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I worked there on a contract while they were building a phone and had as many as six managers over six months. One of them would come in at 11, talk to me about
by svnt 2y ago
I worked there on a contract while they were building a phone and had as many as six managers over six months. One of them would come in at 11, talk to me about nothing until lunch, then come back after lunch, talk more, and go home. I had to come in early to get anything done.
When I was toward the end of my project and sure I wasn’t going to try to get a blue badge I laid into someone in a meeting. It wasn’t my best moment but I had absolutely had it with this person from a competing group blocking my progress. I was on my way out anyway. I wasn’t sure if I would be fired.
The manager from the competing group sought me out the next morning to offer me a L6/L7 position. He said he wasn’t sure I had what it took until that meeting.
My group manager did the same later that day.
I made the right decision leaving.
- keepamovin 2y agoThis is a great indicator of how it's often presented as collaborative or even slightly-"woke" on the outside, when in reality, advancement is cutthroat. But conducted in an cliquey/politically repressive atmosphere where everyone is afraid to act like that, but when someone has the courage to start speaking their mind, the rest look to them as the one who can save the malaise from the stagnation. I wonder how it became a culture so afraid of itself. How did Amazon (possibly no less "toxic", Idk) embarrassed combative disagreement and sublimated that natural emergent expression/desire during stressful situations into something that worked for the company, whereas Intel sounds like it failed to do that? Org psychology point of view.
- joe_the_user 2y agoHow did Amazon (possibly no less "toxic", Idk) embarrassed combative disagreement and sublimated that natural emergent expression/desire during stressful situations into something that worked for the company, whereas Intel sounds like it failed to do that? All that worked (or seemed to work) for Intel for many years - 30+ years of profits and market dominance. I don't know the exact abuse level of Amazon, Microsoft, Apple or wherever but if they're equivalent, they'll keep going 'tell they stop. The one thing toxic culture seems to do is prevent recovery when a company suffers a setback.
- keepamovin 2y agoThis is a good point. I get it probably gets ingrained, more so than a more open culture that would be open to bettering it self. My view was Intel had a good culture until external pressures resulted in turning toxic.
- joe_the_user 2y agoMy gosh you can read the posts on this thread of myself and others talking about the toxicity of Intel's culture in the 90s. If you're in doubt, I'd recommend David M. Gordon's Fat And Mean for a discussion of how toxic culture persists and intensifies in corporate America. Edit: I think can credit the long period of success Intel had to shrewd leadership and leading in a massively expanding market. The thing about a chip company is that it is constantly gambling on extremely costly investments in machinery and people. Abusive tactics that get good people working really hard for average salaries are really useful and "only come due over time" and often when the company foundering anyway.
- keepamovin 2y agoHmmm....unhappy optimum. How can we do better?
- joe_the_user 2y agoWell, clearly something other than maximizing shareholder value at all costs
- keepamovin 2y agoHow does TSMC maintain a happy culture if they have one? Do they have one?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- seec 2y agoI believe that any successful company is like that. There are always people that have a vested interest in pretending otherwise but that's just to avoid other people succeeding or to present a good front. As far as I'm concerned there is no other way to get real progress; there are always a lot of pretenses on better ways to "manage" stuff but they never work because of group dynamics and basic human behavior...
- keepamovin 2y agoSo, basically -- all stick no carrot? Or am I oversimplifying :) haha ?