Although working for family-owned businesses run by their owners has some advantages, the biggest challenge is that no one can challenge the owners’ decisions. What AJ says goes. nobody can say no.
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AJ and her A0's who have been here forever, where A0's friends and families thrive at the cost of true merit, godspeed
@b5 no, it is Abby calling the shots on this one.
@ax “wise up” is funny because you’d have to be profoundly unwise to think Abby Johnson personally invented RTO while half of corporate America was already rolling it out.
But according to that logic, JPMorgan, Amazon, Goldman, Apple, Disney etc were all just patiently awaiting her divine revelation before discovering the concept of office work.
It’s fair to criticize RTO — plenty of people do, for good reasons — none of which have anything to do with “family ownership” dynamics. Her cousins aren’t on the phone from Nantucket moving the cheese and orchestrating cubicle policy.
What’s not really productive is reducing it to “one CEO decided and nobody could stop her.” That flattens a multi-company, industry-wide shift into a cartoon villain story. These decisions come from overlapping pressures across business: cost structures, real estate, labor markets, and a broader post-2020 normalization across corporate America.
Who Moved My Cheese? Except in YOUR version the cousins apparently moved it, and also control every Fortune 500 workplace policy from their fancy salt boxes
@ax I doubt it's her. It's the level below that has been calling for it for 4 years. She got tired of hearing about it.
Its not a battle she would want to fight with her directs who probably blame hybrid remote for all their problems. The L1s are hard for her to replace since AJ works on trust, not competency. I guess we'll see if the problems go away once everyone if forced to RTO. Their current bonus wouldnt be effected since RTO would have no impact on this year end. Next year they will say, it's only been a year, give us more time. The year after that, they will blame the 2 in box operating model. You get the picture. There is always a boogeyman for these guys to blame for whatever the issue is. The problem is everything else, but not their excellent leadership. Our sanity just got sacrificed in their stupid game.
@a6 return to office is her idea that nobody could challenge
Wise up
@OP respectfully I find this take to be tired old and misinformed. In what context are you envisioning AJ having such a direct my way or the highway type of approach? And who hypothetically would be “challenging” her?
This isn’t a small family business just because you recognize a few last names in the org chart…. Honestly i only know of 1 that is alive! The other family members drive completely different companies in real estate and other sectors that you have NEVER heard of.
Who are you hearing that have “challenged” AJ’s position? YOU MUST NOT FIRE THE SCRUM MASTERS ABBY! Seriously what do you think that looks like, i am curious because i hear this argument so much. Its baseless!
“Family Owned” what do you mean by that definition? Do you mean that it is not publicly traded? Or do you think they are having secret board meetings over thanksgiving and pickleball. It’s not a fencing/pool company in rural NH with a stubborn daughter that has a chip on her shoulder.. Fido has 7 trillion AUM…..
What AJ says goes, so OF COURSE she is just terribly biased against “agile” right? AJ hates scrum masters!?! Omg someone call the police Abby hates squad leads. Get a grip