I used to work at an investment bank and the CEO's motto was "you can sleep when you die".
When he entered the building, you could feel his presence.
Everyone knew "Don was in the house" as he strutted through the front door.
Every day, he would walk through the analyst department and grill every analyst.
He spent 5-10 minutes with each analyst picking their brain with tough questions.
The pressure was intense and if you didn't cut it, you were gone.
It was a cut-throat environment and you had to fight to survive.
The analysts would be at their desks by 8 AM and worked past midnight on weekdays.
They would also work weekends taking maybe a half-day off to have some "fun".
90–100-hour workweeks were expected.
If you survived your first year, you would be invited to stay.
Otherwise, you were shown the door.
Luckily, I was the IT guy, so I wasn't expected to be in the office as much as the analysts, but I was expected to respond to their pages 24/7 if they had tech issues.
Elon Musk's ultimatum to Twitter employees reminds me of my days at the investment bank.
"Do EXTREMELY HARDCORE or get out"
Twitter employees have until tonight to click on a link to agree or they will be let go tonight.
This is one way to lead a company.
Top-down mandates.
Is it effective?
When I worked in environments like this, stress levels were off the chart and morale was in the dumpster.
Can you really be productive working 90-100 hours a week?
The company continually churned through employees.
I never worked well with bosses who micro-managed me and kept pushing me to do more.
I always worked hard and did more than was expected of me.
I didn't need a boss hovering over me all day to motivate me.
A hovering boss always had the opposite effect on me.
If you were a Twitter employee, would you "do EXTREMELY HARDCORE" or get out?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
