I may be unusual but I've always found it prudent to ask my CEO about things like rate of corporate growth, funding and customer revenue generation, M&A, etc.
Because if I am a vesting or fully-vested employee, then that's my own future at stake. The 401(k) can be dwarfed by many times by a successful stock worth millions, or, in a badly run or positioned company, the stock could be worthless underwater paper shares and I become dependent exclusively on the 401(k) for my sunset days.
The financial literacy of many workers is low though. They don't understand what options are or what it means to really be a shareholder.
When I was at Cisco — I'm talking in the 1990s — we used to describe what we called "stockholder angry." This was when a fully-vested employee heard a VP or above talking about some idea so stupid it would literally cost the company a penny per share or more. That's when the old dogs would get "stockholder angry" and propose alternatives, or ask people to stop ideas that were retrograde for the sake of the company's valuation. Because we knew what a penny per share meant to each of us.
I believe it is valuable for employees at all levels to be able to know the state of their company's health, and then, with an informed mind, be able to voice their opinion on the fate of their organizations.
Definitely agree. In my role it effects my day to day work (sales cure all, etc). And it's definitely a little different when folks have stock. I mostly work in an industry where the average employee has no stock or options. They may be curious, but they don't really ask many questions unless there has been a sizable culture of that. Otherwise, it's like talking money is bad manners.
Options and the various schemes can be confusing. What's worse to me is many people in middle manager type roles that run a department/unit, are responsible for a budget, they can not read a basic income statement. They don't know how or what levers move the needle or in which direction. Some are very good, but many are very, very bad given their level of responsibility I've seen. I've been in many meetings even in my days as a junior analyst explaining to seasoned executives how volume doesn't cure an issue with unit economics. Separating out variable costs and explaining that if you can't cover those, you'll never cover the fixed costs... Those types of things. It's job security for me, but still shockingly common.
Because if I am a vesting or fully-vested employee, then that's my own future at stake. The 401(k) can be dwarfed by many times by a successful stock worth millions, or, in a badly run or positioned company, the stock could be worthless underwater paper shares and I become dependent exclusively on the 401(k) for my sunset days.
The financial literacy of many workers is low though. They don't understand what options are or what it means to really be a shareholder.
When I was at Cisco — I'm talking in the 1990s — we used to describe what we called "stockholder angry." This was when a fully-vested employee heard a VP or above talking about some idea so stupid it would literally cost the company a penny per share or more. That's when the old dogs would get "stockholder angry" and propose alternatives, or ask people to stop ideas that were retrograde for the sake of the company's valuation. Because we knew what a penny per share meant to each of us.
I believe it is valuable for employees at all levels to be able to know the state of their company's health, and then, with an informed mind, be able to voice their opinion on the fate of their organizations.