I’m starting to wonder if this problem is more startup related or if big companies have this issue as well. The math for startup employees financially doesn’t make sense anymore anyway and for most probably never did.
It’s the same everywhere. ICs are expected to work themselves to death meanwhile the manager/executive class gets paid. The definition of what’s “normal” work has been shifting for years.
> People already feel working hard no longer leads to a better life.
For me, it's not just a feeling; objectively, it doesn't.
I tried working hard. As a PhD student, as a founder. I had my 1st cardiac arrest the week after my graduation and my 3rd cardiac arrest during the height of startup stress. After that all I can say is that I'd rather have a life than my life lost. Fuck working hard. Work smart, work healthy, get a reasonable amount of shit done, but take care of yourself, your family, and your friends and enjoy everything the Earth has to offer before you die.
I just left Amazon, and the situation is identical at several other companies based on anecdotal evidence from friends, so it's very much a big company issue as well.
The biggest problem with many startups I think is workaholic, narcissist founders who don't know how to treat humans like humans. It's generally less procedural and internal competition bullshit than big tech, but more immature management trying to bite more than they can chew or expecting employees who have a 0.1%-0.5% stake in the company to behave like founders with a 40% stake in the company. Not going to happen.
I’d understand the expectations if you have 0.5% stake in the company. The problem is, most employers expect the same while paying below market rates to employees who have no stake in the company.
I wouldn't. If I'm employee nr. 5, why is my stake in the company 0.5% while yours is 30%? That wouldn't be enough to feel like anything more than an employee that doesn't have to give a shit to me.
I don't think it's fair to use the term workaholic with founders. If you're not well capitalized you have to be a workaholic just to survive. There are a fair amount of narcissistic founders because extreme self confidence is table stakes for a startup, and people who have that level of confidence are statistically more likely to be narcissists than hyper competent just based on the frequency of the two.
It’s fine for the founder to work non-stop. That’s pretty much required for some period of time to get a company off the ground.
They should not expect this same level of dedication from employees. No one is ever going to care as much as the founder. Just like a teacher or baby sitter is never going to care as much about a kid as the parents (assuming good parents here).
I know founders do this (as a former founder myself), but it's also super unhealthy for the founder to do this for more than a few weeks at a time. Our bodies and minds are not designed to handle that.
It's more to do with your immediate boss and teammates than BigCo or Startup. Culture and Bullshit flow from the top, as the old jungle saying goes. The icing on the cake is your immediate boss being a certain kind of bodily orifice, and the same holding true for their boss as well.
