Isn't part of it that Steve was able to sell people on his vision though? So it's not just that he had power in the way that a judge has power or a school principal has power— those are powerful figures that you submit to because the alternative is punishment. Rather, he had power in the way that a beloved family member has power. People wanted to please him because they had bought into what the vision was and how their piece of the puzzle fit into making it a reality.

Was there abusive stuff going on there? Absolutely! And there's almost certainly some overlap here with other cases (actress submits to famous film executive because it's part of his "creative process"), but I don't know if the current/recent reckoning would do much to prevent a small, dedicated technical team from overworking themselves and tolerating abusive management practices in service of a new charismatic, visionary leader like Jobs apparently was.

The problem is when “no abuse is acceptable” and at the same time we continue to redefine these types of terms to apply to lesser and lesser offenses.

I personally am tired of working at a firm where everyone has a voice that they’re always using.

Can you list some examples of these “lesser and lesser” offenses?

I’m a manager, I treat my employees with respect, and no one has ever complained about me abusing them. I’d like to know how “small” these claims are getting.

I can give you an example that I witnessed back when we were still in the office pre-COVID.

Someone was making copies at the copy machine. Another person made a joke comment about him running off copies of his resume. A harmless remark that's been made millions of times in thousands of offices for as long as copy machines have existed.

The next day the commenter got hauled into HR for "harassment."

That... is a very good example. Thanks for making it real.

At my last in-office role, I had employees (direct reports) give me similar comments if I happened to come into the office dressed particularly nicely. Certainly didn't feel like harassment!

When I’ve seen HR complaints in the past that seemed trivial, there was usually a history of interactions that resulted in the complaint, and the person filing has reached their limit.

That’s why HR is important - they need to determine if the complaint or history of complaints is a real issue or trivial.

I could imagine having to demo on Saturday and needing to work all day to incorporate feedback by Sunday would be called abusive, even at small startups, these days.

If that’s not something the employee agreed to up front and they aren’t compensated for it, it may very well be abuse of the employer-employee power dynamic.

Asking an employee to suddenly work all weekend when they don’t have the expectation and potentially aren’t in a situation to say no would certainly be considered an abuse of power (what if they miss their kid’s birthday).

I coach all of my employees that they own their time. I can’t ask them to work late or work more days, because I don’t own them.

It is my job as a leader to ensure that their time is protected, and I’ve pushed back on management multiple times when last minute changes were requested and my team would need to work more to fill that request. I put myself in the line of fire and say that I don’t have the capacity in my team to fulfill that without cutting work.

I ask my team to tell me if I ever overstep and they feel uncomfortable saying no when they really want to.

I also encourage all of my employees to interview outside the team/company so they know their worth and understand that they have the ability to leave if they ever feel our power dynamic is being abused and I don’t do anything to fix it.

Leaders can effectively manage teams and deliver on vision without abusing the employer-employee power dynamic. It makes leadership more difficult since you have less flexibility in the capacity of your team (capped at 40 hrs/week and can’t suddenly expand to 80 hrs/week), but it makes for better teams and happier people.