Board members aren't creating IP. That's really the only issue I can side with on the employer's side.

I've worked a full time w/ benefits job and freelanced on the side. The only aspect of that I would feel that would be unethical is if I were to mix IP from the firms that should remain private.

Otherwise, who the hell cares. If I'm doing task work and meeting expectations then I'm holding up my end of the bargain. I'm not a slave and my work does not own me. Standing around the proverbial water cooler wasting company time is acceptable, but doing something productive during my downtime is not?

Corporate boards typically meet at most once a month, and often only a few times a year for 3-4 hours. That is very different from a 40 hour a week job.

Everything you said makes it even worse. They are barely working and making many times more than full time employees.

How much knowledge, wisdom, and value did Hunter Biden add to get $40k a month from Burisma? Goes for most board members really. They are all "quiet quitters".

If that's not "stealing" but regular people actually working multiple jobs with actual deliverables in a way you couldn't even tell is,

then "stealing" is good and I will help as many to do it as possible, especially from the HN poster companies coming out and countersignaling it so hard.

One big difference is that everybody is aware and has agreed to it.

The upper class have agreed to it. Everyone else has to go along with it. Why would the majority of people with an average middling 5 figure salary agree that it’s cool people can make 5-10x+ the average income to go to a handful of board meetings?

Just because something is the status quo and it is happening without mass protests, doesn’t mean people are agreeing to it.

Whats good for the goose is good for the gander.

Too fucking bad they don't "like it". I don't give one bit of care to the centimillionaire and up club.

A centimillionaire would be on about $10k (hundredth). You want "hectomillionaire".

Oddly, that's the second time I've used that word today: talking about Rishi Sunak earlier.

The other obvious difference is they are rich and the rest of us are not.

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”

Board members are supervising operations and overseeing executives (or are supposed to - many get ‘captured’ by management depending on the company), not running them.

One thing that is REALLY helpful when supervising highly complex operations like a large corporation is knowledge of how similar operations are run at a large number of other companies

It makes it easier to identify things like pointless ‘not invented here’ syndrome, or where a company is being very inefficient in an area because they don’t know of any alternatives.

It’s common for companies to hire in outside consulting firms or independent contractors who also work for a great many companies in an industry for the exact same reason. It’s a way of keeping on top of what the industry norms are so the company doesn’t fall behind and lose competitiveness.

Plenty of pros and cons there, but that is a big part of why.

The other reason is the board of directors works for the shareholders, and represents their interests.

Institutional shareholders hold shares in a lot of different companies, and if they have someone they know , trust, and are happy with performance wise, most would prefer to have them on the boards of as many companies as they think they have the expertise to oversee.

So you are saying it is GOOD if an employee is working two jobs because they are then exposed to more solutions and actually SAVE the company because they can reuse existing knowledge other companies have taken the time to develope? I like your thinking :)

If that’s what happens, everyone is fully informed, and they mind the NDA? Sure. That’s pretty much the definition of an (actual) software engineering contractor for instance.

That’s pretty much never what happens though if someone does it when applying for a full time salary position, and line managers know it, which is why you see people get worked up about it. People doing it try to convince themselves it’s not a scam, but it almost always is.

The folks doing this on boards, despite any hate and derision they are getting here, are often exceptionally talented, educated, and have a long list of references where they have been doing it before successfully. They were voted in with full visibility to their other board memberships, and while being open about it and any potential conflicts of interest. They’re just not software engineers. I have yet to meet one that didn’t work their asses off either, just not in the way you might recognize.

There can be (and is, of course) nepotism, cronyism, etc. that happens, same as anywhere, and the shareholders who vote that in get what they deserve as well in my experience. Sometimes it’s also as simple as ‘x owns this company, and wants y to takeover when they’re gone, so y sits on the board.’. Rare in public or widely held companies though.

Ownership has it’s privileges, and it’s costs after all.

Most companies are okay with it if regular employees sit on a board, too, as long as there isn't a conflict of interest.

I’m on unpaid board member of a non-profit. May not be what people think of as board member but it’s perfectly normal. Obviously being a board member of a company in the same industry makes conflicts of interest potentially trickier

Because a board member works like 12-15 days a year if your super diligent about it, and way less if you half ass it.