Comment by palata
12 hours ago
The mistake is to believe anything coming from executives. They are not your friends.
I was in a startup during Covid. The CEO said: "unlike many startups, we just got a round of investment so we are in a really good situation and we won't have to let go anyone, you can be reassured". A week later, they fired a whole team and a few other employees.
Executives are not your friends, and they are not paid to tell you the truth.
Lying is in the job description. I'm convinced that to rise (or be groomed and practically anointed through nepotism and corruption) to that level in business, you have to trade a part of your humanity. There comes a point where wealth and power changes you and I'm convinced that the aspiration of it is really a form of concealed, socially acceptable sociopathy.
So yes. They are not only not your friends, they're outright hostile and you should trust nothing they say and approach every interaction with them as a game and try your best to at least break even.
They likely view you with deep contempt and derision, if they acknowledge that you have any measure of self worth at all. You should act accordingly.
What a sad, miserable take. This is not at all my experience.
> This is not at all my experience.
Have you been in companies of more than a few people? Being "CEO, CTO, CPO and founder" of a startup of 5 does not count as "being an executive", right?
It is slightly dark. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a miserable take though. It’s more neutral and pragmatic and to be fair, this isn’t universally true, it’s just true most of the time.
I’m glad you’ve had a better experience. Sometimes the best among us do percolate to the top. I’ve seen it too, I’ve just seen the opposite too many times to trust anyone in an executive leadership role.
Yet 100% my experience. Not really a sad and miserable take. It will do people a whole lot of good to know the kinds of people that thrive in this ecosystem.
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Its about 50/50 in my experience. On a barely related note, while at a wedding I met someone whose son works for the Trump admin and swore up and down that Trump is just the nicest person and oh so generous. I'm sure he seems that way to some people if they don't look beyond twenty yards or so.
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You have managers and VPs around who are not lying? How hired such incompetent managers?
Literally the exact thing the CEO of my old Berlin based startup said before our team was laid off / replaced with AI.