irksome millionaires and billionaires, oh my

are we doing readers a disservice covering the elite's thoughts on productivity and work culture?

Welcome back to The Angle 👋 The newsletter is short and sweet this week as I am on my way to the Eras tour and writing on the train isn’t so glamorous when you are travelling via the rail industry’s equivalent to RyanAir.

My happy place: Travelling on the "Swiftie Express," eating Percy Pigs and listening to Every Single Album on my way to the Eras tour

Returning from vacation last week, I missed what was described by the person at the centre of a controversy as “a storm in a teacup.”

PJ Pärsons, a partner at venture firm Northzone, advised female founders wanting to build big VC-backed companies to “consider getting a nanny.”

As you can imagine there were a lot of reactions.

But there’s also some context around his words. European startup publication Sifted does a great job at laying out that context.

Still, the words hit on something that has irked me for some time.

The media worship of what millionaire and billionaire CEOs and founders think about how the rank-and-file should work.

Here’s a small sample of what I am talking about:

• L’Oréal CEO says remote staff have ‘no passion, no creativity’

• Boots orders support staff back into office five days a week from September

• Billionaire CEO of the biggest owner of commercial real estate says remote employees ‘didn’t work as hard’

• Ratcliffe cites email traffic in imposing remote work ban at Manchester United

• ‘It’s a s*** show here’ | Dell to color-code employees based on office attendance through badge swipes & VPN monitoring

Parsons’ passing comments about “getting a nanny” implies all woman founders are in a position to afford a nanny. Does Northzone only consider investing in founders who have existing wealth to spend on nannies ? (Not everyone has this privilege.)

What irks me most is that when founders or CEOs make these sweeping statements about work, rarely in the media are we holding them to account about the realities of work.

A CEO’s experience of work is not the same as the majority of their workforce.

The salary and status of being in an executive position makes working from an office much more palatable than it does for the rest of us.

It’s a lot easier if you know someone else handling the meals and groceries, the multiple loads of washing a week, looking after the kids as well as having the ability to dial a car service at the first sign of travel inconvenience.

The reality is most of us have to juggle all of this on top of work and the office commute.

I am not against going to the office. I am all for “collaborating” and “innovating” in person when it makes sense. I also don’t have anything against people who do want to go into the office whether it’s one day, three days or five, go for it.

I am against going to the office just so that a superior can feel good about seeing an increase in my emails as Man United’s Ratcliffe is looking for.

We all work differently. But I think we can agree that life’s chores have a huge impact on our productivity. Annd our ability to juggle those chores ebb and flow. Having the flexibility to be at home to work when life chores drag us down whether that’s a day, a week or a month makes a massive difference in our ability to be creative and be present in our relationships and communities, especially for those on lower incomes. Not questioning founders, executives and CEOs about how they outsource their chores — formally or informally — is doing readers a disservice.

And if they retort that they should move closer or pay for those service it’s also a disservice not to also ask whether they are paying them enough for that?

- Kari

(Image source: Ross Sneddon/Unsplash)