I Fired Myself
blog.cto.berlin
blog.cto.berlin
> In the end, we had to let an entire department go to solve the issue.
Dropping an entire department is hard. Excising the bad employees is good in the long run, but the near term pain is a setback for the business.
One of the hardest lessons I've learned is that the most political people don't look like they're playing "politics". They might be the friendliest, most charming, most outwardly positive people you meet. The way they manipulate might be cleverly disguised as being helpful or outwardly positive.
One of the worst company politicians I dealt with had a charming way of smiling and speaking as though he was the calm voice of reason. If he wanted someone to lose status, he'd find clever ways to take them down a notch while looking like the hero.
For example, if someone was more productive or talented than he was, he would start making a lot of comments about how he was "taking extra time to mentor <person> so they have the resources they need to succeed". When his own work started falling behind, he always had a faux-humble narrative about how he spent too much time helping partner teams deliver the work he needed to complete his own tasks, even though he did nothing of the sort. Repeat this over and over again and he developed a reputation for being "too kind" and acting as the mentor for everyone, while in reality the teams were always struggling to get him to keep up. He spent a lot of time in the office rubbing elbows with execs, even though we were a remote company and he didn't even have a place to sit there. He'd often miss our meetings because he was talking to people at the office while the rest of us were working.
The politics were so obvious to me as a team member, but it blew my mind to see how well this tricks played with the management structure at the company. Management was already overworked and he was conveniently showing up to deliver them narratives and pretend to be the helpful guy. They ate it right up.
This is by far the biggest indicator to me that they're playing politics.
I am not trying to play politics though. I genuinely want to help. I am not even good at communicating.
:/
at the same time, a new CTO was chosen, and his first technical all-hands was a verbal tirade about how smart he was and how you couldn't sneak anything past him. lmao. lol. i remember thinking to myself "is this guy for fucking real???" during the meeting. yes, he was for real.
current boss was also angling for a promotion so it would have been nice little maneuver. current boss tried to get me to stay after i gave my notice but even to my 22 year old self it was clear as day the direction it was all going.
in the end they got their lunch eaten by competition within a few years and everyone there left. what a pointless exercise in stupidity. i just looked - the parent company stock has gone nowhere for 15+ years during the biggest bubble in history.
ironically the ceo was a super cool dude but younger than all of his "subordinates" and i think he just got pushed around. either way, if the org is fucking up so bad even a 22 year old can see it...
If the world is like a giant scheming court and we are trapped inside it, there is no use in trying to opt out of the game. That will only render you powerless, and powerlessness will make you miserable. Instead of struggling against the inevitable, instead of arguing and whining and feeling guilty, it is far better to excel at power. In fact, the better you are at dealing with power, the better friend, lover, husband, wife, and person you become.
EDIT: or is this the virus spreading?
There are other equally valid arguments and other people who find them reasonable.
I don't think that this cautionary statement will make much of a difference, but I completely agree.
Founders deliberately create the culture of their dreams, and don't particularly care what anyone else thinks. It's a big part of the reason they are founding the endeavor. They don't want to deal with people that they believe will deter/hobble them. The boss gets what the boss wants.
In some cases, I'm sure it's worked out well.
In others ... maybe not so much.
I've found that cultures that deliver great projects are often not "comfortable" ones. In my experience, the sickest organizations have been ones where everyone was always "on the same page," and there was little disagreement.
In organizations where everyone is trying to achieve the same broad goal, but have different ideas on how to achieve that goal, people are much more likely to propose novel ideas or changes which are healthy, and the business more readily adapts.
In organizations where people are just saying "yes" to whatever the person above them said, important information that needs to bubble up cannot, mistakes are made, people are thrown under the bus, and it becomes a toxic hellscape.
On the other hand, I've seen organizations where leaders were not "on the same page" and that lead to constant inter-department struggles. One would end up, by accident or intent, undermining another because they didn't have the same vision or strategy for getting there. Until someone up top is willing to lay down the law, being a manager in such an organization is effectively no different than being a politician.
All of a sudden, hiring anyone who wasnt very like them became difficult. Have you ever tried to hire a female for an all male company? Have you ever tried to hire a Muslim for a company that is entirely Orthodox Jewish? Sometimes you just hire who you know until you realize you've created an environment that might be very difficult to grow further.
Some people who have the final say can't stand a goat, and take any negativity about their vision as a cue to start figuring out how to get rid of that negativity. They often code that as a bad culture fit.
When I worked for a Japanese company, we were expected to voice objections and disagreements, during the deliberation process. However, after the decision was made, we were expected to close ranks, and fall in line.
I learned to do this.
I have found, when working with Americans, that voicing any objections (especially while being criminally old) would result in my being named a "negative naysayer," and all my input would be stricken from the record, and forevermore ignored.
Fun times.
[0] https://nighthawknews.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/tintin-des...
He's just rambling in the void, or did I miss something ?
that does sound like a tactical promise /s
Nope ? Politics comes from the greek "Politikos", which relate to the organization of a society (or a company in this case). You seem to put a bad behavior into a word that doesn't mean what you think.
Reading your post (I gather you are the author), you fired a whole team for "bad behavior", without explaining how you are not the problem. Maybe you aren't, but that demands explanations.
For me and for what you explained (nothing), you are the problem, and the person blaming others while faking niceness to everyone.
I wish there were more concrete problems about what specific problems were caused by playing internal politics. Sometimes I think tech people use politics as a four letter word, and it often is. Sometimes it isn't.
>"Nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure."
May the Emperor bless their souls.
Oh my goodness this is true. I’ve seen it play out myself multiple times, destroying the organization in the process. If I could filter out candidates based on this trait, all my hiring would be based on that.
* Just don't. Life is too short.
I would do it again, but only if it's to fix the second sentence above.
(Light* animal sacrifice may also be required.)
They show how to manipulate people. But not solid advice on how to do the right thing.
So, yeah... That's not what I took from that book at all. Maybe I should read it again because maybe it's not really as I remember it, since so many people seem to hate it?
While there are definitely some toxic books out there (the "## laws of power", as an example. I don't remember what the number was but it was two digits), I don't think How to Win Friends is one of them.
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