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This phenomenon shows how culture and norms perpetuate in societies and companies. And it's notable that it does not originate with senseless malice in the the

This phenomenon shows how culture and norms perpetuate in societies and companies. And it's notable that it does not originate with senseless malice in the the actors' behavior, but with rational self-preservation. In company culture, this phenomenon plays out because new entrants would likely hit the same institutional walls, encounter the same defeat, then get disenchanted and leave. The preemptive conditioning is a tool others use in good faith to help a new entrant set realistic expectations, and focus their energy somewhere where it has a higher likelihood of success. The parallels to the Peters Principle are interesting. It can be controversial to flag phenomenon certain phenomena as self-fulfilling, but there's tautological comfort in declaring everyone's at their current job because they haven't left yet. The Peters Principle explains that by supposing that promotions to management roles tend to be based on performance in non-management roles from which skills don't necessarily transfer, and middling managers no longer get promoted further; this one is about group behavior tends towards further conformity, as disruptors are pacified by others or get frustrated and depart. Over time, the survivors of the group will tend to be more similar than different.

DanielBMarkham 8y ago
Because I've seen a lot of orgs of all sizes, people sometimes ask what happens to stress levels as the org grows? In fiction, big companies are high-risk, high-drama affairs. Not so much. In reality, very quickly the stress almost completely disappears. Instead of there being a bunch of things to stress over, there become a very few -- they're mostly hidden. As soon as you grow to even 20 or 30 people, members of the group start actively doing all they can to reduce stress. As you already know, the people who tell you that it's never going to work aren't your enemy, and they really want it fixed. They're doing their best to make your job productive and happy. I worked in a very well-known financial firm once that had just gone through several rounds of lay-offs. It was one of the most encouraging places I've seen. Whatever was suggested, people loved it. They didn't change what they were doing, but they weren't about to try things they "knew" weren't going to work, so they offered effusive praise and found good places to hide. Big companies may do cruel and inhumane things to their employees, but it's most always out of kindness, not malice. The operative rule is "no drama" -- which can many times mean "don't rock the boat". The two get conflated quite a bit.

DanielBMarkham 8y ago

Because I've seen a lot of orgs of all sizes, people sometimes ask what happens to stress levels as the org grows? In fiction, big companies are high-risk, high-drama affairs. Not so much. In reality, very quickly the stress almost completely disappears. Instead of there being a bunch of things to stress over, there become a very few -- they're mostly hidden. As soon as you grow to even 20 or 30 people, members of the group start actively doing all they can to reduce stress. As you already know, the people who tell you that it's never going to work aren't your enemy, and they really want it fixed. They're doing their best to make your job productive and happy. I worked in a very well-known financial firm once that had just gone through several rounds of lay-offs. It was one of the most encouraging places I've seen. Whatever was suggested, people loved it. They didn't change what they were doing, but they weren't about to try things they "knew" weren't going to work, so they offered effusive praise and found good places to hide. Big companies may do cruel and inhumane things to their employees, but it's most always out of kindness, not malice. The operative rule is "no drama" -- which can many times mean "don't rock the boat". The two get conflated quite a bit.