Yapping Session 10 - the uselessness of CEOs

Long time no yapping, but things happen, and I have to vent.

What better way to vent than publicly?

Let's start with a basic question:

Why does every CEO seem to be an overpaid, privileged arsehole with no respect for workers, the highest possible degree of self-importance, and, quite often, no visible value proportional to the money they extract?

Let's talk about that.

Because at some point, someone needs to say it plainly:
the modern CEO is less of a necessary operational role and more of a corporate mascot with admin rights. A very expensive symbol. A walking press release. A person who appears on stage, says words like "synergy", "efficiency", "vision", and "market alignment", then disappears behind a wall of assistants, consultants, and middle managers while the actual workers deal with the consequences.

And we are supposed to worship this.
We are supposed to believe that the person at the top is there because they are "visionary". They are "bold". They "take risks".
Except the risks are usually not theirs.

When a CEO makes a terrible decision, workers lose jobs. Departments get gutted. Salaries freeze. Benefits shrink. Workloads increase. The people who built the product, served the customers, fixed the bugs, maintained the systems, cleaned the mess, and kept the company alive are suddenly told that "difficult decisions had to be made".

Meanwhile, the CEO leaves with a bonus, a golden parachute, a new board seat, or at the very least a LinkedIn post about "a challenging but meaningful chapter".

Very touching.

So, to give an anonymous example, because I am not here to hand out names, dates, addresses, or lawsuits:

Imagine a workplace that used to feel like a place where people could actually exist. Not perfect, because no workplace is perfect, but human. The kind of place where the person in charge at least seemed to understand that employees are not office furniture with pulse. The kind of place where people could work, talk, breathe, and feel like they were part of something that had a little bit of soul left in it.

Then that person is gone. Kicked out by the highest leader of arse-land.
And after that, this highest leader proudly announces that they have found "the perfect candidate who shares our vision".

That sentence alone should be printed, framed, and placed in the Museum of Corporate Red Flags.
Because whenever someone says "shares our vision" in that specific tone, what they often mean is: "We found someone who will not question us, will copy our personality defects, and will call it leadership."

A stupid person hiring another stupid person. In such cases reproduction organs should be cut off, so it does not spread further.
And then the new boss arrives.

Immediately, the performance begins.

First, the office. Of course. The throne room must be secured. A department gets moved, people get shuffled, space gets rearranged, and the new ruler now has a room. Fair enough, maybe. Offices exist. Rearrangements happen.

But then it starts properly.

The walls begin to fill with "motivational" material. Corporate propaganda. AI-generated, generic slogans. At least it looks like AI generated slogans.
The prompt was probably something like "make workers more productive with inspirational office wall design, corporate colors, modern, ambitious, future, success - and add a bit of 'the new silicone valley'"

And it's not just a matter of taste.
Bad visual design affects a room. Objectively.
I'm working with design for quite a while now and this one is like one of the most basic rules you just don't cross.

Dark, overloaded, heavy graphics can make a workspace feel smaller. Tighter. More oppressive. Less breathable. Design has a psychological effect. That's why you want to have rooms with light colors, so it feels open, welcoming, soft, and visually larger. The human psychology about this is pretty well known and studied. The information is open for everyone with a simple google search.
This ugly ass loud corporate self-worship makes the place feel exactly like the place you never want to be a part of, because it sucks your soul out.

The design might technically match the company colors, but used like this and not even considering how it affects the people... it's seriously hurting the place even though it looks like a minor thing.

A wall covered in “vision” does not create vision. Welcome visual claustrophobia instead.

And naturally, nobody has asked the EMPLOYEES THAT WORK THERE FOR YEARS (in some cases decades) anything, the opinions of long-time workers are absolutely invalid it seems.

At the same time, the new boss begins investing in the comfort of his own little kingdom. New chairs. A large screen. The executive nest must be padded properly. The important person must have important toys and his important propaganda.

Meanwhile, the regular worker gets the inspirational wallpaper.

So motivating.

And this is where the CEO archetype becomes painfully visible. The new leader does not understand the company yet. He does not understand the teams. He does not understand the workflows. He does not understand who does what, why things are done a certain way, where the actual problems are, or which fragile systems are quietly being held together by specific people who know more than any chart will ever show.

But he is already changing things.
Because of course he is.

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Oh yea, and he came up with a brilliant idea of "let's punish those who don't finish all their tasks in the sprint by lowering their salary".
I don't think I ever heard anything this idiotic. The guy has no clue how to run a company.

A certain type of executive cannot observe first. That would require humility. They cannot ask questions first. That would imply someone else might know something that the CEO does not. They cannot spend a few months learning how the place works before making structural decisions. That would not look decisive.
So instead, they rearrange and waste the time of everyone involved. Just to feel important. Just to feel like they did something.

And then comes the grand vision.
“We are going to become the next Silicon Valley.”

Of course.

Because nothing says innovation like copying the most exhausted corporate fantasy of the last twenty years.

Frankly, the only silicone valley I currently respect is the one between silicones, because at least that can look good in a V-neck.

And this place is now looking for more managers, because this singular ass would actually have to work and that sucks, so he hires people that will work instead. He has literally the least work on him in the entire company and from what it seems, he just ignores it until someone gets hired to do it. Wild.

And that leads, inevitably, to the patron saint of overhyped executive mythology: