I agree that you should choose family, but I disagree that it’s nonsense. It’s a simple tradeoff of money/success versus what actually matters. Assuming there isn’t some win-win compromise being overlooked.

Usually there’s no free lunch. But focus on the important stuff in life, you’ll be happier and have fewer regrets.

I am surprised those lines were in there. The point could have easily been made without an anecdote about the author recommending to fire an employee who is taking care of their family. Seems needlessly cruel and detracts from the message.

> the author recommending to fire an employee who is taking care of their family

Not sure why they need to be fired versus put on different comp and maybe asked to vacate the VP of Sales role.

Being an exec is choice to commit an exorbitant amount of your time/energy on your job. You can always settle for an easier/lower paying job. You don't see the president complaining the job is stressful.

But your payback is enormously larger.

...sometimes.

> Seems needlessly cruel and detracts from the message.

I'm not so sure. I mean, yes it's needlessly cruel, but that's the message that I get from a lot of people who subscribe to hustle culture. You are worth the value of your output plus nepotism minus your comp. People with families are ghosts, don't talk to them.

You are absolutely right, that’s what makes it a difficult conversation.

It’s not motivational hustle crap though - that CEO must make a decision around allocating resources there.

Some positions require a full time employee. I'm sure many of the employees have families, and you're putting them all at risk if you allow a critical full time position to work half time. That isn't hustle culture.

Commuting 4 days a week to NYC is not half time. (Presumably those 4 days are spent working ~12-16h.)

Lol. 2 days a week is not half time (presumably those 2 days are spent working ~20h)

> commuting to NY four days a week

How on earth do people do this? This is 3 hours of flight time each way 4 days a week...do they do something like fly 6am-9am, work 10am-5pm, fly 6pm-9pm, then do it all again the next day (this is also giving woefully small buffer times)? Or am I misunderstanding? Sounds awful.

Usually it means one round trip a week

Fly in Monday morning and back Thursday evening.

Oh I see, it was just worded kind of awkwardly. Thanks for clarifying.

This doesn’t even strike me as a good example. In management consulting, flying out to a customer site from Monday to Thursday is the norm. I’ve heard plenty of criticism about McKinsey. I’ve never heard anyone say they don’t work hard.

In fact, that way of life might mean you work more hours if anything. If you live in Miami and work four days a week in NYC, you are likely working very long days. You are not near your friends or family or your chores… that could be four days devoted exclusively to work, say 12-14 hours a day, followed by a Friday working remotely. I can see why a salesperson might need to be in person 4 days a week. But I have a hard time imagining that five days is necessary. VP of Sales has plenty of administrative work to do, and many meetings can be over the phone anyway.

To call this employee “half time” is insane.

> IMO there’s always a way to do both. If there really isn’t, choose family.

Huh, this choosing family is a kind of luxury not everyone can afford. Otherwise we would not have mass migration of working people across cities, states, countries and continents leaving families behind. Unless of course they are all stupid enough to not know the value of family.