"Other functions would do well to bring the same kind of focus on enabling productivity, happiness, and autonomy to their workers. In fact, CTOs-turned-CEOs I know tend to be some of the most kind, creative, and abundance-minded leaders I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. They have an inherent understanding on the importance of culture and making people feel valued."
OP gave you valuable feedback on how your point is not getting across. Should you edit, or should you lol and snark is a personal choice for you to make. But OP is just trying to help you.
As I originally responded to you, if your goal was to convey that everyone should treat their employees well then that didn't come through for me. Frankly, writing about how spoiled and naive people are and how the time for wasteful fun is at an end is a weird structure if your intended point was that this is a good thing we need more of.
> The structured abuse makes the short blips of "I'm trying to help you" feel hollow and tacked on in response to someone's feedback on an early draft.
The point is that engineering leaders (not ICs, but leadership responsible for communicating their teams' success) need to be actively shaping this narrative. And to do that, they need to be aware of the negative stereotypes and pre-existing perceptions that are there already. You can't just walk in and demand better treatment, you need to understand how you're perceived, read the room, and structure your strategy accordingly. Other CXOs all do this - they know that they are working against stereotypes and norms so they actively structure their narrative to help reflect what's actually happening (ex: marketing execs tend to de-emphasize the creative parts of their job, because they don't want to be seen as profligate spenders who throw money around for vague concepts like "awareness").
As much as it might hurt to confront the fact that some people have the wrong idea about you, it's your literal job as an executive.
And if you're an IC, you should be demanding this of your tech leaders. THEM neglecting this could cost YOU your job.
