[misthop]

It's always about incentive misalignment. As an employee thinking Company first will improve the bottom line for the company. As an executive thinking company first may well eliminate me as an employee.

Why should an employee put the company interests above their own with that incentive alignment? The company should work to make the company's interests serve the individual interests of the employees

[xyzelement]

I think the idea in the article is something like - by thinking company-first you can arrive at better outcomes for yourself in the long run. It's not about self sacrifice.

Certainly all the good gains in my career happened as a consequence of achieving big things for the company, which I wouldn't have landed with me-first thinking.

[rqtwteye]

“Certainly all the good gains in my career happened as a consequence of achieving big things for the company, which I wouldn't have landed with me-first thinking.”

You did me-first. You just had situations where what was good for the company was good for you too. If you repeatedly did what was good for the company but never got anything for yourself you would probably stop. A lot of people are in a situation where what’s good for the company doesn’t give them any reward or is even negative (lose their job, more work).

[zelon88]

Contrary to that, some of my biggest achievements have been things I've done on my own for companies that the company didn't realize it needed. Things that I've done to make my job easier continue to make other people's jobs easier to this day. Nobody asked me to do those things. The business would have continued regardless. But these things I did to make my job easier have payed dividends in the long run.

[misthop]

Interesting. I think I have come out about the same but being rather self-serving, or at least not company first.. Doing something big for the company reflects well on me, improves my standing, and I can tout those achievements to others for other career growth. But I do make a point of working for companies where I think my own interests align with the role in the company

[conductr]

Not sure I follow or just have contradicting experiences. Executive's personal bottom lines are usually tied to the Company's.

The company's goals are usually a derivative of customer goals. Why are Customers not considered?

Any ways, I like being individual focused, but we all work for this Company for a reason (interest?) and so we should probably just say something like; the company goals should be such that they can be reasonably accomplished with <100% of available resources, time and efforts. Leaving time for some independent individual development. Something like what Google theoretically did with their 80/20 policy. It's up to you to figure out what the right X/Y mix is.

[lifeisstillgood]

Yes.

And may I suggest a simple method: have employees vote for executives

Incentives align naturally when there is two way feedback

[twblalock]

I suspect this would result in a lot of companies being run into the ground, as executives would focus on keeping employees happy at the cost of the business. "Vote for me, and everyone gets a raise and a bonus!"

When the interests of employees are put ahead of the success of the company, in the long run the employees end up losing because the company will fail, or at least need to lay people off.

Also, most employees simply aren't capable of understanding or judging executives more than a few levels above them. I'd hate to work somewhere where the junior devs get to pick the engineering directors, for example.

[mehphp]

You can always "vote" by leaving a company, too.

[oytis]

Businesses are not made for employees though.

[oytis]

I understand it as being about technical decisions rather than interests. Engineers are inclined to make architectural decisions that align with their idea of what is fun to do. But really fulfilling work is the one that is being used and serves the purpose.

Say I've seen a QA engineer designing an elaborate formal verification framework that took a lot of time, but failed to test anything engineers or customers cared about. Can't tell if he himself was happy with the result, but I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.