TSB, RBS and Sage chiefs challenge employees to beat the boss, but are some taking it too far?
Of course, City A.M. has nothing but praise for brave bosses who abseil, run and cycle alongside their staff for charitable causes, but are some getting too into the competition?
The Capitalist has had growing concerns in recent weeks, after seeing three separate bosses goading employees into beating their fun run times.
First to raise an eyebrow was TSB boss Paul Pester, who urged his employees to “beat the boss” when he ran in the AJ Bell London Triathlon in August.
Pester, who had been training since April, coined the hashtag #BeatTheBoss on Twitter to get momentum going and rewarded any employee who could beat his race time of 78 minutes. Just one employee pipped him to the post.
Next there was RBS boss Ross McEwan, who took part in a cycling marathon across the country last week with fellow bank workers and challenged staff to beat his 1km sprint time of 1:33. Starting to see a pattern here?
And now, Sage’s chief Stephen Kelly is rallying troops at the software company to beat his time at the Great North Run.
Kelly, who plans to tackle the northern road race next week is leading the largest team to have ever been entered with 200 runners, and has set a “beat the CEO” challenge, pledging to give £2 per minute to any Team Sage runner who beats his time in the race.
Ok guys, we get it; you’re the big boss and you can take on the world.