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CEOs Who Invite Email From All Employees
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Cinergy Corp. CEO James E. Rogers, who at 11 one evening was reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka, is the norm, not the exception at major U.S. companies, the Wall Street Journal reports. 'Advocates say such a policy is a powerful leadership tool that can nip crises in the bud, boost morale, uncover new ideas, and cut through corporate red tape. In the post-Enron era of CEO accountability, reading employee email helps the boss appear hands-on and accessible. But reading and replying to dozens of employee messages each day takes time that could be spent doing something else. Skeptics say the practice distracts CEOs from more-pressing work -- and extends already long workdays.' Of course, portable email devices have made it easier to sift through dozens or hundreds of employee messages each day. While being driven to meetings, Pfizer's CEO says, 'I don't look out the window. I use my BlackBerry and answer my email.'"
Uh oh, he is screwed
If he's only 11 why is he sitting at home drinking vodka????
it's more self-aggrandizing egotistical behavior... than anything else.
You know what? I worked for a company, one of the telcoms that went through the upheaval of crooked leadership during the Enron days. One of our CEO's walked away with $500M, and they're still chasing him down -- I predict they'll NEVER get him. Our stock went from over $50 to under $2.
Then our shining knight on a white horse rode into town. He had a reputation for coming in and slashing jobs, but he had genuine likability and charisma about him. He also had an open e-mail policy, claimed he read and answered his e-mail. Guess what? He did!
I exchanged a few e-mails with him, and he always responded. Cool... two administrations before I'd always had pretty direct access at that level (I was pretty senior), and now it appeared the company was back to bidnez. His responses were short and non-expansive, but, hey, he IS the CEO.
Then, 9a.m. one morning about a year ago I got marched into a little room and set free. For a previous post with more info, look here.
Yeah, he read and answered his e-mail... but he always signed it (and I'm not making this up), "dick".
That's why they have flunkies to do: listen to the employees, put their comments in the circular file, and make sure to record a bad mark for the next annual review.
"Too ambitious. Emailed C*O about a new process that would cut costs and save the company."
Sig for hire.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Who knew that drinking vodka could nip crises in the bud, boost morale, uncover new ideas and cut through corporate red tape. I always thought Bourbon was a better choice for that. Guess its Bloody Marys for me!
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CIN&d=t based on the Stock Reports he should drink a little less (or maybe more!!!). ;) He's down .69 today already.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
"and extends already long workdays"
Oh, cry me a river. So a guy making hundreds of millions has to extend his workday. Isn't that the price you pay for having that job? You want an easier job, just be some other senior executive, make 20-25% as much money, and have an easier life.
Yes, and I'd be glad to hear that my CEO was returning email instead of (or at least while) taking place in the latest pro-am or attending other "promotional" company-paid vacations.
Again, I would expect nothing less from a competent CEO. I work 10-12 hour days, and at 50-100 times my salary, I would expect the same from them.
While being driven to meetings, Pfizer's CEO says, 'I don't look out the window. I use my BlackBerry and answer my email.'"
:)
And that reason alone, is why I will never feel sorry for CEOs long work days. Besides, everybody knows that CEOs are figureheads and the real work is done by the managers looking for promotions into more cushy jobs and getting the little guys to work their asses off to deliver the given product/service on a deadline that means THEIR job.
Yea.. fuck CEOs. Until I am one -- and then I will look back at this post and think how delusional I was while I bathe myself in hundred dollar bills while telling my driver to take me to my job where I do little work and -- oh wait, I am still a peon. Long way to go yet
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
I always thought a CEO should know as much as possible about what is going on in his/her firm. Sounds like this guy thinks that way too. And he does it HIMSELF, not via his admin assistant. Some CEOs couldn't even turn on a Blackberry, and others don't give a rat's ass what is going on as long as they get thier way and thier bonuses.
The downside of actually reading his email is that he can't say "I didn't know" if the Feds come asking questions about his company's actions or financial statements.
Employees shouldn't be dropping him emails when the towels are out in the restroom. Only really imporant issues/crises should be sent to him.
I think that if I was in a CEO position, I would have my email sifted through by a secretary and then only the real meat forwarded to me; giving me more time to do other things. A CEO who spends large amounts of time reading email feels like a micromanager and would give me less confidence in the leadership of the company.
I miss the Karma Whores.
Half of me thinks that if the middle-managers can't be trusted to take employee e-mails concerning business-related things, they should be replaced. The other half of me thinks that if technology gives the CEO greater span-of-control, then perhaps the middle-managers should be eliminated.
Sometimes CEOs have to fire people. And yeah, it's pretty unfortunate. But would you rather he hadn't answered your emails?
Cinergy Corp. CEO James E. Rogers, who at 11 one evening was reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka, is the norm,
So, this guy is the norm ? What the hell does that even mean ?
Maybe you meant "For Cinergy Corp. CEO James E. Rogers, reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka at 11 in the evening is the norm.
Sorry, couldn't help it
And here's what it comes down to...appearances. Yes, I understand that it can have some effect, but how useful is putting on the appearance of being hands-on and accessible when they're really not?
First you tell your driver to take you to your mistresses' apartment, then when you're good and ready you tell him to take you to the office.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
That sucks.
Hopefully, you poorly documented some of that application so that when/if they ever need to make changes to it, they will have no choice, but to hunt you down.
Then you can stick it to them by charging them 6 times your previous salary to "fix" the program or make the needed updates to it and while you are there, if that CEO is still there, you can send him an email advising him of the "savings" the cost-cutting of letting you go has done for the company he is running...
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Why? Was it sick?
No! It was just a down in the mouth!
Thank you folks! I'll be here all week! Try the veal!
That is all.
But reading and replying to dozens of employee messages each day takes time that could be spent doing something else. Skeptics say the practice distracts CEOs from more-pressing work
Well, just use this procmail recipe to filter 90% of messages out:
* ^From.*mycompany.com
* ^Subject.*raise
""Cinergy Corp. CEO James E. Rogers, who at 11 one evening was reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka, is the norm, not the exception at major U.S. companies, the Wall Street Journal reports."
Well, first, it's about time someone makes a big stink about all the long hours that justify the ever-growing disparity between executives' and workers' salaries. I was beginning to feel like the Joe Sixpacks at the plant were beginning to resent my Rolls Royce. Thanks for sticking up for us, Rogers!
OTOH, why is Rogers allowed to drink while managing employee relations? Last time I tried that, I got slapped with a lawsuit for breach of due diligence, among other things. I mean, sure, I wasn't exactly nursing the vodka so much as slamming it, and the employee relations were more in the nature of physical contact, not email, but really... Some shareholder should call his lawyer.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
1) have a whitelist of senders you always read
2) have a spam-filter to filter out non-humans
3) everything else goes to the "let my assistants handle it."
Of #3, read:
a) everything your assistants mark for your attention
b) a RANDOM selection of everything else, so you can get a feel for what people are sending you. Don't spend too much time on these, maybe 15-60 minutes a day. Since your assistants are already doing the replies you don't even need to compose replies.
3b is very important in the life of a CEO - it helps keep you informed of what your suborninates - at least those who are bold enough to email you - are thinking.
If the George W. Bush did this, he'd have a better idea of what people are thinking. Damn thing is he probably IS reading a sample of letters/faxes/emails but not a RANDOM sample.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I'd like to see those emails... they were probably like most late night alcoholic inspirations -- really great until the booze wore off.
Unless you're management that number is closer to 400 times your salary. At least it's the righr order of magnitude.
whoever modded him offtopic didn't see the joke...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
After drinking for a solid hour, he started sending pathetic messages to former employees about how sorry he is they couldn't stay together and how he hopes they aren't bitter and if so then too bad because, hey, *HE'S* the one who dumped *THEM* and if they can't handle that then f*ck off, but maybe he can get together with them some weekend for a little "fun" sometime.
He then passed out at the keyboard in a puddle of drool.
bytesmythe
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
-- Scott Meyer
There's post-Enron CEO accountability?
In what alternate universe?
For some reason, everytime I email a C*O it turns out to be a "Resume Generating Event" - Nobody likes being upstaged, especially clueless "Leadership". If it is a good idea, those above you will torpedo you because they are threatened. If it's a bad idea, you just broadcasted it to the top dog.
Let the retards drive the company into a mess, or do the right thing? It's all about the ethics though. I've always used the "Nuclear Bomb" theory myself when dealing with these situations. Sure, you can only do it once. However, take as many of the bastards with you as you can.
Pessimists.net - as if life wasn't depressing enough.
...Isn't it your job to make the company run smoother and more efficiently? SO if you have to work longer hours to do that, you're getting screwed?
"I can't fathom how investors would accept that as a [good] way to spend your time," says David D'Alessandro, who ran John Hancock Financial Services Inc. until shortly after its 2004 acquisition by Manulife Financial Corp.
Notice he doesn't run that company anymore. He writes books instead. He may be a little out of the loop on what C-level culture has turned into.
I work with C-levels in my business, so emailing them and getting a response is not that big a deal. I can see how it would really boost morale, and keep everyone on their toes, if the drones feel they could skip the middle man and go to the top with an idea or complaint. They will get direct credit for an idea, and won't have complaint's filtered by "buddy system" middle management.
Hey, we have a policy (quite and off the record) of reading employee email where I work as well--of course in our case I guess they didn't REALLY intend for us to read it.
Which proves: we should all give the mailserver passwords to our bosses. Uh oh, wait a minute, he only reads the mails sent to him explicitely?! Sorry, misread that article again...
Windows is like decaf - it tastes like the real thing, but it won't get you through the day.
What exactly is it that CEOs do that they /shouldn't/ be reading email from their employees? Maybe I'm just uninformed, but don't CEOs merely preside over the company, while setting a direction and tone? It's not as if they spend all day coding or conducting experiments. What mission-critical function does the CEO serve such that reading employee email is a waste of time?
I guess I'm asking what, exactly, a CEO should be doing instead of reading employee email?
Skeptics say the practice distracts CEOs from more-pressing work -- and extends already long workdays
But it's ok for the employees that get stuff out the door to be required to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to participate in a conference call with some people across the globe? Or for employees to spend all day answering emails and then start actually working round about 5? Don't expect me to cry a river for CEO's any time soon.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
If the hours spent on getting the job done were the only metric, then just about everyone at a corporation these days should get CxO salaries.
CEOs probably need to worry if morale is going in the shitters.
In the military, good leaders have a feel for how their E-2s and E-3's are doing. They don't go "into the trenches" every day, but they also realize that they sometimes need to see the world with their own eyes, instead of through the beer glasses of the people below them. These are the same leaders that seem to engender a sense of wanting to go the extra mile in their subordinates, instead of needing to do it out of basic fear and survival.
Some leaders you will willingly eat glass for. Others you do it for simply out of fear, if you cannot avoid having to do it.
who at 11 one evening was reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka
So, one wonders: had those E-mails actually been sent to him, or was he just spying on their mailboxes?
A similar program was used to great success in the Philippines during the communist insurgency of the Hukbalahap between 1945 and 1952. Then-Secretary of Defense Ramon Magsaysay made it known that anyone could send a telegram to his office, free of charge, for almost any reason--to report military misconduct, corruption, rebel activity, etc.
Thousands of telegrams came flooding in from rural stations. In one way, the program served as an extension of his famous random inspections of military units in the field--a move that increased effectiveness and readiness among those units. More importantly, it was a tremendous propaganda tool, giving even the most lowly peasant the chance to appeal to the very highest levels of the government--undercutting the mass base of the insurgents.
This sort of policy, then, would be a great way of keeping a lid on corporate unhappiness, if combined with enlightened & effective management. Well we can dream, right?
lol, I temped once at this company, and a lot of the entry level/temp/freelance guys went outside to work on a freshly rolled fattie. This was also at a Christmas party.
The CEO stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. He inhaled deeply, closed his eyes for a moment, and looked at us. By this time, the joint was hidden out of sight.
He looked at me and said, "so are you going to pass that or what?" I sheepishly passed it, and he hogged it while shooting the shit with us. It was never discussed; but we were appalled.
About a week later, he sent me an email asking me if I could get him more of that stuff. It was weird.
un burrito me trampeó.
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It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
It's supply and demand -- the same market factors that make A-Rod worth 400 times what you make. The CEO is often the most publicly-visible representative for your corporation, and his ability to make decisions about the operations of a company is just as important as his ability to go on CNBC and say something that makes people buy your stock. Someone needs an ideal mix of education, connections, public-relations acumen, and management experience to be a good CEO. After all, when you're the most public figure of a company, people from snarky bloggers to snarky software engineers all have better ideas than you do.
For more information, click here.
And please excuuuuuuse me for being a bit sardonic in my wit, I was just joking around.
The Tyco CEO (Dennis Kozlowski) went to where I graduated, Seton Hall University. He donated millions there and has a building named after him (at least I think he still does). He came to my school about 3 weeks before charges were brought up against him to give a speech, one I was required to attend by my Business Law class.
The topic? "Business Ethics on a Global Scale"
And even more entertaining? That's the THIRD building our school has named after a convicted criminal. I think we have a record or something...
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
I think it's a good idea to have an open channel to the top, and I've worked with many principals that really do listen. However from what I've seen, most employees should think long and hard before clicking on 'send'.
From what I've seen in quite small companies with principals open to direct communication, the majority of the employees do themselves more harm than good simply because they have no real perspective as to where they fit in the business.
An example. Recently at a company 'meet and greet' dinner so that the local engineers can meet each other and find out what skillsets are there, a co-worker completely confused his place and what was to be gained with the meeting. The CEO, COO, and CTO were present along with a bunch of co-workers from local client sites.
The co-worker babbled on and on about petty nonsense that was specific to our one particular site. Nothing to do with the other engineers' situations. Nothing having to do with company business at all, just petty political issues and generally self-serving complaints. Basically the co-worker saw what he did as "I showed them, I'm nobody's fool and they will see how powerful and valuable I am". The net result was that the CEO referred to the co-worker as 'a cancer on the company that should be removed at all costs'. The co-worker just doesn't have a clue about what it means to own and run a business and what his place is as an asset to the company.
This isn't uncommon from what I've seen. People have this weird utopian view of how things should be, without any reality in the mix. Though ultimately it is only the fault of the employee, a direct channel to the top is only the express to unemployment for many confused people.
If you can't clearly see the role of your CEO, you'd better think carefully before you click 'send'.
Instead of direct email, they need to have a board pretty much like slashdot.
New employees would start off with little Karma but could be modded up if they make a good suggestion.
The CEO could choose to read "3" or "5" posts depending on their free time.
I'd keep everything- even meta moderating.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Generic-Man is right on. At most really large corporations, a CEO will spend 70-90% of his time in meetings. Often his presence is primarily to do with appearances. It's like having the King present--everyone is on their best behavior, does their best work, and considers the project that much more important. The CEO showing up at an employee's event gives that event credibility in the mind of the employees, and it validates his work.
The CEO is generally one smart dude, but he by no means has to be the smartest. In a large corporation it's just physically impossible for him (or her) to know everything that's going on. He just needs to be able to guide the ship, motivate employees, inspire confidence in clients and investors, and make the occassional high level decision with input from his staff.
"Someone somewhere had to wear pants for the first time. The meek and indecisive do not change our world." -Montville