this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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This smells like the dictator phenomenon where the dictator is surrounded by yes-men because everyone fears retaliation.
Somebody had to have known but was too afraid for their job to speak up. I've been in this situation where it's better to just pretend you don't know about the problem than to raise the flag even if it's better for the overall organizations.
I remember being on a big call. The VP of manufacturing asked if anyone thought there were any issues or obstacles with the plan going forward. I had major reservations but kept silent because fuck all that noise. I'm not gonna be the one to speak up on a call like that. Amazingly, a breath of fresh air spoke up and said as much. That no one would speak up in a meeting like that with all those people on the line. So the VP revised his open question and said if we wanted to email him our concerns we could do that. I did just that. Still not a damn thing happened and they still went forward with their shitty decisions and I left not too long after. But for a brief shining moment, I spoke up. I was ignored. But I spoke up.
Whenever I raise concerns about production after being explicitly asked to do so, they are always downplayed and promptly ignored. No matter who asks. Product managers, bosses.. Why even ask? It's like they expect that there is nothing to worry about and it's some sort of rethorical question aimed for us to collectively smell their assess.
This stance always bites us in the ass not long after production starts in ways I and others have predicted, and always generates much bigger costs than if the errors wouldn't have been produced in the first place.
It really makes me think they are trained to do so on purpose. Maybe starting those fires makes them less likely to get fired, since somebody had to put them out? Maybe it's easier to get a raise for swift crisis management using solutions that were proposed even before the fire started? No idea.
There usually is an unhealthy amount of "their small minds can't comprehend the brilliance of my plan" involved certainly at the top of the pyramid. It's the status that makes them feel better than the rest.
They're also being incentivized to ignore small fires. Their boss will berate then for putting people on the small stuff (little fires) for no immediate gains and endangering the Holy Deadline. Of course the normal reaction is to ignore issues until it becomes a big problem on short term and then solve it.
There are many idiotic inefficiencies with the incentives in corporations but almost everything is run this way so it mostly evens out.
I'm very secure in my current job and paid fairly well. So I do not mind speaking up, even in front of a bunch of execs. But I'm also not management, so it's not my job to follow through on the fixes I've proposed. It's a liberating situation.
As a worker bee I’ve never really benefited from speaking up. At best, nothing happens. It feels like there’s only the potential for retaliation or blowback. Why risk it? Not my pig, not my farm. It’s not like I’m gonna get promoted. I’ll do what I’m paid to do but generally I keep my opinions to myself.
Being the squeaky wheel never works out well. You'll almost always face retaliation of some kind. I've always just quietly interviewed elsewhere and moved on down the road to a better position.