CEO's return to office plan is upended by CTO when CEO refuses to follow their own rules: 'Guess who wasn't there? Yeah, the CEO'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jul 22, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

"Rules for me but not for thee" has never been more accurate than when it comes to dealing with a C-suite executive pushing an aggressive return-to-office (RTO) policy, consisting of rules and values that they deem themself to not be a part of. If there's any leadership that will inspire loyalty, it's leading from the front, and policies that you yourself don't want to follow is not the way to do this. When you're just running a corporate entity, there are not many excuses for being an armchair general. It's not like there's any real risk involved—not like there would have been if you were riding into battle or venturing out into the unknown world.

This organization's work-from-home policy was pretty relaxed for the pre-pandemic era, becoming increasingly so as mandatory working from home dragged on. This tech worker even packed up and moved to another city, taking advantage of their new freedom. The company did the same, hiring workers from out of the city and well away from the office at a lower rate.

When the world began to return to normal, and employers began returning to their more traditional policies, it suddenly became trendy for executives everywhere to instate return-to-office plans. Kind of in a "monkey see, monkey do" sort of way.

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  • This organization was no different, with the company's new CEO seeking to follow the trend and get the entire team to work from the office, pushing it as an important initiative and harassing the tech team to work from the office more often. Well, the new policy was going to be less flexible than things were previously, and there's one thing workers hate most: it's watching flexible working arrangements going backward. Things escalated, culminating with the CTO stepping in and throwing his weight on this team.

  • 01
    "Guess who wasn't there? Yeah, the CEO."
    via Christina
  • 02
    CEO wants return to office, CTO plays it perfect MOC I work for a spanish company, it's been like 7-8 years and we know each other pretty well. I've known, and worked with, the CTO for like 10 years now. He's a cool guy that wants stuff done. Even before 2020, the WFH (work from home) policy was extremely relaxed (you do you and have things done by the time we need it, we're OK) so when the pandemic came, the transition was as easy as it could get.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 03
    In fact, as a company and, specially on the tech team, we embraced the opportunity and started hiring people from outside the city for a cheaper salary than in the city but, for the people, a higher salary than the one they could get without moving into the city. I even moved out of the city during that time. Since CTO didn't want to be a sales guy, the company hired a CEO in 2021, an englishman that came highly recommended and was stationed in his rural house in the English countryside. Looked
    via u/mdlapla
  • 04
    Once the pandemic ended, he started pushing rather heavily for a return to office (RTO) for everyone. He made polls, lengthy emails to everyone about how this fostered relationships and whatnot. He got really pushy, even complaining to CTO about it. So every time he came to Spain, people that lived around the city would go to the office just to be there so CEO was happy. And then, one time, CTO decided that he had enough about the whole RTO mandate and CEO complaining.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 05
    So, on a random meeting of the tech team, CTO said "ok, next tuesday, I want everyone on the office, if you live far away, book a train, drive, whatever you have to do, I'll pay, but be here." And so we did. That tuesday every single one of the tech team, including people that took a 2 or 3 hour trip to get there, was in the office. Guess who wasn't there? Yeah, the CEO.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 06
    So, CTO took a picture, emailed it to CEO saying something along the lines of "if you can't lead by example, don't push my people to do things that don't work" and we went to have a relaxing lunch and beers type of day. Aftermath: RTO mandate never came to fruition, CEO was out of the company a year later, we closed the office since everyone works 100% of the time from home, and, to his dismay, CTO is now CTO and acting CEO and things are going smoothly.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 07
    TLDR: WFH CEO tries to have everyone RTO, CTO arranges a day to have everyone in the office and asks CEO why he isn't there, so CEO stops complaining about RTO.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 08
    PN_Guin 12 hr. ago Interesting twist on compliance by forcing everyone to comply (once), to out the only one that didn't (the ceo). • HuibertJan 10 hr. ago You could say it was.. complionce.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 09
    Attygalle 10 hr. ago We got a new manager around the end of 2020 - pandemic in full swing, everybody WFH. The manager lived more than 2 hours from the office but was adamant that once the pandemic was over, he would be in the office every week. Fast forward to early 2022 (I guess? Not sure about exact timelines) and all restrictions were gone in our country. Guess who didn't show up in the office? Our new manager. So what, you might think. Guess who was pushing every other team member to go to t
    via u/mdlapla
  • 10
    You get it, the exact same manager who didn't come to the office. He either was an Academy Award winning actor or just really that thick, because people called him out on it and he simply played as if he didn't understand it at all. "I live more than two hours away, my situation is different!" Total clown.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 11
    masterspeler · 10 hr. ago we embraced the opportunity and started hiring people from outside the city for a cheaper salary than in the city but, for the people, a higher salary than the one they could get without moving into the city. I even moved out of the city during that time. Did you get to keep your city salary, or was it adjusted to match your fellow non city colleagues'?
    via u/mdlapla
  • 12
    The RacoonNinja 10 hr. ago The best people to put in positions of power are the ones that don't want it.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 13
    Rancid HorseJizz . 9 hr. ago The CTO was already the CEO; he was just in denial.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 14
    Dubai_Donkey · 11 hr. ago · edited 11 hr. ago you don't explain why the CEO didn't come... If the Owner is asking everyone to be there what was his excuse? mdlapla OP 11 hr. ago. oh, there was no excuse, he worked every single day from that little house on the prairie. He made the trip once every two months or so but tried to push us to be at the office every single day.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 15
    So the CTO didn't even asked him to go to the office, as a way of saying: "don't ask my guys to be at the office everyday while you can WFH everyday"
    via u/mdlapla
  • 16
    Experience-Agreeable 7 hr. ago Man, I will always remember the bosses at my job during Covid denying most people. their wfh request. My boss moved to Hawaii and worked from home while the rest of us had to come in.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 17
    HODOROO 9 hr. ago I will say this to my death. Wfh is a management issue. If you are a bad manager it will become very apparent in a wfh situation. This is why so many bad managers are pushing rto. Because they only know how to do things a certain way. mdlapla OP 9 hr. ago Yeah, and one of the main management skills to have when your team is WFH is understanding that not everybody is valid in this type of setting. Not everybody is good working
    via u/mdlapla
  • 18
    from home. Part of the challenge of WFH is having a good team and nurturing relations even if you don't see those guys everyday. But you do end up talking to them everyday anyway.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 19
    • _TiberiusPrime_ · 7 hr. ago Something similar happened at my company when the higher ups wanted people to come in. We all had to come in at least 3 times a week, etc., etc., etc. Two months into it people noticed that those who made these demands weren't coming in, but the new CEO was. New CEO sent out an email saying those that haven't averaged 3 days up to that point were coming in a full 5 days, no exceptions. This was last year. Higher ups are still coming in all 5 days for this year.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 20
    Octogenarian · 10 hr. ago This only works where the CTO actually has more power than the CEO. Otherwise, that CTO is fired. Unique_Bumblebee_894. 9 hr. ago CEO can't just fire another C suite executive. That's up to the board and chairman, and I doubt the CEO was a chairman based on the story.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 21
    Keter_GT 9 hr. ago Yea, a chief with almost a decade at the company is going to have more value then another who just came and is already up costing the company money.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 22
    doctortre 5 hr. ago . My favourite is the "our performance metrics are way down, we have to come into the office 2 days a week to fix it!" "Which performance metrics? I want to know so I can track my teams progress towards them" "no, just come into the office."
    via u/mdlapla
  • 23
    Three months later "Our performance has been outstanding, we have exceeded all metrics, all because of our return to the office policy, therefore we are bumping up to 3 days per week!"
    via u/mdlapla
  • 24
    terminalzero 5 hr. ago to his dismay, CTO is now...acting CEO just like presidents and kings, the only people qualified for the job are the ones that don't want it
    via u/mdlapla
  • 25
    ThatGuyFromTheMovie 7 hr. ago Rules for thee, but not for me. That's all these types of people want. Control.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 26
    litterbin_recidivist · 8 hr. ago • Yeah. I feel this. My director who I've never seen or met won't allow blanket work from home, but my immediate manager will approve (even retroactively) any request we make. I work in a remote office and don't even have a supervisor within 100 miles.
    via u/mdlapla
  • 27
    Steve Dougson . 5 hr. ago Okay, I've read all the replies and I'm left wondering if any of you have considered how this will impact the value of the office buildings in my portfolio? If I have to lower rents any further, I am going to have to pick up one of those jobs where they make you go into an office, just to pay down my second home. Please keep that in mind when you think about 100% WFH
    via u/mdlapla

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