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> Ownership Mindset Every company I've worked at hammers the "ownership" idea and I hate it so much. It's how they drive a culture where employees are expected

> Ownership Mindset Every company I've worked at hammers the "ownership" idea and I hate it so much. It's how they drive a culture where employees are expected to invest themselves into "owning" a problem space that can be taken from them at any moment. It's how they trick you into doing extra work that's not in your job description. Unless you're ACTUALLY an owner, don't be fooled by an "ownership" value.

arcticbunny 5mo ago
You need to take the mercenary mindset and look after You Inc. first
saganus 5mo ago
Conversely, you have "full ownership" and have the ability to decide the direction, as long as it's the same direction as your higher-ups have decided. All the responsibility is still yours though.
- Trasmatta 5mo ago
  Yeah that's the rub. You have the responsibility for the thing you "own" but not true choice or control. Responsibility without authority. It sucks.
- zelphirkalt 5mo ago
  All the talk about higher-ups taking the big paychecks for "carrying so much responsibility" is in most cases just complete horseradish. When something goes wrong or doesn't run well, suddenly none of the higher-ups are taking the responsibility. Hmmmm it's strange, innit?
  - wiseowise 5mo ago
    They carry the responsibility of collecting the paycheck. Stop complaining, there’s another night incident – no sleep for you today.
trhway 5mo ago
Owner is the one who gets the added value assigned to. At least according to the Das Kapital. So the check is easy - do you see the added value flowing onto your account or not.
kajman 5mo ago
"Speed with quality" combined with that says a lot. Sounds to me like it will be the base expectation that their remaining developers slop out features in record time. Any failures will be theirs to "own" personally.
- zelphirkalt 5mo ago
  "And that ownership will of course automatically mean that they will work extra hard to ensure quality! Man, what a great idea! Yo, why we didn't think of that before?!" One must really wonder, if they ever try to hear themselves talking or read their own prose. Maybe they do, but simply don't care at all?
j-bos 5mo ago
I read this and often think, yes, yes we know, but then I hear juniors at work taking these ideas at face value without considering things like stock splitting and preferred shares.
crote 5mo ago
Ownership implies both accountability and agency. In practice you often get all of the accountability, none of the agency.
- mapontosevenths 5mo ago
  I almost lost a job once because I explained to the boss that only a fool would accept responsibility without authority. The part I'd missed was that as middle management he didnt have any real authority himself... you live and you learn I guess.
  - wiseowise 5mo ago
    > I almost lost a job once How? Did the bozo get butthurt over being exposed?
- lorecore 5mo ago
  Ownership means just that, owning the company. The people pushing to place additional burden on workers are the actual owners (the investors and C level execs). Quite the hubris to create a fake class of "ownership" that only extends to taking responsibility and being held accountable but carries none of the benefits of actual ownership.
seanp2k2 5mo ago
Another term for it is "accountability laundering" https://fortune.com/2026/03/05/mobile-world-congress-accountability-laundering-meta-openclaw-letter-from-london/ https://fortune.com/2026/03/05/mobile-world-congress-account... It's the norm at Big Tech these days. Directors and VPs take all the glory if it goes well while ICs, team leads, and people managers get all of the blame if it doesn't. When the charlatans get exposed, they bounce on to the next company with their charlatan friends. Rinse and repeat while swapping RSUs for index funds, retire with >$10m before 50. If we stopped allowing this to work in our industry, it wouldn't be such a common thing. Unfortunately, with how everything is these days, these people are getting hired on vibes and bravado.
geodel 5mo ago
Heh, tell me about it. This "ownership" thing is some Grade A bullshit. I see at workplace, all the autonomy on deciding any part of technical solution is taken away but on the other hand I have to take ownership of all consequences of their half-assed decisions. I think same group of management consultants do a round of industry and in short time every company is using same duplicitous language of ownership, design thinking, customer first mindset, cloud first, cloud native, AI native, enterprise 2.0...and on and on it goes.

arcticbunny 5mo ago

You need to take the mercenary mindset and look after You Inc. first

saganus 5mo ago

Conversely, you have "full ownership" and have the ability to decide the direction, as long as it's the same direction as your higher-ups have decided. All the responsibility is still yours though.

Trasmatta 5mo ago
Yeah that's the rub. You have the responsibility for the thing you "own" but not true choice or control. Responsibility without authority. It sucks.
zelphirkalt 5mo ago
All the talk about higher-ups taking the big paychecks for "carrying so much responsibility" is in most cases just complete horseradish. When something goes wrong or doesn't run well, suddenly none of the higher-ups are taking the responsibility. Hmmmm it's strange, innit?
- wiseowise 5mo ago
  They carry the responsibility of collecting the paycheck. Stop complaining, there’s another night incident – no sleep for you today.

trhway 5mo ago

Owner is the one who gets the added value assigned to. At least according to the Das Kapital. So the check is easy - do you see the added value flowing onto your account or not.

kajman 5mo ago

"Speed with quality" combined with that says a lot. Sounds to me like it will be the base expectation that their remaining developers slop out features in record time. Any failures will be theirs to "own" personally.

zelphirkalt 5mo ago
"And that ownership will of course automatically mean that they will work extra hard to ensure quality! Man, what a great idea! Yo, why we didn't think of that before?!" One must really wonder, if they ever try to hear themselves talking or read their own prose. Maybe they do, but simply don't care at all?

j-bos 5mo ago

I read this and often think, yes, yes we know, but then I hear juniors at work taking these ideas at face value without considering things like stock splitting and preferred shares.

crote 5mo ago

Ownership implies both accountability and agency. In practice you often get all of the accountability, none of the agency.

mapontosevenths 5mo ago
I almost lost a job once because I explained to the boss that only a fool would accept responsibility without authority. The part I'd missed was that as middle management he didnt have any real authority himself... you live and you learn I guess.
- wiseowise 5mo ago
  > I almost lost a job once How? Did the bozo get butthurt over being exposed?
lorecore 5mo ago
Ownership means just that, owning the company. The people pushing to place additional burden on workers are the actual owners (the investors and C level execs). Quite the hubris to create a fake class of "ownership" that only extends to taking responsibility and being held accountable but carries none of the benefits of actual ownership.

seanp2k2 5mo ago

Another term for it is "accountability laundering" https://fortune.com/2026/03/05/mobile-world-congress-accountability-laundering-meta-openclaw-letter-from-london/ https://fortune.com/2026/03/05/mobile-world-congress-account... It's the norm at Big Tech these days. Directors and VPs take all the glory if it goes well while ICs, team leads, and people managers get all of the blame if it doesn't. When the charlatans get exposed, they bounce on to the next company with their charlatan friends. Rinse and repeat while swapping RSUs for index funds, retire with >$10m before 50. If we stopped allowing this to work in our industry, it wouldn't be such a common thing. Unfortunately, with how everything is these days, these people are getting hired on vibes and bravado.

geodel 5mo ago

Heh, tell me about it. This "ownership" thing is some Grade A bullshit. I see at workplace, all the autonomy on deciding any part of technical solution is taken away but on the other hand I have to take ownership of all consequences of their half-assed decisions. I think same group of management consultants do a round of industry and in short time every company is using same duplicitous language of ownership, design thinking, customer first mindset, cloud first, cloud native, AI native, enterprise 2.0...and on and on it goes.