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The leadership churn you mention is very real. The joke at Google even when I worked there (2017) was every few months you'd get an email saying your manager's

by cletus 4y ago

The leadership churn you mention is very real. The joke at Google even when I worked there (2017) was every few months you'd get an email saying your manager's manager's manager's manager now reports to a new manager. You didn't know nor had ever met any of these people. I have a theory about this: middle management likes churn because it makes you immune to the consequences of their actions. You can't fail if none of your decisions are permanent and you constantly shift responsibilities. That's not an accident. It's by design. My experience at Google was this was a huge problem. Sorry you were let go.

itsdrewmiller 4y ago
>71. Now you see this at work with mistakes. You can make mistakes in the work you do and not suffer any consequences. For instance, I could negotiate a contract that might have a phrase that would trigger considerable harm to the company in the event of the occurrence of some set of circumstances. The chances are that no one would ever know. But if something did happen and the company got into trouble, and I had moved on from that job to another, it would never be traced to me. The problem would be that of the guy who presently has responsibility. And it would be his headache. There’s no tracking system in the corporation. Some managers argue that outrunning mistakes is the real meaning of “being on the fast track,” the real key to managerial success. The same lawyer continues: In fact, one way of looking at success patterns in the corporation is that the people who are in high positions have never been in one place long enough for their problems to catch up with them. They outrun their mistakes. That’s why to be successful in a business organization, you have to move quickly. (Location 2013) https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/quotes-from-moral-mazes/ https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/quotes-from-moral-ma...
- shostack 4y ago
  Am I the only one shocked their commercial legal contract systems had zero way to trace that back, even with track changes from an old contract version with their name or approval logged somewhere?
  - sowbug 4y ago
    It's less about forensics and more that the statute of limitations, so to speak, has run. What's the point in holding some regional director responsible for something that happened four levels and two teams ago? (It's a rhetorical question.)
    - pintxo 4y ago
      Probably a moral hazard problem: we could track it, but why would we? As we all used that very same system to move up the corporate ladder.

by cletus 4y ago

itsdrewmiller 4y ago

>71. Now you see this at work with mistakes. You can make mistakes in the work you do and not suffer any consequences. For instance, I could negotiate a contract that might have a phrase that would trigger considerable harm to the company in the event of the occurrence of some set of circumstances. The chances are that no one would ever know. But if something did happen and the company got into trouble, and I had moved on from that job to another, it would never be traced to me. The problem would be that of the guy who presently has responsibility. And it would be his headache. There’s no tracking system in the corporation. Some managers argue that outrunning mistakes is the real meaning of “being on the fast track,” the real key to managerial success. The same lawyer continues: In fact, one way of looking at success patterns in the corporation is that the people who are in high positions have never been in one place long enough for their problems to catch up with them. They outrun their mistakes. That’s why to be successful in a business organization, you have to move quickly. (Location 2013) https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/quotes-from-moral-mazes/ https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/quotes-from-moral-ma...

shostack 4y ago
Am I the only one shocked their commercial legal contract systems had zero way to trace that back, even with track changes from an old contract version with their name or approval logged somewhere?
- sowbug 4y ago
  It's less about forensics and more that the statute of limitations, so to speak, has run. What's the point in holding some regional director responsible for something that happened four levels and two teams ago? (It's a rhetorical question.)
  - pintxo 4y ago
    Probably a moral hazard problem: we could track it, but why would we? As we all used that very same system to move up the corporate ladder.