[stego-tech]

This employer had similar surveys, and the results plummeted after a huge RIF and never really recovered. I was asked to join focus groups for more detailed feedback, and as soon as we gave it, they silently dismantled said groups rather than update us on how the powers that be would be acting on that feedback. All-hands meetings where questions about RTO, attendance policies, and flexible working arrangements were regularly diverted and ignored. That doesn’t even get into the technical concerns I was also fielding as an Engineer, these were areas solely focused on trying to contribute a sense of objective direction to the company like the executives repeatedly bragged about inviting us to do, to “be different” than other businesses.

No business is different than the others, not really. Absent accountability, the executives will always act in their own self-interest; since their compensation is mostly stock, that means they will sacrifice the future of tomorrow for the stock bump of today, every single time.

[Spooky23]

My favorite was an employer that did a massive “transformation” project. They brought in McKinsey to figure it out afterwards. It was probably the only McKinsey encounter I’ve had that seemed productive - the team was both interested and capable.

The most amazing was a pretty detailed and well conducted survey over a two year period. It showed that satisfaction was inversely proportional to both rank and tenure, and the decline started at 6 months. So an executive or senior IC would be immediately dissatisfied. A lower level employee or supervisor would start very happy, but the luster would wear down after about 4 months lol. Long tenured employees grew increasingly dissatisfied until their personal liquidity event.

They fucked up and broke out the data in a way that demonstrated that the division leads were dissatisfied to the point that it was affecting their health. No more public data presentation from that point forward.

[sudoshred]

This sounds like a canonical example of the reason to hire a consulting firm.

[WalterBright]

> the executives will always act in their own self-interest;

Yes, and so does everyone else, including me, including you.

> since their compensation is mostly stock, that means they will sacrifice the future of tomorrow for the stock bump of today, every single time.

When investors discover that a company is eating its seed corn for short term gain, the stock crashes.

[Clubber]

>Yes, and so does everyone else, including me, including you.

Not sure why you are being downvoted. I see lots of people who are acting in their self interest by wanting to remain remote.

>When investors discover that a company is eating its seed corn for short term gain, the stock crashes.

Maybe. Companies have been eating their seed corn with offshoring for quite a while now. M&A and cornering the market is a good antidote for such things. People still use Google and Windows and those products are horrible now.

For people who are being forced to RTO, put in your notice if you can, or at least look for another job. It's going to be a tight market for a few quarters at least.

[WalterBright]

If you're better than the market at predicting sacrificing the long term for the short term, you can make a lot of money by shorting those stocks.

Me, I tried shorting, and got my adze handed to me. I'm not smart enough to be successful at that, and so just stick with long positions.

[avidiax]

The trouble with shorting is that unlike a long position, where you can just buy and hold until your thesis is proven, you have to time your short position perfectly.

[unclebucknasty]

>Not sure why you are being downvoted

Not a downvoter, but I suspect it's because we all know that people have a tendency to act in their own best interest.

But, we also expect leaders to consider the best interests of their charges, as a function of good leadership.

[Clubber]

>But, we also expect leaders to consider the best interests of their charges, as a function of good leadership.

I see. It would be nice, but leadership like that are few and far between, and they probably get it beaten out of them. I don't think that's even taught at MBA school. When I started all this, someone told me, "they show appreciation through your paycheck." Not very satisfying, but there it is. If you're productive, they certainly miss you when you are gone.

[WalterBright]

Good leadership is in the leader's best interest. Having a capable, happy and motivated workforce is also in the leader's best interest.

[codr7]

Obvious in theory, but have you ever met one of those leaders?

[Fanmade]

I have met several of these leaders. Problem is, that very few of them are also very successful. Most of these "leaders" that I met, based a lot of their success from basically being able to stack their bs very high and bailing out before that stack fell over. Interestingly, the one guy that I am the most sure of being a good guy and leader is also one of the most successful, having retired with several hundred millions in the bank. But the most successful guy is the one with the worst methods, who is very close to become a billionaire (he might actually already be one, haven't checked on him for a few months).

[WalterBright]

Yes.