Panera founder says employees today aren't motivated by the idea of making money for shareholders: 'Nobody cares'

"No employee ever wakes up and says, 'I'm so excited. I made another penny a share today for Panera's shareholders,'" Shaich told Business Insider in an interview. "Nobody cares. You don't care whether your CEO comes or goes."

In case people read the title and not the article.

Yea. This headline is rage bait trash.

Wild idea... pay your employees in shares if you want them to act like shareholders...

Yeah - we don’t care about making money for rich people when we can’t afford to both eat and pay our bills. Hell, we’re starting to not be able to do even one of those things. Pay us enough for us to live comfortably and we’ll start caring about your next fucking yacht.

Oddly enough, I think most people aren't motivated by the idea of making bucket loads of money for other people while they see barely a drop of it.

Maybe if you paid people better, they'd be better motivated to make you money.

As the saying goes, minimum wage = minimum effort

Hmm... Have you tried motivating them with that stuff that motivates the shareholders? I think it's called..... Money?

Curiously, the interview fails to address making money for employees.

Wait, I thought this was an onion headline.

"So much of what running a business is about is figuring out 'how do I connect with people?'" Shaich told BI. "What motivates them, and how do I help them decide to affiliate with what the mission of the enterprise is?"

Money! Seriously, I don't want to connect with my CEO. Maybe a pizza party is just what I need

What world do they live in where they expect people to be motivated to make money for someone else with no benefit to themselves?
We can't even motivate people to be charitable towards those who actually need it.

I can't believe such an obvious statement is making news. Therapists may belong in the c-suite, but perhaps the massive salary disparities are the problem. Perhaps.

Maybe CEOs should do some fundraising for their poor shareholders. The ice bucket one worked so why couldn't a day old baguette up the ass challenge work as well?

Correct.

That would be an accurate statement.

You want to make me care about the company? Show that the company cares about me.

Would gladly whore out my services to a competitor for more money/benefits/time/wfh. Fuck you.

The workers should unionize and really show him how much they care.

Why the fuck do I care about shareholders when I'm typing to survive. My primary effort is for me not some rich fool. Hell all my work is just to benefit someone else much better off.

When is it for me and my future? I'm never paying for Panera again.

I confess, the rage bait got me. What a garbage article.

All these shareholders want is us to give up salary so that they can get more, so...

What a nonsense article. Shareholders have never motivated workers in any way, so this is like saying, "Water is wet." Then they quote some Tiktok crap?

Companies catering to shareholder whims and the demand for perpetual share value growth are the reasons why many companies go to shit when eventually that growth comes from layoffs, worse work conditions etc.

Pay your workers fair wages, offer a good work/life balance and keep them happy to work for you and they will go above and beyond.

Glad he gets it.

For people like this, money isn't a resource that they need to survive, it's just a way of keeping score.

It's like playing an idle game - you tweak the various settings and resources to get the most gain, and your reward is watching the numbers go up.

They're no more connected to the numbers themselves than someone sitting at their computer playing Realm Grinder.

Good to see that at least one ceo understands that concept.

The overall article feels like a blog post in effort and quality of content.

At least one founder and former CEO agrees that the idea of boosting shareholders' returns isn't likely to be a key motivator to workers these days.

I love how the number is so low they only managed to find one fucking founder/former CEO that acknowledges it.

(Panera's former CEO) Shaich said that he believed a key part of good management is connecting with and understanding employees and that he is a big proponent of therapy.

Ah yes, I see that your minimum wage is affecting your mental health. Here, go to therapy. Not during work hours, obviously. And we ain't paying it.

"I always say that therapists belong in the C-suite," Shaich wrote in his book, "Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations."

My man, if your company needs a therapist and none of the jobs involve dealing with heavy stuff (crimes, abuse, jail, etc), then the company is a hellhole. If "therapists belongs in the C-suite", then your company must be the ultimate source of evil.

This is the power of propaganda. Not even the CEO cares about making money for shareholders. They care because it makes them more money.

But corporations will pay money to "think tanks" who provide "studies" that show people are really motivated by pizza parties. Then they publish those "studies" in industry magazines, newsletters, etc. Then the widestream media picks it up and reports it as truth. Other companies like what it says and start to parrot it.

And then we have conversations about it like there is ANY validity to it at all. We shouldn't even be talking about this.

Not the onion material here lmao

How out of touch is this asshole?