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Comment by DabbyDabberson | Hacker News Reader

People I know at SpaceX are terrified of him. They all secretly track when he comes into the office, and actively hide from him.

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That sounds like what I've heard about Steve Jobs.

It's really noticeable that work on site at spacex really ramps up before an Elon visit, and then pretty much stops when he leaves again.

If he doesn't visit for a few weeks, nothing gets done.

Alternative theory:

They save all the "stuff that requires physical activity" to when he visits, some of it for show, and actually are doing the real work when he's not there. It's hilarious to think that what you can see from the fence line, constitutes an assessment of what work is being done

If he doesn't visit for a few weeks, nothing gets done.

Wow, if his leadership results in such a bad situation at SpaceX I can only image how poor the result will be at Twitter with whatever is left.

or that the theatre is only on when its only audience member is seated?

Here's a rather more likely reality:

The workers have noticed Elon likes to see everyone acting busy and has a propensity for causing a lot of trouble when he doesn't see what he likes.

Therefore, they act busy when he's around, and go back to normal, productive work when he's not.

Are people downvoting you because they think it's untrue ; or because they don't like to hear it ?

I'm not voting because I think it's true or untrue (although I do think it's untrue) I'm downvoting because it's an extraordinary claim offered with absolutely zero evidence, and I've watched the entire Western world practically collapse from offering credence to this behavior over the past decade.

Isn't that true of most CEOs though? When a CEO comes around, you have nothing to gain and your entire employment to lose.

Edit: The point is not that we all reside in toxic workplaces. The point is that there is no upside to interacting with a CEO. A parallel situation might be giving a loaded pistol with a child. In that case, the upside is that they now have one thousand and one chew toys instead of one thousand. The downside is that they can kill themselves accidentally. Outside of a few specific people in a company, a CEO most likely can't make anyone's life better. However, if, for example, you're coding and a pornographic ad appears in Firefox on your second monitor, then your employment isn't likely to continue much longer.

I've never felt that way at the 3 tech companies I've worked at. More to the contrary, I'd want the CEO or CTO to know me, who i am, and what I've done.

How large are the companies approximately? I've worked for small to large. The visibility was possible on the smaller companies, the larger was increasingly difficult (oceans of smaller teams). I haven't worked at a company where I've feared the CEO.

Good to have an "elevator speech" ready, in case you bump into them.

Those tech companies must have been small. Don’t get me wrong. I spent most of my career at small companies. But, currently, my CEO is 7 levels above me in the hierarchy and I’m one of 1.6+ million employees.

I've worked for a top 50 company by market cap and the CEO and other execs we're pleasant people. Well one or two of the execs were assholes but not the 'ill get you fired' assholes.

And you knew the CEO personally at those companies?

I didn't "know them personally" but I interacted with them on a few dozen occasions.

At my last exit interview, my CEO was asking me how he could improve his understanding of the engineering team. I threw out the idea that he could meet with people for 15 minutes on a rotation. He explained that he couldn't do that without terrifying people.

Just because people are scared of the CEO doesn't mean most CEOs weaponize this into a tool of micromanagement.

It's a sad comment on the corporate world that so many are terrified of those they work for.

It's a learned helplessness response. I've been burned by enough "yes man" management that I've given up trying to do more than necessary for management. Want feedback? Sorry, I don't have any.

Fuck, I've gotten a reprimand for pointing out how Musk is perhaps not the best role model when someone mentioned they idolized him. That learned me.

At will employment in a nutshell.

I am hyper cognizant of that as a manager. I have to teach my new people not to fear me, because a lot of working class people come from industries where your boss is NOT your friend.

> meet with people

Maybe after 2 or 3 times it gets better. Build up a rapport first.

Any CEO who forces you to bend the knee in order to remain employed isn't a CEO that's worthy of your employment. If an executive wants my respect, they can earn it by doing things that are worthy of respect.

Maybe if you aren't contributing or are abusing your position.

Nah I worked for a fortune 50 company and loved when I was able to interact with the CEO. I was able to often as I headed up some important infra. The local (CEO was stationed overseas but visited occasionally) execs were also fun to work with. Unless you like assaulted them or were extremely rude they would never go and try and get you fired for a mistake or for being off. Not that they were probably exceptional people or anything but more likely they just didn't care.

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