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As a side note, I like how direct and casual these megacorp CEO emails are.
by jstx1 3y ago
As a side note, I like how direct and casual these megacorp CEO emails are.
- hammock 3y agoWhy wouldn’t they be?
- circuit10 3y agoI guess it just feels different from the corporate speak we’d usually see
- Waterluvian 3y agoIt’s a good point and an important distinction because we can be so easily fooled. Corporate speak isn’t the speech of a human. It’s constructed PR.
- hotnfresh 3y agoIt’s also a status/in-group marker in corporations. CEOs can counter-signal power by not using it.
- version_five 3y agoI'd expect there's some corporate-speak maximum that happens in middle management, and upper and lower people would use it less, with the curve being flatter for more bureaucratic companies.
- H8crilA 3y agoAh yes, the good old 3-way split of organizational hierarchy, and the posturing speech/behavior of the middle layer: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...
- xen2xen1 3y agoSo that's why I don't posture, I'm really a CEO!
- pydry 3y agoCorporate-speak is usually centered around covering your ass with ambiguity. CEOs dont feel compelled to do that on "private" emails but they sure as hell do it in public statements. They dial it up to 11 during layoffs or being interviewed about unethical behavior.
- anon35 3y agoI think what you're picking up on is that people in leadership positions have to communicate to very different audiences. As a first approximation, just think of the size of the destination audience: - if it's a few people, the language will sound direct and casual - if it's many thousands, millions (likely to include government, investors, customers) then it will sound formal, corporate, "PR" Because we're more often likely to be in the 2nd category, we're used to hearing senior leaders sound like their words have been carefully edited. But we shouldn't be surprised that when we get a glimpse of their comms in smaller settings, it sounds "just like us".
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tacker2000 3y agoThese guys probably answer dozens of emails per day
- greydius 3y agoAnd spend the rest of the day golfing.
- behnamoh 3y agoIn academia too, when you pass a certain threshold of seniority, your emails become like this: ``` FROM: $ProfBigShot TO: $PoorPhDStudent Come visit me tomorrow at 2pm Sent from my iPhone ```
- chongli 3y agoDon't forget that the prof will almost certainly misspell the PhD student's name!
- dmoy 3y agoAnd may have the time and/or day wrong :S Show up, prof is busy, says they meant the next day/hour/etc
- behnamoh 3y agothis!
- behnamoh 3y agoif they even write their name
- marseysneed 3y agoonce a professor misspelled my name 3 times in 1 email! I was impressed.
- dehrmann 3y agoThe cliche of "celebs--they're just like us" has some truth to it.
- Aurornis 3y agoIn my experience, if your executives are communicating in corporate PR speak internally, it means you’re surrounded by grifters and people who have failed upward. Speaking directly and clearly is a core skill of successful executives. Corporate PR speak only interferes with conveying direct and clear internal messages. You aren’t worried about accidentally offending the people you work with, you’re more worried about not getting your point across as directly as possible.
- brianwawok 3y agoWhich is really bad when you do something that later becomes part of a lawsuit
- omginternets 3y agoRight, so direct speech is a loose indicator of how worried execs are of being sued, which reinforces the parent poster’s point.
- Voultapher 3y ago> Corporate PR speak only interferes with conveying direct and clear internal messages. I'd argue corporate PR speak directly and purposefully interferes with conveying any kind of message clearly. It often skirts the line between misleading and lying. And obviously you don't want to poison your own well with lies.
- jiofj 3y agoAnd they use stock symbols instead of company names like any other presumptuous user of this site.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]