Don't believe this line of crap. Employment is a popularity contest. You need to be popular to climb the ladder. Literally turning your back on the room and ref

Don't believe this line of crap. Employment is a popularity contest. You need to be popular to climb the ladder. Literally turning your back on the room and refusing to go to meetings makes you unpopular. It's true that your popularity among your superiors is the most important popularity, but popularity among your peers is also important; if you can't get the respect of your subordinates you won't be an effective manager. People will work to undercut you. In 99% of cases, you won't get their respect if they think you don't like them. In aggregate, peoples' behaviors are very predictable. Before every action, ask if this kind of thing would endear a toddler to you or not. If it would, it's a good thing to do. If it wouldn't, it's going to be an uphill battle and you'll have to do many toddler-approved things to undo the damage. This is why you should bring donuts for the office every week; toddlers love getting edible treats, and so do grownups. Make sure everyone knows you're the one who brought them, without looking like you're making sure everyone knows that you're the one who brought them. This will make people like you more. Turn your desk around and start going to all their meetings. Say supportive and encouraging things. Make irrelevant broad, philosophical statements, literally stuff you'd find on motivation posters. You'll get popular fast. If you care about your career, you must realize that your actual job is only ~20% of what you're paid for. You're really paid to be likeable and charming, someone that everyone wants to keep around the office. Do whatever you have to do to keep your code limping along and then put the rest of your energy into becoming popular. You'll be promoted and tasked to hire a version of yourself that hasn't learned these lessons yet, and the cycle will continue.