Firing an entry-level developer? In this economy? Are you crazy?
Startup founders seem to love calling themselves "CEOs". Working for a one-dollar salary during rough times is something that real CEOs actually sometimes do.
Or, to be more realistic, a 30k salary. It's completely workable for anyone without kids, and is likely quite a bit below what other employees are paid.
I agree with the main point. Any "CEO" who lays off workers without first cutting his or her own salary down to the bare minimum is clearly not doing what's best for his or her company.
Heh, or here's a better option- if there absolutely must be cuts, first offer the employees that would be cut the ability to move to a cheaper country and telecommute and an equivalent salary, adjusted for cost of living.
I don't think that's a fair comparison. Those "real CEOs" generally have a high net worth to begin with, something that's not true of (I would guess) most startup founders.
Hey: they asked to be the CEO. They're the ones who walk away with a 7 figure payoff when the company sells for $5MM. They get 100x the payoff of a developer because they accepted the risk.
Is it hard to live on $1 a year? Well, it's not harder than living on $0 a year. But OK: how many of the Valley Layoff Heroes even took a pay cut down to sustenance wage? Note: normally when people do that, they tell everyone --- it's a morale boost.
How hard it is to live on $1/year clearly depends on how much money you have in the bank, or other resources you might have. In absence of that (or if your net worth is actually negative--say, you have a lot of student loans), then it's just not possible to work without a salary.
You could do some consulting on the side, I suppose, but that would defeat the point of having employees. And as an employee, you're probably better off finding a job somewhere else than working at a company where the CEO has to spend part of his time working on something else just to get by.
Almost invariably those CEOs who take $1 a year have high net worth, plus lots of stock options. However it's reasonable (and even common) for CEOs to take pay cuts in hard times. I've heard of companies that when they implement pay cuts, top managers take larger percentage cuts than lower level employees.
I agree with this and I don't know why it's getting modded down. I can understand the CEO taking a huge pay cut, but how is one supposed to live off of $1/year without any other source of income?
Startup founders seem to love calling themselves "CEOs". Working for a one-dollar salary during rough times is something that real CEOs actually sometimes do.