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‘Guess who wasn't there?’: Hypocritical CEO tries to revoke WFH system, is a no-show when whole company goes into office

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  • 1
    CEO wants return to office, CTO plays it perfect
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    I work for a spanish company, it's been like 7-8 years and we know each other pretty well.
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    I've known, and worked with, the CTO for like 10 years now. He's a cool guy that wants stuff done.
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  • 4
    Even before the WFH (work from home) policy was extremely relaxed (you do you and have things done by the time we need it, we're OK) so when the came, the transition was as easy as it could get.
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    In fact, as a company and, specially on the tech team, we embraced the opportunity and started hiring people from outside the city for a cheaper salary than in the city but, for the people, a higher salary than the one they could get without moving into the city.
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    I even moved out of the city during that time. Since CTO didn't want to be a sales guy, the company hired a CEO in 2021, an englishman that came highly recommended and was stationed in his rural house in the English countryside. Looked like a cool relaxed guy for a while.
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  • 7
    Once the ended, he started pushing rather heavily for a return to office (RTO) for everyone. He made polls, lengthy emails to everyone about how this fostered relationships and whatnot.
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    He got really pushy, even complaining to CTO about it. So every time he came to Spain, people that lived around the city would go to the office just to be there so CEO was happy.
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    And then, one time, CTO decided that he had enough about the whole RTO mandate and CEO complaining.
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    So, on a random meeting of the tech team, CTO said "ok, next tuesday, I want everyone on the office, if you live far away, book a train, drive, whatever you have to do, I'll pay, but be here."
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    And so we did. That tuesday every single one of the tech team, including people that took a 2 or 3 hour trip to get there, was in the office.
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    Guess who wasn't there? Yeah, the CEO. So, CTO took a picture, emailed it to CEO saying something along the lines of "if you can't lead by example, don't push my people to do things that don't work" and we went to have a relaxing lunch and beers type of day.
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  • 13
    Aftermath: RTO mandate never came to fruition, CEO was out of the company a year later, we closed the office since everyone works 100% of the time from home, and, to his dismay, CTO is now CTO and acting CEO and things are going smoothly.
  • 14
    PN_Guin • 4h ago Interesting twist on compliance by forcing everyone to comply (once), to out the only one that didn't (the ceo).
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    Rancid Horse 1h ago The CTO was already the CEO; he was just in denial.
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    Octogenarian • 2h ago . This only works where the CTO actually has more power than the CEO. Otherwise, that CTO is fired.
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    Unique_Bumblebee_894 1h ago . CEO can't just fire another C suite executive. That's up to the board and chairman, and I doubt the CEO was a chairman based on the story.
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    HODOROO 41m ago I will say this to my death. Wfh is a management issue. If you are a bad manager it. will become very apparent in a wfh situation. This is why so many bad managers are pushing rto. Because they only know how to do things. a certain way.
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  • 19
    • . Dubai_Donkey 3h ago · Edited 3h ago you don't explain why the CEO didn't come... If the Owner is asking everyone to be there what was his excuse?
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    mdlapla OP. 3h ago oh, there was no excuse, he worked every single day from that little house on the prairie. He made the trip once every two months or so but tried to push us to be at the office every single day. So the CTO didn't even asked him to go to the office, as a way of saying: "don't ask my guys to be at the office everyday while you can WFH everyday"
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    HerelGoGrilling Again • 7m ago Butts-in-chairs management is what I call it. They can't properly evaluate their staff, so they default to easy things like time/attendance. It's harder to do that remotely. It's also why some managers spy on they staff when they do work remotely.

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