[dsirijus]

Ask HN:

So, I'm the sole founder here with investor. The dude's awesome, but the contract we signed puts me in significant financial risk if the company doesn't turn up profitable.

I have more than several employees (some of them will probably read this) who I pay regular and competitive money though I'm not particulary pleased with their output (but hey, it's improving, and there's not much of a talent pool here). Most work on their hourlies, and if milestones/deadlines are not met, I try to find somebody else and handle all the consequences of that myself. Basically, I handle entire risk and stress.

Now, if what we work on turns profitable, or has a successful exit or whatnot, you know how much of that money do I think it's fair to give to them?

Nada. Zilch. Zero. Go through the shit I'm going through yourself if you want a big payout and then we'll talk.

What do you think?

[modfodder]

Not in the tech industry, but @ 42 I've worked in a lot of industries with a wide range of experience and worked with a lot of entrepreneurs and founders.

Without actually knowing you, I can't say what type of person you are. But I can say the type of people I've met who had similar viewpoints were very arrogant and rarely recognized the great contributions of their employees, and often took personal credit for directions or products created by others (often when they were incredibly dismissive of those ideas before a breakout success). I would ask you to re-examine your view of your employees, but if you are an example of the type I'm talking about, it most likely wouldn't do any good. Your ego will not allow you to actually recognize any contribution as anything but your own hard work. You blaming your apparent bad hiring decision on lack of talent pool rather than your own ability to seek out the best does not paint a favorable portrait.

The shit your employees have to deal with working for you just might be a magnitude order worse than what you are going through as their boss.

That's what I think solely based on your post.

[thirsday]

His twitter certainly isn't doing him any favors as a character reference, either.

[electromagnetic]

Firstly if you're at personal risk if you don't turn up profitable, you need to be incorporated. That immediately shifts all the financial and legal risks off your shoulders if you're operating above board.

Employers do take all the company's risk, however my boss (small construction company) gets to walk away with millions in savings with no personal liability. I get unemployment benefits. He gets to retire to a million dollar house, I risk losing mine.

You need to dislodge your head from your ass if you think you're the only person taking risk.

You need to realize that people are these things called humanbeings they have their own lives, their own motivations, problems and stresses. A great manager does this thing called managing where they use their knowledge of their employees to keep them motivated, something you quite clearly are not doing.

You employees sound unmotivated because you've got the attitude your company is already going to fail. FYI people can tell when a company is circling the drain and will half arse it and ride it out until the first paycheques bounce.

[cm2012]

If you really think your employees will read this and know that you wrote this, you should probably delete this or reword this. Its bad for morale to appear flippant about employees.

[zenogais]

That same flippant attitude might be why the output of his employees is less than stellar. Chances are respectful leadership is absent at whatever company this is.

[dsirijus]

The more I push the line of "I don't care what others think about me" to its absolute, the happier I am as a person. That does not neccesarily mean me earning more money or having a better team morale.

[unchocked]

Your attitude is probably pretty standard fare for business overall. That said, you're probably going to continue to have the same problems that business overall has these days; detached employees, mediocre performance, and a generally escalating bitterness that the world does not love you as much as you think you love yourself.

Have fun with that.

[zenogais]

Read: "I'm not good with people. So instead I'm pretend not to car so I don't have to confront that fact as often"

[joshpadnick]

I can understand a part of your perspective. After all, from an objective point of view you are the one who's ultimately accountable for getting things done. And by that logic, you deserve the lion's share of the rewards when they come due.

But the problem with your reasoning is that, in reality, growing a successful company is a team sport. No matter how brilliant you are, you alone are no match for a high-performing team. Or even a medium-performing team.

The real issue is not what you deserve should the company "turn profitable." It is that you are extremely unlikely to become successful until you figure out how to build a great team. Which is hard, by the way.

My recommendation is that, if you have established product-market fit and are now in execution/scale mode, you need to either step up as CEO and make learning how to build and manage a team to achieve real results your #1 responsibility. Or if that's not your thing, you need to accept your strengths and weaknesses and find someone else who can play that role.

[dsirijus]

Already prepping groundwork for the next CEO in the 2015, no worries. I know I'm not fit for this. 4 months to go.

"He who tells the truth will be chased out of nine villages."

[late2part]

Disgraced unknown founder says: He who act like asshole get chased out of company.

[walshemj]

That your probably a not very nice person with Narcissistic tendency's - no wonder you have a hard time attracting good talent

[chrisbennet]

Perhaps you are just not beating your employees hard enough?

[critium]

the beatings will continue until morale improves

[ChuckMcM]

Pretty much every one I knew that left a company or was terminated made some statement to the effect "They will be sorry when they realize all the crap I've been doing around here that won't get done now." And it is largely true, and largely irrelevent. Companies are the sum of their parts, regardless of how irreplaceable one or more employees feel.

If you read the article, the people in it generally liked and respected each other. That is key to making a healthy workplace. Without it you don't get nearly the output you might otherwise. My experience so far has been that when there is a lot of 'crap' that isn't getting picked up by anybody I have found issues with ownership (nobody feels like they own the results) and communication challenges.

[dsirijus]

I see that many people handle many responsibilities while the rest of the team is completely oblivious of the extent of their contribution.

But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about risk. That's being picked up by only me and is _the_ determinating variable in the end game from my moral viewpoint. Risk can be in form of financial risk, time, legal... But I'm here taking all that while they're being paid market rate to, what, do regular JavaScript, Photoshop and ability to pack their suitcase and leave with no consequences at any point they feel like?

Nah, I don't think so.

My personal work experience has led me to believe that world is filled with self-entitled people without much to support it in either responsibility/risk handling/actual productive value. Mind you, we're from different cultures (Balkan).

[mylons]

I think I'm very glad you are not my boss, and never will be