> That said, there is a level of seniority at which "their problem" is "your problem.”
I’ve long decided that unless I have the significant stock options to show for it it’s delusional. It’s what the company wants you to think: to have all the emotional investment and none of the actual ownership benefits.
One can debate the title/comp level where this change happens but, certainly, at some executive level it's reasonable to expect to be contacted off-hours if there's some customer/PR/facility/etc. crisis. That's not to say an exec can never be out of touch; a friend told me that their former CEO had a new communications head quit because they couldn't deal with said CEO telling them that they should just deal with PR issues if he was on vacation.But, above a certain level, traveling on the weekend, being away nights, late night calls, and yes the occasional "Houston, we have a problem" moment happen.
That said, there is a level of seniority at which "their problem" is "your problem." If you'd chuck the business out the door rather than getting paged a few times a year, you're not ready for that level yet. This varies by company and organization size, but fundamentally you can't (and shouldn't try to) anticipate everything up front. Sometimes you need the knowledge, judgement, or simply signing authority (literal or metaphorical) of someone specific.