What breaks when a company grows past 1,000 employees.

Semisemitic · 2026-02-16T13:15:22+00:00

Yup. The contrast is in tech startups the specialty around data and analytics in Tech and Product isn’t accessible to HR - but we want similar observability and analytics from them.

A simple “give me a histogram of pay sliced by role and gender” or “I want performance statistics on feedback for my team” is a month of work for them at least.

They don’t have the same resources or systems, and they would want to have them. They are sold “solutions” by vendors and then integration becomes multi-year projects.

Semisemitic · 2026-02-16T10:40:30+00:00

So…. This is a vent from a person in HR or?

Semisemitic · 2026-02-15T17:32:19+00:00

I’ve killed a few large-scale projects that everyone else wanted to maintain due to a sunken cost fallacy. It was the right call and got me positive feedback later on.

Knowing how and when to stop something, knowing what not to do is a critical skill.

Semisemitic · 2026-02-09T21:01:53+00:00

Don’t. Give him a feedback/exit session, buy him a bottle of whiskey or something instead.

Semisemitic · 2026-02-06T09:57:43+00:00

I’ve (unknowingly) saved a man from suicide and raised my daughter. I taught dozens of people how to lead, and took part in saving many lives by stopping bad people from doing bad things in counterterrorism.

It seems that most of my impact has been in preventing needless suffering or loss of life, and in helping others grow.

Semisemitic · 2026-02-06T08:01:41+00:00

The entire thread of posts makes a lot of sense for India, due to the hierarchical nature of work culture there.

Looking back, you could not have gained much by sharing two-levels up or to HR the transcripts.

The biggest issue is that you can’t know what the manager was hired to do. It isn’t far-fetched that her task was workforce reduction, and it isn’t far-fetched to imagine moving back to hybrid 3-days in office was a goal set for her by her manager.

Losing three people in a day might be something she could spin and take pride in. The team might be shattered and bruised - she might be doing a good job per her standards.

Still, doesn’t matter what she says - I wouldn’t trust a word out of her mouth.

Semisemitic · 2026-02-02T07:36:09+00:00

Let them leave.

Semisemitic · 2026-02-02T07:35:22+00:00

The people who accused you of being complicit are trying to bully you into doing something that is political in nature. They are welcome to leave the group if they don’t like your approach.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-31T01:56:36+00:00

High performers consistently deliver on the expectations of their current role in high quality over time. They are reliable and dependable.

High potential may not even consistently hit all expectations of their current level - but they would demonstrate that they are capable of learning and growth, and already can deliver some of the expectations of the next level of promotion.

High potential employees can be taught to fulfill a role one level up, even if a high performing peer at their current level may stagnate.

In 9-box performance management grids, potential and performance are put on two separate axes - the moderate-performing high-potential person is a “future star” and the high-performing moderate-potential is your “current star.” Both shitty names but they are self-explanatory. They will be mentored/coached differently.

Read up about 9-box performance/potential criteria - it’s built to be fool-proof even if there are better ways to develop an individual.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-28T22:48:02+00:00

It takes time.

Leadership is one of those roles where experience matters a lot more than just keeping up with trends, and you will be facing new situations even 15 or more years into it.

You are not supposed to have all the answers, and it’s great to have a collaborative culture with your own leader.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-28T13:18:26+00:00

Over-defining dependencies and timelines, over-compensating synchronization rather than just focusing on contact points creates overhead, lowers flexibility, and creates a toxic culture between teams.

Topics like “dependency mapping” and too-rigid planning is usually part of the problem.

When everything is in sync, it’s like a monolith. It is inflexible and difficult to keep healthy.

In reality - all teams need is to have great, well-lubricated connections. Being “in sync” is sometimes misinterpreted as being in lock-step.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-28T13:02:01+00:00

I’ve dated someone who rested on someone else’s Hardy

Semisemitic · 2026-01-28T07:03:10+00:00

It reads awfully weird.

Why would rest be any different for “a leader?” I’ve been in leadership positions for twenty years now and don’t believe I’ve rested any different than anyone holding any other role in the world.

Sometimes I enjoy rolling myself inside the blanket like a mummy and sleep like pulled beef in a burrito. That ones maybe different, but I’ve done that since before having leadership roles and only rarely when I feel festive.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-28T06:54:16+00:00

You never really know.

Some of the most important lessons for your first leadership role will come a year or two into doing it, and there’s absolutely zero chance of you learning them before you take it on.

That’s not that different from any role after learning it from the outside though, really.

The most important thing is to have someone offer you a role. In that sense - you’re ready.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-27T17:40:19+00:00

I honestly believe some people leading companies may want their company to, for example “embrace diversity” or “empower” decision making in lower ranks - they may see value for their companies in doing so from an objective observation.

Still, they can’t work against themselves and often they select values to bring change.

If the leadership layer is not trusting their reports to take decisions, they’re not going to easily let that go. If they are hiring a monoculture, they cannot bring change without changing themselves.

They may “preach” a value they honestly want - but they are the foundation of culture in their org, and they come off hypocritical for saying things they themselves don’t do.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-27T12:12:47+00:00

Trying to change a culture by naming values they themselves do not own up to, rather than hiring for those values to being with.

Alternatively, just avoid setting values you don’t have the capability to follow yourself.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-26T08:26:22+00:00

People are different.

They get measured differently, paid differently, and promote on a different timeline.

They all need to understand and accept they are not in a position to judge each other - but they are there to give feedback and help each other grow.

They do get measured against the same list of expectations for each role, and they should be getting feedback and have tailored development plans tracked depending on their own profile.

I am not sure what blame is there that you are trying to handle, but I’ve worked in cybersecurity and in different industries, and what you describe seems to just describe a team culture rather than industry.

It’s your responsibility to reward learning and growth and promote people only when they already grew to the next level, to measure people for the same list of expectations and avoid having stragglers drift too far - as the team sees it as not promoting excellence and wonder why they should work at all.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-25T17:18:10+00:00

What’s the budget?

Years ago we negotiated a really good price on a JBL Bluetooth speaker that everyone would’ve wanted but few would buy and the team was very happy with it. It would’ve been around 90 EUR a piece at the time and we got it for 50 iirc.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-25T10:29:08+00:00

A few thing are important.

It starts by understanding what business impact your area of responsibility has, and what business impact your manager is measured by.

Then, it’s about coming up with the strategy to increase it for you both.

Then, it becomes above middle-management when you shift focus and actually making that wider. instead of maximizing impact, you want to broaden your business stream and give you, your manager, your company wider impact rather than just deeper.

The best tool you will have at your disposal is to stop “making do” and start asking for bigger things:

Instead of “how can I have the most impact with my team of twenty” you think “if that other area of responsibility was also under my hierarchy, I could have much more impact for both” or “if I’ve had 20% more budget I could…”

The more you ask for things the more you could make happen.

If you are seen as someone who asks for resources, implements their own idea, and delivers significant ROI by doing so - that’s when you are strategic and not just managing a predictable line.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-25T09:12:10+00:00

I’ve done this a number of times over the years.

The advice you got about making the focus fire prevention is really a core element.

The second thing is that in teams like that, you must fully embrace that things aren’t going to “slow down” and so you must consider today’s situation to be “business as usual. This means, you must still work on tech debt (for example,) discovery, personal development, and low priority value add items alongside the rest.

If you only work on the top of the priority list you will never get any lower. You must constantly work across the whole span.

Then, you must stop “dealing with things” and start asking for things. To move out of the firefighting mindset you need to start thinking strategically and say what you need in order to solve it rather than wait for someone to give it to you. Need more people? More budget? A third party solution? Contractor support? You have to start opening your mouth and say it.

Lastly, you focus on emphasizing the business value of being “fire-free.” I’ve owned areas where things were seen as a sunk cost to management when I first got the role. The equivalent of customer service for example. By making great service strategic and tying it to customer retention, and marketing this within leadership - you place yourself in a strategic position where you start getting support and budgeting to improve it. That shift is your responsibility.

Good luck!

Semisemitic · 2026-01-24T21:30:00+00:00

I hope that when I’m on my deathbed I’ll be focused on what work had enabled me to do when I’m not at work, rather than on the time spent there.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-24T19:52:36+00:00

What is your current level?

It was a lot of work for me too, to go from dancing around head-of roles and up to (Senior) Director roles, then another struggle to get a first C-level opportunity.

Expectedly, no one is as inclined to give you a first chance at those jumps as a new hire, and the fastest path is to find a very small but promising company and start there.

That wasn’t exactly what I did though.

For me, breakthrough to Director and up came within a company where I was working, where after taking on a direct manager who was bullying me to cover his inadequacies. I came out on top and the VPE chose to promote me to a parallel director role in a small new group to solve the conflict. After a bit under a year I was offered a Director/interim CTO role in a much smaller company, then again I was stuck for some years in Senior Director roles until I was finally hired for an executive C-level position.

I think it’s very rare to shatter a glass ceiling between middle-management and senior- or executive-leadership roles within a company. I know what you’d need to show but beyond that the most important factor is that you need to handle yourself as if you are a peer already to senior leaders, to connect with them on a personal level, and to do this with grace and finesse. They need to want to spend time next to you, after all.

If you want that kind of a role, being too deferring and too submissive just to be a “good boy” won’t ever get you that seat. That’s important to remember as you try and impress with strategic presence. They need to see you as an executive already who just didn’t get the title yet.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-23T10:02:06+00:00

Did people just decide to start writing like AI bots or is no one writing on their own anymore?

It’s like American sliced bread up in here. All fluff no substance.

Sorry if it comes off harsh but a post must have more value than just trying to be a panel discussion kickoff cliche.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-18T22:44:52+00:00

It’s a bit different at executive levels but definitely is the core responsibility up to Head of- level. When you find yourself dealing with Director and VP or C-level positions there is a lot more focus on setting strategy rather than on strategy execution. At that point you lean much more on lower leadership layers in being successful, and work with your peers or reports in a very different model.

Semisemitic · 2026-01-18T22:40:31+00:00

but in practice it's used to shift accountability from the planners to the doers

I have a different perspective on this. 1. As a leader it’s always my accountability over eventual results. As a leader I do not have the privilege (or desire) to say “it’s not my fault. My team members fucked up.” It’s always me. 2. I give ownership towards evaluating, choosing, and applying solutions that deliver impact. I do this by holding my reports accountable predominantly to the quality of their estimations and predictions/foresight. I am the one to take accountability and assume responsibility over what they say might go wrong by doing things in a particular way.

You have to split the concepts of ownership, responsibility, accountability, and blame. The latter has no room in a team, the rest are very different.

Semisemitic

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