CEOs Who Invite Email From All Employees

Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Cinergy Corp. CEO James E. Rogers, who at 11 one evening was reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka, is the norm, not the exception at major U.S. companies, the Wall Street Journal reports. 'Advocates say such a policy is a powerful leadership tool that can nip crises in the bud, boost morale, uncover new ideas, and cut through corporate red tape. In the post-Enron era of CEO accountability, reading employee email helps the boss appear hands-on and accessible. But reading and replying to dozens of employee messages each day takes time that could be spent doing something else. Skeptics say the practice distracts CEOs from more-pressing work -- and extends already long workdays.' Of course, portable email devices have made it easier to sift through dozens or hundreds of employee messages each day. While being driven to meetings, Pfizer's CEO says, 'I don't look out the window. I use my BlackBerry and answer my email.'"

D'oh!

[rovingeyes]

Pfizer's CEO says, 'I don't look out the window. I use my BlackBerry and answer my email.'"

Uh oh, he is screwed [slashdot.org]

Only Eleven?

[Anonymous Coward]

If he's only 11 why is he sitting at home drinking vodka????

Listen to employees? Yeah right!

[RubberDogBone]

That's why they have flunkies to do: listen to the employees, put their comments in the circular file, and make sure to record a bad mark for the next annual review.

"Too ambitious. Emailed C*O about a new process that would cut costs and save the company."

Irony

[gowen]

Pfizer's CEO says, 'I don't look out the window. I use my BlackBerry and answer my email.'"

Most of the time his replies read: "Funnily enough, I can get actual Viagra for the price you're selling fake C1AL1S. I'm the CEO of f**king Pfizer, you morons."

is there anything Alcohol can't help?

[toupsie]

"Cinergy Corp. CEO James E. Rogers, who at 11 one evening was reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka, is the norm, not the exception at major U.S. companies, the Wall Street Journal reports. 'Advocates say such a policy is a powerful leadership tool that can nip crises in the bud, boost morale, uncover new ideas, and cut through corporate red tape.

Who knew that drinking vodka could nip crises in the bud, boost morale, uncover new ideas and cut through corporate red tape. I always thought Bourbon [jimbeam.com] was a better choice for that. Guess its Bloody Marys for me!

Maybe he should lay off the Vodka...

[MikeDataLink]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CIN&d=t [yahoo.com] based on the Stock Reports he should drink a little less (or maybe more!!!). ;) He's down .69 today already.

You have no idea how business really works

[Rogerborg]

First you tell your driver to take you to your mistresses' apartment, then when you're good and ready you tell him to take you to the office.

Re:it's more self-aggrandizing egotistical behavio

[cnelzie]

That sucks.

    Hopefully, you poorly documented some of that application so that when/if they ever need to make changes to it, they will have no choice, but to hunt you down.

    Then you can stick it to them by charging them 6 times your previous salary to "fix" the program or make the needed updates to it and while you are there, if that CEO is still there, you can send him an email advising him of the "savings" the cost-cutting of letting you go has done for the company he is running...

I wonder why...

[frank_adrian314159]

... while nursing a vodka...

Why? Was it sick?

No! It was just a down in the mouth!

Thank you folks! I'll be here all week! Try the veal!

Filtering could do wonders

[Gallvs]

But reading and replying to dozens of employee messages each day takes time that could be spent doing something else. Skeptics say the practice distracts CEOs from more-pressing work

Well, just use this procmail recipe to filter 90% of messages out:

:0
* ^From.*mycompany.com
* ^Subject.*raise
/dev/null

Justify the $$

[Red Flayer]

""Cinergy Corp. CEO James E. Rogers, who at 11 one evening was reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka, is the norm, not the exception at major U.S. companies, the Wall Street Journal reports."

Well, first, it's about time someone makes a big stink about all the long hours that justify the ever-growing disparity between executives' and workers' salaries. I was beginning to feel like the Joe Sixpacks at the plant were beginning to resent my Rolls Royce. Thanks for sticking up for us, Rogers!

OTOH, why is Rogers allowed to drink while managing employee relations? Last time I tried that, I got slapped with a lawsuit for breach of due diligence, among other things. I mean, sure, I wasn't exactly nursing the vodka so much as slamming it, and the employee relations were more in the nature of physical contact, not email, but really... Some shareholder should call his lawyer.

so it's okay to drink on the job???

[woodsrunner]

I'd like to see those emails... they were probably like most late night alcoholic inspirations -- really great until the booze wore off.

Re:Good idea

[moviepig.com]

...Only really imporant issues/crises should be sent to him.

Maybe the other employees should be able to mod each other's eMails up and down. Hey, wait...

Be careful if you email while drinking...

[bytesmythe]

Cinergy Corp. CEO James E. Rogers, who at 11 one evening was reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka...

After drinking for a solid hour, he started sending pathetic messages to former employees about how sorry he is they couldn't stay together and how he hopes they aren't bitter and if so then too bad because, hey, *HE'S* the one who dumped *THEM* and if they can't handle that then f*ck off, but maybe he can get together with them some weekend for a little "fun" sometime.

He then passed out at the keyboard in a puddle of drool.

Uhuumm

[dorkygeek]

reading employee email helps the boss appear hands-on and accessible

Which proves: we should all give the mailserver passwords to our bosses. Uh oh, wait a minute, he only reads the mails sent to him explicitely?! Sorry, misread that article again...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:CEO is the norm ?

[jd]

No, the headline is correct. The norm is for CEOs to behave like 11 year olds and to drink while on the clock.

Re:Red Dot / Green Dot

[Anonymous Coward]

For some reason, everytime I email a C*O it turns out to be a "Resume Generating Event"

Here's a tip: Next time, try starting your e-mail with something other than "Dear Dumbfuck".

So...

[idlake]

who at 11 one evening was reading email from employees at home while nursing a vodka

So, one wonders: had those E-mails actually been sent to him, or was he just spying on their mailboxes?

Re:Maybe he should lay off the Vodka...

[Duhavid]

You need to find out when the interview was conducted. Maybe last night
was a no vodka night for him, and that is why the stock is down. Maybe
he needs more, not less.

I propose a full study. Grouped by types of alcohol and amounts, measured
against the company stock price.

Re:Only Eleven?

[digitalgimpus]

good, so I'm not the only one who read that twice. /never good at inglish //spells like a unedumucated person

Re:Our CEO?

[BewireNomali]

lol, I temped once at this company, and a lot of the entry level/temp/freelance guys went outside to work on a freshly rolled fattie. This was also at a Christmas party.

The CEO stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. He inhaled deeply, closed his eyes for a moment, and looked at us. By this time, the joint was hidden out of sight.

He looked at me and said, "so are you going to pass that or what?" I sheepishly passed it, and he hogged it while shooting the shit with us. It was never discussed; but we were appalled.

About a week later, he sent me an email asking me if I could get him more of that stuff. It was weird.

GWB's mailbox

[Hoi Polloi]

God - Cease and Desist notice
Amazon.com - Your order ("The Baby-sitters Club") has been shipped
FCC - Revised naughty word list for your approval (added "bottom")
New Orleans - HELP!
CIA - Update: Still looking for WMDs
Disney Corp. - Re: Extending copyrights to "end of time"
Tom DeLay - Master, why have you forsaken me?
Osama Bin Laden - Nyaah Nyaah!
Southern Baptists - Correction, Earth is only 500 years old (not 5000)
Satan - As per our agreement
Iraq - LAST NOTICE: You still owe $50,000,000,000
God - I did NOT tell you to bomb ANYONE!
RNC - Shuttle trips for doners? What do you think?

On an entertaining note...

[HerculesMO]

And please excuuuuuuse me for being a bit sardonic in my wit, I was just joking around.

The Tyco CEO (Dennis Kozlowski) went to where I graduated, Seton Hall University. He donated millions there and has a building named after him (at least I think he still does). He came to my school about 3 weeks before charges were brought up against him to give a speech, one I was required to attend by my Business Law class.

The topic? "Business Ethics on a Global Scale"

And even more entertaining? That's the THIRD building our school has named after a convicted criminal. I think we have a record or something...

Re:Irony

[Anonymous Coward]

It informed us that it was the funniest comment he's seen in a while, and judging by the moderation, people agree.