[adlpz]

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.

[happytoexplain]

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]

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]

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.

[nakkijono]

The expected performance is a failed estimate in both cases.

You can ask for a new version of the theory of relativity from the janitor by the end of the week, but if she fails to deliver I would not put the blame on her.

[mlthoughts2018]

I’d argue that working on weekends is not reasonable in either case, except for extremely infrequent work emergencies handled with some predefined on-call sort of scheduling.

If it is employee laziness or incompetence, the employees should be retrained, demoted or fired. Grinding them on weekends is only likely to make the productivity drain worse and if they are creating bad work outputs, you’re accelerating the compounding growth of their mistakes.

I like what was said in Peopleware about this, “You can kick someone to make him sit up in his chair, but you can’t kick someone to make him work.”

Despite all of the above, 99% of the time this sort of issue stems from toxic & incompetent management. Is your CEO using Twitter to bark workload policy at you? Well, then you know who the problem is.

[nisuni]

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.

[rob_b]

Adults or not, the issues here are reasonable expectations and support. As easy as it is to shift the blame to the employee, the real blame belongs with management. As a manager, I accept responsibility for my team and if their performance is lacking then that is something that we address accordingly. If they can’t perform and the proper channels have been explored, then that is where continued employment should be evaluated.

[dullgiulio]

There is no such a thing as incompetence, just people in the wrong position without the proper guidance. (I'm an engineering manager, I would get the blame for such situations, not my employees.)