preparing for the worse rather than result of bad decisions on behalf of Pichai. And yes - firing employees to protect the efficiency of the company is (an unpopular) part of a CEOs job.
noisy_boy 3y ago
> CEO made bad decisions that many other companies avoided. Like what? Over-hiring? Many other companies avoided? Like which big ones? Amazon, Microsoft etc.? > CEO panicked Sounds like hyperbole > fired thousands unprofessionally How do you fire thousands professionally? I thought ensuring market and shareholder satisfaction was the top priority for CEOs and they get paid to make those unpopular decisions as/when deemed fit?
- querez 3y ago
  >> fired thousands unprofessionally > How do you fire thousands professionally? I thought ensuring market and shareholder satisfaction was the top priority for CEOs and they get paid to make those unpopular decisions as/when deemed fit? While true, it's fairly obvious that the Google firings have been badly mishandled. There are stories of SREs getting fired/locked out while still on duty. And in general, sending firing emails at 4am in the morning is very bad class in a company that claims where "don't be evil" and "trust your employees" are pillars of the company is, ... well, not good for PR.
  - jimsimmons 3y ago
    What would be your preferred time to receive an email about your layoff?
    - amscanne 3y ago
      I’m not sure if you are being intentionally obtuse, but the obvious answer is that rather than being locked out in the middle of the night, people would prefer to be told directly by a human (ideally their manager), and given the opportunity to say goodbye to their colleagues.
      - jimsimmons 3y ago
        There’s a reason they don’t don that: what if a rogue employee among the thousands laid off decides to leak PII or trade secrets
        amscanne 3y ago
        That’s a complete straw man. Microsoft, Meta and others managed to pull off safely laying off employees while still treating them respectfully and allowing them to say goodbye.
        oblio 3y ago
        Guess what: Europe doesn't do instant termination and the roof hasn't collapsed.
fernandotakai 3y ago
>CEO made bad decisions that many other companies avoided. i don't think sundar is a good ceo, but this absolutely false. most big tech companies also had layovers.
saiya-jin 3y ago
Basically all your words are incorrect and project some bad kind of emotions you are housing, all points addressed all around here. Can't we do a bit better than tabloid outrage fueled by just raw emotions? He did correct the course which was right thing to do. Hiring previously was also the right decision at that time, properly nobody knew covid scare would taper off so quickly and people would revert some of the newly found (and often wrong and unhealthy) habits. No panic anywhere, this is business as usual in every sense of that phrase. He received normal compensation, just its done every 3 years - before getting headfirst into outrage, maybe first read some facts? I don't even get the outrage in this specific case - some, often under-performing (within given group) folks earning 300k + massive bonuses in stocks got fired, and either they 1) found immediately another well paid job; or 2) got already so rich they took 6/12 months sabbatical, plenty of HN posts about exactly this. I mean good for them, heck good for everybody. Why the envy, desire for CEO to burn in hell or at least end up bankrupt homeless on streets? Nothing good ever comes from such an approach, just stupid short term populist moves for the simpler minds who don't think much ahead or in complex fashion.
- cudgy 3y ago
  “just stupid short term populist moves for the simpler minds who don't think much ahead or in complex fashion” Surely it was stupid to not realize that the last few years were temporarily fueled by Covid work from home trends and huge fiscal and monetary stimulus. If anything, the CEO making the same mistakes as all the other tech CEO’s indicates poor performance or at least average performance - not protection from criticism.

DrBazza 3y ago

> CEO received compensation for good cost-cutting measures? What am I missing here? CEO not being penalised for over-hiring and bad decision making in the first place? Turkeys are never going to vote for Xmas/Thanksgiving. CEOs and the board are never going to be punished or fire themselves for being awful.