Brian Niccol, newly-appointed CEO of Starbucks, is under fire after implying he’ll ‘super-commute’ from Newport Beach to Seattle.
Niccol is a resident of Newport Beach, California, but the Starbucks HQ is in Seattle, which is around 1,000 miles up north.
Niccol is apparently planning to use his private jet to commute to work, almost daily, and these days private jet use is frowned upon due to concerns about the environment.
It all sounds very logical and reasonable, if the world was reasonable and logical, which it isn’t.
This is how the American system, whether we like it or not, works.
There are four things to point out here.
One, CEOs of public companies are paid obscene salaries. Niccol will earn a base salary of $1.6 million, but he’ll up to his ankles in things like stock options, so realistically he’s looking at seven figures a month.
Two, CEOs of public companies like Starbucks are NOT paid to make better products, they’re paid ‘to maximise shareholder value’.
Now, obviously, you do need a good product for your stock value to go up. These things go together, but one does not automatically include the other. And his job, his focus, is on stock value, not coffee.
Three, I’m 100 percent in favour of remote work, chiefly because I am a remote worker, but I’m not the CEO of Starbucks. The CEO of Starbucks should obviously spend his time at the HQ, in my view.
BUT, if he’s allowed to work remotely, why shouldn’t he?
And four, private jets. I’m so tired of hearing people complain about private jets. Flying is the fastest way to get from A to B when A to B are far away, and if somebody is rich enough, they can fly private and reduce their travel time even further.
We may not like it, but what’s the alternative? Banning private jets? I bet some people would say we should do that.
But those are probably the same people that say we should ban private vehicles altogether. And then what next? Homes? Where does it end? The truth is, if you think like that, it never ends.
A comedian I used to adore when I was younger recently said showering once a day and washing your clothes is a waste.
I don’t adore him anymore. In fact I think he might be an idiot, because that’s clearly an incredibly stupid thing to say.
Generally speaking I always roll my eyes when people say they want to ‘ban’ stuff.
This is because… have you noticed how people generally want to ban things they don’t like or can’t get?
The image for this story was created using Perplexity
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