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This is not just the tech world. It applies to a lot of places now-a-days. As a member of the Wageslave: Executive Class (Until I get cut loose to be a consultant anyway. ) I can tell you a lot of Execs think this way, and as the leader so goes the team below them, and it trickles down.

The Exec thought process on the following:
1. Not Work but a calling is how we (Execs) see it, so everyone else should feel the same.

2. The Incentives piece is real. As polonius says, Salary is a basic given. It is what you provide after that matters. usually it is intangibles and recognition.

3. Managed Churn is real. As an Exec you carefully plan who is going to be pushed out when and who you are training up to replace them. You teach all employees to document, document, document so you can easily slot in a newer and younger model that costs less. You never fire them, you just make them uncomfortable enough to leave on their own.

4. The Young, the Old and the Useless is real in our minds. You regularly stack-rank your employees and actively move the middle upwards into more and more workload, getting rid of the bottom, and replacing the top with your better performing and cheaper middles. It is even better when you can replace a veteran worker with a younger, newer, hungrier one.

His words of advise apply to every organization I have ever worked in at an Executive level and that includes Retail, Manufacturing, Finance, and Healthcare. That is how the top executives are conditioned and trained to think.

The original authors own daughter has just writtern her own article in response with a contrary stance.

It's a well written article (even has citations and things!)

That's going to make for an awkward family Thanksgiving.

 LordofHats wrote:
That's going to make for an awkward family Thanksgiving.

Not if he disowns her and hires a younger, cheaper, more enthusiastic daughter.

The Alex St. John method to family management

Well, at least he's not suggesting forcing his employees to sign a contract that would hand over your tax return to the company - something my boss tried to pull recently.

 Avatar 720 wrote:

Not if he disowns her and hires a younger, cheaper, more enthusiastic daughter.

Preferably with Aspergers.

 Easy E wrote:
That is how the top executives are conditioned and trained to think.

That's deeply unhealthy for just about everyone involved, including the company.

 Easy E wrote:
That is how the top executives are conditioned and trained to think.

That's deeply unhealthy for just about everyone involved, including the company.

Bran Dawri wrote:
Well, at least he's not suggesting forcing his employees to sign a contract that would hand over your tax return to the company - something my boss tried to pull recently.

What.

That has to be 20 different kinds of illegal. Did he get in any trouble for that.

What the heck was his justification for that anyways? Storytime needed here.

Sounds like a fine example of the phrase "people quit their employer more than their job".

From my rather long experience in IT, I believe the vast majority of what I just read is the honest truth. I've held every IT job from help desk to CTO. I've worked in every environment from startup to multinational and each of those would do well to grok what he's saying.

He is dead on with the analysis of each of those types of people (yes, I've seen them all). Both in what they are like as well as in how to handle them.

It's obvious that a fair number of people will be completely pissed off about what he wrote, but, I think that's a good thing.
Besides, the truth is often ugly and painful. If it motivates you to do better then great; if not, just post how upset you are for being called out and go back to your life.

Bran Dawri wrote:
Well, at least he's not suggesting forcing his employees to sign a contract that would hand over your tax return to the company - something my boss tried to pull recently.

Say again?

clively wrote:
From my rather long experience in IT, I believe the vast majority of what I just read is the honest truth. I've held every IT job from help desk to CTO. I've worked in every environment from startup to multinational and each of those would do well to grok what he's saying.

He is dead on with the analysis of each of those types of people (yes, I've seen them all). Both in what they are like as well as in how to handle them.

It's obvious that a fair number of people will be completely pissed off about what he wrote, but, I think that's a good thing.
Besides, the truth is often ugly and painful. [U] If it motivates you to do better then great; if not, just post how upset you are for being called out and go back to your life[u/].

I don't think that's quite what people have an issue with, I think it's more the fact that you are completely expendable to the company, expected to work far beyond normal work hours for "fake" bonuses (that he himself admits) and that experienced employees are a detriment to be rotated out or kept in lower positions. It's pretty much admitting every toxic element the American work culture has gained over the years rolled into one.

This is not working hard and being rewarded for it, this is being treated as an expendable resource, with the company trying to squeeze as much life out of you as possible before tossing you aside. Expecting workers to see the job as a way of life, and actively discouraging people who work to live, is a horrible way to treat people. It's an almost cult like mentality to encourage in your workers, for a company that literally wouldn't give two gaks if you got run over by a bus tomorrow.

If you wanted to work hard and be motivated to be better, IT sounds like it would be the last place to go. It's not like other jobs where you get proper overtime, actual promotion potential, and are seen as something more than a drone to replaced after a couple years.

Thats what's horrible, that no matter what you do nothing will get better

 MrMoustaffa wrote:


If you wanted to work hard and be motivated to be better, IT sounds like it would be the last place to go. It's not like other jobs where you get proper overtime, actual promotion potential, and are seen as something more than a drone to replaced after a couple years.

Thats what's horrible, that no matter what you do nothing will get better

As I mentioned earlier, this is not an IT issue. Just about any member of management anywhere is being taught these exact same things. Typically, it is cloaked in different corporate speak, but the intention behind it is exactly what the presenter lays out here.