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I find it interesting when organizations use the 'few bad apples'analogy for this kind of thing. The full statement is 'A few bad apples spoil the barrel' - wh
by fossuser 9y ago
I find it interesting when organizations use the 'few bad apples'analogy for this kind of thing.
The full statement is 'A few bad apples spoil the barrel' - which comes from the concept that a rotting apple lets off ethylene gas which will cause the apples surrounding it to also turn.
This is probably a better analogy than intended for the companies that incorrectly use it since bad behavior spreads like a corrupting influence through an organization and fixing it would really require larger changes than just getting rid of a couple people.
- kowdermeister 9y agoSpot on. Looks like the few bad apples are the leaders who created such a system that incentivized employees to mess with customer accounts.
- SomeStupidPoint 9y agoThere's also the delightful expression: "A fish rots from the head down." I'm deeply skeptical of the claim that you can have a few thousand instances of "rot" without there being somewhere higher in the company it's being spread from. If 1% of the company is "rotting", then something in leadership is "rotting".
- mtgx 9y agoWhen you have a thousands of "rotten apples" it's clearly a systemic problem.
- kbutler 9y agoThe intent of the saying is encouraging you to identify and remove bad apples, so they don't spoil the rest. The analogy is apt, but the question is identifying the bad apples - and asking if those on top are the bad apples spoiling the barrel.