WTF

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There’s some pretty fucked-up shit that goes on in the modern corporate environment. Everywhere from small ‘cool’ tech startups with ‘great’ cultures, to the Fortune 500.

But what do they all have in common?

People.

They’re all made of people. While most people are good natured and want to do what’s right, there’s a disturbing number of bad people out there. Anywhere there’s some bad people, their toxicity can spread like cancer. If those bad people are in leadership positions, they tend to attract more bad people, normalize their nonsense and create environments that are toxic and hostile.

A lot of the time it’s overt, and the good people lucky enough to be in one of those environments can spot it fairly quickly and GTFO.

However, sometimes it’s shrouded by a veneer of what seems good. It can seem like everyone is capable of making something successful, that everyone wants to do the right thing and operate with a level of ethics that at least approaches giving a fuck about the world and each other. It’s this kind of environment that can inflict as much harm as the overt, in part because the thousand cuts can go undetected…

To illustrate, let’s tell a story. Yep, a totally fictitious story. Our protagonist will be named Jay “J” and the antagonist sounds like a real mother fucker, so we’ll call him “MF.”

And so it goes, our ‘good guy’ J keeps on doing his best, which often means putting the needs of others or company before his own. Being a good guy, who values truth and ethics…. is, perhaps, the greatest weakness in Corporate America.

With the passage of time, comments & incidents come up that don’t make logical sense, like a puzzle missing a piece. There’s many things in life that are unknowable, at least in this day and age, but with matters of physics, all that can be observed with the eye has an answer. The matters than cannot be seen are easily accepted when it doesn’t have an adversarial impact on one’s life. But for a person who sacrifices so much, and to be successful is an end that justifies the means. When so much is wrapped up into into one’s fate without authentic honesty, those unanswerable questions begin to establish fault lines in the subconscious; the fuse gets lit. Since he’s still under the impression everything is hunky dory and everyone around him means well, he chalks things up to his own misunderstanding and keeps truckin’ along. Time passes and these little logic-lacking nuggets grow. The company grows, the workloads grow, the cancer spreads… the head scratchers are celebrated and the innocent white-lies morph into deceit and manipulation.

As our protagonist tries to move forward, he gives everything he has; always putting company before his own mental well-being, in front of personal relationships and physical health be damned. The frustration grows as the destination for every journey turns into brick walls.

Why does it always feel like the simple and basic needs to do what’s right for the company get blocked, or even sabotaged by the personal agendas of others? Why does it always feel like the full story is not disclosed? Why are insignificant everyday tasks being masqueraded as milestones of success? Illusions of progress being celebrated with such Pyrrhic enthusiasm; subjected to an onslaught of hollow triumphism in success-theatre.

The hairline fractures in those subconscious fault lines begin to tremor; triggers chain reactions of fission within self and identity. The moral compass and conscience stretched beyond strength. He must resolve the logical conflicts, and ask the questions, plan for what’s necessary to fulfill fiduciary duties, which sometimes bears the responsibility of the most sacrilegious sin of all: providing constructive criticism.

As important questions are asked, constructive criticism given, and the heinous act of suggesting everyone fulfill fiduciary duties, something breaks. So what does a brilliant CEO do when receiving feedback and notification of real problems, some which pose existential threats? Instead of demonstrating the same emotional intelligence MF preaches about, he can’t handle the insinuation he’s anything less than superior. So MF begins to suggest to J that these are just delusions. MF is someone that should know about delusions. J would realize much too late, that the relentless optimism MF exhibits is not optimism at all, it’s that the belief in his own genius is so grandiose, of course everything will work out when it’s blessed with MF’s presence. Sure there’s a lot more wrapped in that… these traits must come from somewhere: father didn’t hug him enough, always trying to prove he is great enough… probably fell in love with The Secret, and used those techniques to convince himself of all kinds of stuff. Whatever it is, it culminated in the Dark Triad: Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathic traits.

When the narcissist truly believes they’re doing the right thing—convinced that the ends justify the means—they will cross every line: manipulating their staff, deceiving investors, and squandering funds on their ‘genius’ (yet hopelessly doomed) ideas. And should anyone dare to utter the forbidden word—Accountability—they will face swift and merciless retaliation.

The moment someone questions the antagonist’s actions—whether or not it’s the common sense any self-respecting person would exhibit—the first domino tips, setting of a chain reaction. What begins as a simple truth spoken in good faith spirals into a calculated, relentless game of chess. Every move, every counter move, every crumb of paper, is designed to erode the credibility and dismantle the integrity—piece by piece—of the one who dared to utter the questions naturally arising from any functioning frontal lobe in the western hemisphere.

To be continued….