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Comment by user5994461 | Hacker News Reader

I personally don't get the point of having the CEO in most big companies.

Noone knows who it is. Noone has ever heard anything from him. Noone would even recognize him as CEO if he messaged or talked to them.

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I've never worked for a company where the majority of people there didn't know who the CEO was and what he looked like (by chance the CEOs at the companies I've worked for have all been male). This ranges from the $4MM/year place with a dozen employees to the mid-ten figure public healthcare company.

I've worked at Intel and Accenture (100,000, 300,000 employees) for an internship each. Always knew who the CEO was and his background.

Never worked anywhere that large (or prestigious) but agreed, I'm not sure how you could work somewhere and not know who the CEO is.

What do you work? In most companies most employees know the CEO. Not as a person, but as a symbol. He writes emails to the team. He says which products for which markets should be developed. And he hires/fires people, or at least the ones that do the hiring/firing for him.

That's what mine do at my current company, he's fine. (Startup around 80 people now).

In my past 3 companies (from 100 to 100 000), I have never heard of the CEO once, don't know any name, not sure there is one, if there is one he might as well not exist.

It sure ain't a person and ain't a symbol.

For some people, it's actually a demoralizing symbol of "A useless employee making xM$ for nothing. He shouldn't be there."

You can bet your bottom dollar their is someone that's sitting in that CEO chair, even if only on paper so the owner(s) can hold someone accountable.

What start-up do you work for now?

How big are you talking? I know my CEO. But at 10k we aren't "big" compared to Microsoft or Apple.

I worked at two companies not even half that size, and I don't think I ever saw CEOs. I don't remember any names, and I don't think I ever knew them.

I presume he meant personally, anybody can look into internal HR app (most companies have those, including photos)

but you know the CEOs for Microsoft and Apple and you don't even work there. The bigger the company, the more visible the CEO, not less.

It's opposite in my company. It's a Fortune 100 company where almost nobody knows the CEO since we never see him, rarely hear from him, and don't care since he has little impact. The workers, from offices to production, run our company with senior management just taking credit for or higher pay from all that. CEO showed up once for some red carpet treatment, speeches, and food but that's it.

Then why not leave?

If you are really producing the effort that makes the company successful I'm sure you could easily get a job somewhere else that'll pay you better and give you better support from up top...

Overqualified or underqualified most local firms say. My area has few jobs. Just hard to transition. Ill probably move haha.

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