Ask HN: Do you make decisions like its your company?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34814933

14 15 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

This has been coming up more for me. I understand as shareholders we should "feel ownership" but sometimes I can't help but think the decisions I make at work aren't the same decisions I would be making if I actually owned a substantial part of the company. I wonder if my decisions would be different if I was CEO or a primary or large shareholder? Do you feel like yo would be doing things differently if you were CEO or a founder? Do you feel like your decisions would change? Even if it was the exact same situation/decision you are faced with today, do you think you would be playing it differently if you had more ownership? Do you make decisions like it's your company?

Note: I am a Sr. Director at a fortune 100 tech giant.

frogcoder• 3 years ago

Disclaimer: I was never at any position close to like Sr. Director at a fortune 100 tech giant, maybe your company is different.

I use to act as if I own a large stake of the company I worked for, regretting it much later when I realized I was doing too much and knowing too little.

I was just kidding myself pretending as an owner of the company therefore investing too much emotion and work into it. Why would I pretend something that is not true? It's not like fake it until you make it thing.

I do not know how much you know about your company, but I was an outsider that knew nothing about the inner workings and secrets about it. I thought I knew, that's the kidding myself part.

Unless you are a real owner, you are just a cog in a machine. If you perform well, you will be rewarded well as a cog in a machine not as an owner. Most decisions you make would not affect the overall situation. Just do your job well and try to spend time with something else you care after work, not something you have no control of.

aprdm• 3 years ago

It's not about feeling like I own the company or not. I make decisions based on what I believe is right and efficient for the problem at hand. If I were CEO I would have different contexts and problems at hand probably...

gtirloni• 3 years ago

I think this is the most sensible answer so far in this thread.

No, I'm not the owner but I expect some autonomy in my area and wouldn't work in any other way (e.g. just taking orders mindlessly). Same would happen in any position up the ladder.

pedrofornaza• 3 years ago

"Ownership" always brings the debate about compensation and workload. "Im not the owner, im not earning like one, why would i have ownership?".

They all miss the point. Having "ownership" is caring like its yours. Making decisions that make sense, and you would do in yours. Your answer is perfect!

Ofcourse you should not have the "minimal effort police" in mind, but you also should not work your balls off for nothing.

vba616• 3 years ago

Ever read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Mazes ? I think I may have originally heard of it on HN. I'm curious if it relates to your experiences.

If you owned most or all of the company, maybe you would make more of an effort to prevent bad stuff, like dumping toxic waste in rivers.

On the other hand, if you owned the whole company, you could maybe make a lot of money by creating externalities like dumping toxic waste in rivers.

I always thought from observing others (since a year or two into my first corporate job) that the job of managers, up to and including the CEO, is to manage conflicts of interest. Fashionably, "stakeholders".

All of the things people say about managing sound to me like misdirection from the actual meat and potatoes.

As a non-manager, I've tried to train myself to never take it personally if a manager does something inhumane out of (apparently) loyalty to an organization. Maybe they feel it, or maybe they feel like they are trapped into it to keep their job.

If I want something, I appeal in some manner to the underlying human feelings that I assume everyone has. Blaming people (even implicitly) for failing to be loyal to whatever they ought to be only creates bad feelings.

But, people, managers and non-managers, who are good at manipulating situations by such techniques as appealing to friendship or human decency, can end up subverting a whole organization. The integrity of an organization paradoxically depends on people who follow rules for their own sake even when they lead to wrong outcomes, for a greater good. I'm thinking of the legal system and government as much as corporations.

   “William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

   Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to 
   get after the Devil?”

   William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”

   Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 
   'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This 
   country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not 
   God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you 
   really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, 
   I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”

I have no solution to the conflicts of interest I see everywhere, which is why I've never put real effort into becoming a manager even at the lowest level.

joshxyz• 3 years ago

Most employees optimize for promtion and job security, in my perspective

p1esk• 3 years ago

Do you make decisions like it's your company?

I do not. Why would I? My job is to deliver what has been asked of me by my boss, on time. Sometimes I take an initiative and propose something else I could deliver, if it helps me get a promotion, earn reputation/respect, learn new skills, or is interesting to work on. Typically that something would also benefit the company, and that's how I sell it to my boss, but it wouldn't be why I want to do it.

gxt• 3 years ago

Don't unless you do, or you have an explicit reward path with your own manager otherwise you seriously risk burning yourself and have nothing to show for it.

MPlus88• 3 years ago

Has anybody made decisions or voiced opinions for the company's good, knowing that such action is detrimental to their career?