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Comment by neves | Hacker News Reader

> Zuckerberg noticed that it was getting harder to get all the employees to attend a meeting as they were sometimes taking time out in a day for personal work.

> “There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the head count we have. [We need to] create a culture that is more mission-focused, more focused on our products, more customer-focused,

Ohhh! Two declarations based in unfounded evidence that will instill fear in employees and prevent them to ask for raises.

What a shitty piece of journalism.

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Honestly, I'd be pissed too if I was Zuck.

I'm a goddamn billionaire - if I invite you to the meeting, idgaf what you are doing unless someone died - get on this goddamn Zoom call. And even then, they better have been important! Dogs, cats, idgaf, get on this goddamn Zoom call!

Then, because I'm a genius who singlehandedly started Facebook by myself, I extrapolate this thought to its logical extreme and start intimidating my employees based on this intensely personal feeling.

I'm Mark fucking Zuckerberg. Get on this goddamn Zoom call.

That's a great reason why Meta employees who are content with making, oh, a nice $200k a year are in a position of wonderful power.

Even if Zuck personally fires you, you can go get a job elsewhere in a week, making a comparable amount of money. And you don't need demean yourself for some billionare who wants you to dance because he says so.

Yes, the inflation is eating the wages of my employees, now they are asking for raises to maintain their standard of living. Let's call them slackers so I won't decrease my now extra profits. A shitty report of a enterprise magazine will take my words in face value and publish.

Those claims aren't accurate, but this does sound spot on as to what his internal narrative would be were it put to words. Zuckerberg is known for steamrolling over anyone to get what he wants, and orchestrating a narrative that paints him as the sympathetic talented protagonist he absolutely is not and has never been.

If I worked for a someone with this sort of attitude, and I was in a position that I could walk away from this sort of megalomania, I would run for the hills.

Dignity is important to me, idgaf how many zeroes are in someone's net worth, if they started intimidating people over a zoom call I would intentionally miss the meeting even if I was initially going to attend.

This is a good reason not to let billionaires run companies.

An IRL meeting with 100 participants, you can't tell who is there or not. You can audit online meeting attendees.

> as they were sometimes taking time out in a day for personal work.

People have been going to the dentist during work hours since forever. I used to have a dentist down the street from my office for just this reason. Now I have a dentist just down the street from my house, for the exact same reason.

Heck Microsoft used to encourage people to go to the gym during the work day, a shuttle would come by, pick you up, and take you to the gym! Possibly something about all those research studies showing high levels improvement in mental tasks for hours after exercise.

Many people in large online meetings are checked out. Sure, they are "attending." Then they turn their cameras off and do something else.

So are people in IRL meetings once the meetings get large enough. PMs are only focusing when it is their time to talk or take notes for stuff about their team, otherwise they are answering emails or responding to other messages.

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