I feel totally the opposite. I feel like I'm better able to have more work-life balance. Our predictions are more accurate. I'm enjoying working on actual problems rather than boilerplate. These tools are amazing
Yeah that was silly, but aren't all of the new iPhone cameras 3D cameras? People take photos/videos all of the time. Now you can immerse yourself in them. I think it's pretty cool
The issue I'd take with "take a relevant MOOC course" is, what if actual work picks up and you need to drop the course to meet some deadlines? You've failed to meet your "goals" by focusing on the company's "goals", and that red mark may stand in the way of you getting that raise/promotion. The incentives are misaligned.
As I've said, I totally get OPs frustration. We were hired to achieve a "goal". Why are we inventing other "goals" that are often misaligned?
90% of startups fail. OP is talking about annual 360 performance reviews. If your company may not exist next year, why would you do this? I say this as someone who has sold a startup.
OP is not talking about the "goals" I mentioned a startup having: revenue growth, customer growth, product development. These are things that startup leadership should keep track of and communicate regularly. OP's definition of "goals" are more akin to "take a Coursera course on machine learning". These are the "goals" that employees create for themselves with a manager when that company has gotten somewhat large. They are BS goals, that people who want career growth should be doing anyway.
A good friend of mine once told me, "I often feel like my purpose as an engineer is to give business dudes a reason to have meetings."
That statement always rings true to me during performance review and goal setting seasons. This stuff is mostly bullsh*t. "Goals" - as described by OP - don't exist at small startups. It's clear what the goal is: build a product, get customers, grow revenue, etc. The goals of a FAANG company aren't different. If "goals" were actually important, they'd exist ate startups too. Because they don't, it's pretty clear that the pessimistic comments in this thread are correct: they give HR a concrete way to avoid legal liability when it comes to raises/bonuses/promotions/terminations.
It's totally frustrating. I understand OPs sentiment. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid this red-tape nonsense is to join a startup.
tl;dr This dude, through various financial shenanigans, is loaning himself hundreds of millions of dollars to buy real estate and lease it back to WeWork. He then pays the loans off by issuing shares of We Work stock. Nothing is illegal about this, but it stinks to high heaven. But hey, he doesn't draw a salary as CEO!
From the Company Loans Section:
In May 2013 and February 2014, we issued loans to WE Holdings LLC for $10.4 million (interest rate 0.2% per year; maturity May 30, 2016) and $15.0 million (interest rate 0.2% per year; maturity February 4, 2017), respectively. The loans were collateralized by shares of our capital stock held by We Holdings LLC, and each loan provided us with the option to purchase a number of these shares in full settlement of the applicable loan. We exercised these options in May 2016, purchasing and retiring an aggregate of 8,398,670 shares of our capital stock in full settlement of the loans.
In June 2016, we issued a loan to Adam totaling $7.0 million (interest rate of 0.64% per year; maturity June 14, 2019). In November 2017, Adam repaid the loan in full, including $0.1 million in interest, in cash.
Then from the Properties Leased to The We Company section:
During the years ended December 31, 2016, 2017 and 2018, we made cash payments totaling $3.1 million, $5.6 million and $8.0 million to the [CEO] under these leases.
Sounds like they are straight up loaning the CEO money so he can buy buildings and lease them back to the We Company. Bonkers.
From the Personal Loans section:
Adam currently has a line of credit of up to $500 million with UBS AG, Stamford Branch, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and Credit Suisse AG, New York Branch, of which approximately $380 million principal amount was outstanding as of July 31, 2019. The line of credit is secured by a pledge of approximately [BLANK] shares of our Class B common stock beneficially owned by Adam.
From the WPI Fund and ARK section:
We have entered into operating lease agreements with [the CEO] in which the WPI Fund (or, following the ARK/WPI combination, other real estate acquisition vehicles managed or sponsored by ARK) have an interest, on what we believe to be commercially reasonable terms no less favorable to us than could have been obtained from unaffiliated third parties. During the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017, no rent expense or cash payments had been recognized by us relating to these agreements as we were not yet occupying any properties owned by these entities and had not paid any rent under these leases. During the year ended December 31, 2018 and the six months ended June 30, 2019, we made cash payments totaling $0.0 million and $0.6 million, respectively, and we recognized
From Personal Real Estate Transactions section:
With respect to the six properties not currently occupied by the Company, in connection with exercising its option to acquire a property in the first year of the management agreement, the ARK Manager and the Company may determine that a subsidiary of the Company should occupy any of such properties to the extent the ARK Manager and the Company agree on terms of any such occupancy agreement.