Who’s asking anyone to run opinion poles? People are just offering their own opinions of the CEO’s actions. If that’s somehow not ok then it seems like you’re saying that people shouldn’t criticize CEOs.

I think you might have lost context. The comment sub thread starts with ‘[CEO lays people off but does not resign] “You’re not taking responsibility!” [CEO lays people off and does resign] “You’re shirking responsibility in order to get your bonus!”’

And the reply was similar.

My comments seem entirely appropriate in the context - which is none of this makes any difference to any CEO that is doing their job.

The context is this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36056775

Someone responded basically saying that the CEO would be criticized whatever he did. That may be true, but it obviously doesn’t entail that all such criticism is invalid. For example, Joe Biden will be criticized by someone whatever he does, but that doesn’t mean that all criticisms of Joe Biden are equally valid or that no-one should criticize him.

That was my comment you’re referring to.

I’m not saying the criticism is invalid. Rather, pointless without action/traction.

But we all have to let the hot air out somehow eh?

The attitude here does seem to be that public scrutiny of CEOs’ actions is just ‘hot air’. This is a political issue, not simply a case of back seat driving.

IMO, it’s mostly hot air because it’s confusing causes and effects and is usually blaming someone for something without taking into account the persons job/structural reasons why the decision needed to be made.

‘Boo, CEO laid off 2500 people, that’s terrible’ is pretty useless without looking at the companies TAM, market penetration, margins, etc. because laying off 2500 people may literally be less layoffs than they might need to be doing based on those factors. A company is, generally, a machine for making money as efficiently as possible, and ignoring all those factors before deciding if a decision was valid or not means someone is just complaining/blowing hot air. No one is being hired (almost anywhere I can think of) that could have a reasonable belief of keeping a job that isn’t needed, or doesn’t make sense to the company.

Which is valid. Just not necessarily useful for anyone.

If someone joins a fishing crew and then when the seasonal catch is bad complains that the captain is terrible because they got laid off/kicked off, all they’re doing is venting. Not providing anything anyone should take seriously, IMO.