Why the billionaire succession is so difficult

Welcome back to the Working It newsletter. We took a few weeks off to retool and redesign, so it’s a pleasure and a privilege to be back in your inboxes every Wednesday.

Today we’re also launching a new section, Office Therapy, to help you solve thorny workplace problems. I’ll give you some unvarnished advice: no HR hoaxes or “best case scenarios” here. As a veteran operator in the (very) dark arts of media workplace dynamics, I know what solutions work in reality, rather than in your dreams.

Contact us: Please send your podcast and newsletter ideas and any criticism (praise is also welcome) to isabel.berwick@ft.com. Or DM me confidentially on LinkedIn.

From Royal to Roy: when the succession is all in the family 🤴

Stamina is high, supermarkets are full of cheap booze and crowds camp out in central London. The time has finally come for the coronation of the new king, the 74-year-old Charles III.

Meanwhile, the C-suite’s favorite show, Successionis accelerating towards its final feature film, as Logan Roy’s sons maneuver to be crowned head of their late father’s media empire.

At the time of writing, I feel a certain degree of uncertainty, both about the coronation and about the TV series. The Westminster Abbey ceremony is ancient, but I was spooked after a famous astrologer told me in a podcast interview (sadly not broadcast) that it’s happening at an extremely inauspicious planetary moment: Mercury is retrograde, which can cause personal chaos, professional and national life. (In the Waystar Royco firmament, chaos already reigns.)

Since King Charles was guaranteed to land the best job before his younger siblings, those who prefer conflict in billionaire succession tales may want to read the spicy new Vanity Fair profile 👀 by Rupert Murdoch, 92 years old.

Why do the heads of so many family businesses seem so bad at planning, let alone enabling, leadership transition? My take, after years of sniping from the fringes of the populace, is that they are so isolated from life – and surrounded by spineless “yes” people – that they believe that mortality is for the remaining 99.99%.

I’m right? In part, says Margaret Heffernan, CEO, entrepreneur and author, who has written about leaders’ succession plans (or lack thereof) in the FT recently. He agrees with me that the ultra-wealthy might indeed be trying to overcome mortality, but adds that there are real ways they, in fact, aren’t like ordinary humans.

“While ordinary people might approach retirement thinking ‘I can finally do all those things I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t had time for’, these people have nothing they’ve always wanted to do. Either they did (marry supermodels etc.) or they forgot that other aspects of life provide nourishment.

Family businesses have their own unique challenges. “There is no mental separation between family and business,” Margaret says. I’ve never noticed this before – no wonder the dynamics are often so extreme. She continues: “Very often the women in the family act as Chief Emotion Officers, making everyone happy. Once they’re out of the picture (divorce or death), familiar emotions that were once strengths become toxic. Oh.

Queen Elizabeth II was an absolute master of tact and ego management. I’m mildly concerned for a family (and nation) now led by a man who is visibly incensed by malfunctioning pens.

What is your experience? Are family businesses really that different? Let me know what you think.

Office therapy

The problem: My boss is well respected and “famous” in our specialized line of business. Internally they are a nightmare – they take credit for other people’s work, they monitor, control us and make unreasonable demands at all hours.

I am a 40 year old female and have just taken a job elsewhere in the same industry. I’m relieved, but also angry. Should I walk away without saying how bad it is – and thus preserve my position with Mighty Chief – or satisfy my need to be honest? It is a consultancy business and there is no formal exit interview. I would make my exit statement, via email, to the (useless) HR person.

isabel says: I would like nothing more than to advise you to tell the truth. This empowering course of action will be what your friends tell you to do, probably from too much wine. I did it myself: “Go for it. Be true to your values. You will feel better about yourself afterwards. Etc.

Of course you shouldn’t do anything like that. Your values ​​are intact and you are showing courage by walking away. We’ve all seen those “goodbye” emails that go viral with “F**K YOU BOSS” spelled out by the first letter of every sentence. I’m not suggesting that you would ever go to this extreme, tantalizing as that sounds, but anything less than a flamboyant goodbye will leave a bad taste in your mouth, forever.

The dopaminergic/adrenal high from speaking your mind (see also: drunk texting) will soon wear off and be overcome by your boss finding out immediately. Their vitriol will be eternal.

Instead, set up an undercover operation. Meet your favorite colleagues, one-on-one, not as a group, and explain to them why you’re leaving. No zoom. Leave no electronic trace of these conversations. Offer to be a sounding board once you’re on the other side and use your net to help them escape. If this somehow gets back to the boss and they confront you? Deny it. There is no evidence. (And that’s unlikely to happen, since everyone hates the boss.)

If other key staff members leave the company, it would be your best revenge: in a small professional world like yours, playing the long game works.

Have a question, problem, or dilemma for Office Therapy? Think you have better advice for our reader? Email me: isabel.berwick@ft.com. We anonymize everything. Your boss, colleague or subordinates will never know.

This week on the Working It podcast

🎧 We have a special Collaboration Money Clinic x Working It episode, in the best tradition of all the coolest brands. It’s an edited version of a live streamed financial advice session I hosted with my wonderful colleague, FT Money Clinic host Claer Barrett, in collaboration with FT Flic, the financial literacy and inclusion campaign. We were talking about the themes of money and career in your new book, What they don’t teach you about money.

5 top stories from the world of work:

1. Pandemic Graduates Struggle With Teamwork: Deloitte and PwC, two of the Big Four consulting firms, are training new hires on teamwork and communication skills. It appears that losing face-to-face contact during lockdowns has made it harder for young people to adjust to work environments.

2. The Enduring Popularity of Psychological Testing: FT director Anjli Raval took a test to see if she was a match for a major consultancy firm. Almost everyone uses these tests, especially when taking on senior roles. How accurate are they?

3. How to spot company rot: Lots of practical advice from my colleagues Andrew Hill and Emma Jacobs to help leaders and boards root out dysfunctional and harmful individuals and practices that could land an organization in the headlines.

4. The best ways to be a super schmoozer: Networking is back, big time, but most of us got rusty on small talk over the long years of Zoom, so the FT’s Pilita Clark offers a short and very entertaining guide to working the room. Reader comments also offer many additional suggestions.

5. The tech sector flattens by removing middle managers: Predictably, though short-sighted, middle manager jobs have been cut in large numbers in recent tech layoffs, reports the FT’s Hannah Murphy.

Another thing: I just binge all eight episodes of A very British cult, a BBC podcast. It’s an investigation into Lighthouse, which bills itself as a life coaching and business mentoring operation, but instead takes control of the members’ lives, demands all their money, and drives them to disown “toxic” family and friends. It is terrifying proof of how a single charismatic leader can suck sensitive people into a dependent, downward spiral.

Where do I work from. . .

We love seeing photos of your desks and views from your workstations, from all over the world. Keep sending them to isabel.berwick@ft.com, with a note about why you enjoy working there, and we’ll post our favorites.

My desk is a mess (as is my bedroom situation WFH) but this is the view as the sun sets over London. Not bad for a very urban sky 😍

*This story has been updated to correct the quote from Henry IV Part II