>6 years ago, a COO once told me, "Employees are donkeys. You use a carrot and stick. If they weren't donkeys they'd be running their own business."

A COO is an Employee too. Therefore he is a Donkey as well :)

A COO is an "officer-employee", distinct from a regular unqualified "employee."

So you are saying a COO is an officer-Donkey? :)

But to go back to the parent post, what the COO said "If they weren't donkeys they'd be running their own business."

Maybe some COOs run small businesses they started where they call the all shots. But most big company COOs have a lot of obligations and have a different carrot and stick for the C-Suite. And a lot of them didn't start the business where they became the COO. So, yes, still Donkeys.

The COO never said they weren't a donkey

For context, it was a talk on HR policies. He retired at 40 after investing in real estate, then went back to work running companies, but was no longer solely motivated by compensation or the threat of being fired.

He did call managers "donkeys with sticks", though. Just because they manage, as long as their motivation is solely tied to compensation, they're still no better.

It's donkeys all the way down.

> It seemed like such stuck up, pretentious 'advice' at the time

Because it is pretentious and stuck-up.

Any non-trivial endeavor requires humans working together as a group to achieve it. Reducing the humanity of the group you're working with to "donkeys" is horrifying, and the best executives are the ones who understand - and respect - their people.

If I weren't a donkey, then I wouldn't even be working in the first place let alone running a business.

> 6 years ago, a COO once told me, "Employees are donkeys. You use a carrot and stick. If they weren't donkeys they'd be running their own business."

I don't want to run my own business because I want to be able to drift along and switch off after work. If I did run my own business then it would be better than anybody with this attitude.