Nairobi

Why are top executives paid that much? Are they overpaid?

Tbh I couldn't care less about the Musk/Twitter saga, but what really piqued my interest with this whole thing is the compensation these C-whatever folks are going to get. They are all set to receive double digits million-dollar paychecks. And it just got me thinking whyyy?

I could understand if they were the people that made Twitter become this big social network, but they all have joined in the mid/late 2010s when Twitter was already established.

It got me thinking about all those executives that join these established companies and leave a couple of years later with a nice paycheck. Do they deserve it?

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27 comments

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LordOfWar

Tycoon

Blow it up

100% not deserved.

You can't justify paying yourselves millions if your lower staff are struggling and you still can't hire enough filterers to weed out ISIS/Qanon/Pedo content on your platform.

SaaSsy

Politicker

Absolutely! It's one thing to pay people what they're worth for busting ass and making a company profitable but for some of these folks that barely even last 9 months in their cushy C suite, it's a joke. Years ago I watched the CEO of a competitor get a 20% incentive bump while the stock plummeted. It's disgusting. Do they want salespeople saying "So I'm the lowest performer on the team but I believe I deserve a raise".

Nairobi

Politicker

Amen!

Nairobi

Politicker

Exactly! It really bothers me, they didn't do shit. The lowest I saw was a $11.2M paycheck and that person joined Twitter 3 years ago...

LordOfWar

Tycoon

Blow it up

It is insulting and one of the reasons I don't or won't own shares in those kinds of companies.

Reminds me of this "wealth hack" the former UK PM figured out:

Nairobi

Politicker

Wow... didn't know Truss was getting this on her way out...ridiculous. Politicians and those executives are the same tbh

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Worthless.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

such a good point. Its hard to say that someone "deserves" to make that much money.

Im also not against ppl earning that much money. they have figured out how to make our system work for them. congrats.

But i do also agree that when senior leadership is still getting massive checks and yet profits are down, stock pice is down, lay offs are happening, its kinda gross.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yeah, it's a tough issue, or it would be figured out already.

Unfortunately, humans have both ego and greed, and here we are, basing our opinion of ourselves and our status on how much we have (in comparison to everyone else) and what we can afford to do. It's super difficult to fight those things. I'm sure it's pretty nice to be uber rich.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Nailed it. Fix Trust and Safety before you pay some exec 21 million bucks. Seems simple!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

I need a few to marinate in this before I answer. 🤔

Nairobi

Politicker

haha I feel like I already know what you are thinking

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I do think executive compensation is out of hand.

I also think we pay athletes far too much.

Don't get me started on why it is we value a baseball player more than we value teachers - and I love baseball.

Nobody is expecting a novice worker to get paid as much as a C-level, but at some point, the imbalance is too great. How many private homes does an executive need? Private jets? Car collection? Not saying they shouldn't have nice things, but how much is too much?

Nairobi

Politicker

Great points! Yeah same, I could go on forever about the disparities we have between athletes-teachers...

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Until I actually know what they do outside of saying "Not interested" in my emails, I have no idea

Nairobi

Politicker

LMAO-- let me know when you figure it out

SaaSam

Politicker

Account Executive

Most of it is political. A "who you know" situation. Usually, it has more to do with who someone is connected to vs what they individually bring to the table, oftentimes government connections.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

I don’t know whether they deserve it or not but I know they are the drivers who know how to get things done.

Nairobi

Politicker

What do you mean by that?

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

No. Not deserved. I believe in a lot of the model of capitalism, but there is absolutely no reason that executives need to make more than some-odd millions of dollars. Not when there are real people being really hurt in the world.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

WAAYY overpaid for what they do.

aenima

Celebrated Contributor

Principal Account Manager

The fact so many people here think CEOs are overpaid and do nothing shows me the low class of sales professionals on this site, and explains EXACTLY why they can’t access the C-Suite in a meeting.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Interesting viewpoint. I talk to the C level all the time. No doubt top talent earns a very high salary, and of course they should. I don’t see anyone here saying they “do nothing”. I personally am saying it’s not aligned. How much is enough?

The wage gap continues to grow, and ultimately, that is not great for the economy.

nomdeguerre

Executive

Account executive

Career goal. Get hired for C-level position. Do pointless meetings for a couple of years and then yeet outa there with a $10m check.

LightingLeader

Politicker

Specification Sales

As long as we are stuck in the miserable hellscape that is capitalism I try to not work for overpaid douchebags

SmirksGently

Executive

Sales Architect (VAR)

I think you can not like this fact but still agree with it…boards (mostly talking public companies) are work-and-risk adverse. They look for a “Proven” C-Suite executive, and there is a whole ecosystem of headhunters, coaches, agents supporting this model whom have a vested interest in maintaining that model. Just like flying private, once you’ve done it a time or two, you start to have expectations, and those expectations are catered to.

On the other side of this equation you have the C-Suite folks who know their marketable worth, have people around them reinforcing that and they take what they can get (you do the same thing).

Taking a C-Suite role also comes with a certain amount of opportunity cost and risk. Even though there’s a lot of fake BS, you are working 24/7, even vacations are for meetings. And you may be highly compensated with options that don’t vest for years. That’s why the parachutes are big…if it doesn’t work out, it may not be your fault, and you could have been spending more time with your family but you tossed that out the window when you signed.

FINAL factor has been loose monitory policy at the Fed. An inflated money supply flows from Govt and banks, to loans and equity, to inflated C-Suite compensation. (ITS NOT A FEATURE OF ‘CAPITALISM’, YOU HALFWITS! LOOK UP THE RICHEST COUNTIES IN AMERICA!)

activity

Politicker

VP, Business Development

I think exec comp has gotten way out of wack compared to what the average employee earns across all industries.

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Nairobi

Why are top executives paid that much? Are they overpaid?

27 comments

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