Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

You can be an executive and still be in a situation where a higher ranking executive can override you even when you are the domain expert and they aren't.

Then you quit.



You don't even have to quit. You just say: no, I'm not doing that. Maybe they fire you and maybe they don't, but that's their problem. You just focus on doing the right thing.


Exactly. "Do precisely what the boss tells you to" and "quit" do not form a dichotomy of actions.


Sometimes the reason for the overriding is stupid.

Sometimes the reason is that you can't see the forest for the trees because of your domain expertise.

If the higher ranking person has a decent level of clue, they'll always be aware that they're basically -betting- that they're right about it being the latter rather than the former.

If the higher ranking person has any level of personal honour, they'll precommit to taking full responsibility for anything that goes wrong as a result ... and to quietly letting you keep any glory that accrues for it going right, on the assumption that that was likely mostly a result of your decisions, not of their single override.

Given the preconditions of your boss having clue and honour, quitting should not be the automatic response to their overriding you even if you don't immediately understand why they're doing so.

In fact, I'd suggest that if you don't trust them sufficiently to accept that they'll only do it in cases where they genuinely believe they have a better reason than your reasons for disagreeing, you should be trying to move elsewhere right now, because you have no faith in your superior's ability to use their power appropriately, which is going to be no fun for anybody.


Then you quit.

Better would be to make sure that you have good documentation of the event in the case of the shit hitting the fan.


As said by other posts before, that is completely irrelevant in executive level. No one would or should care about your documentation at that point, as it might be for rank-and-file workers.

Get convinced of the CEO strategy and execute it, or stay convinced, convince the board and do your way - and in either case, take responsibility for whatever happens to the company in the whole, there is no such thing as "your separate area" or "only your direct actions/subordinates" at that level.


actually, I found this the most effective way to deal with idiot management. "Ok, I'll do it after you confirm it by email" - 90% chicken out




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: