I'm sure that I'm misunderstanding what you mean here. Do you really mean that fundamentally everyone is trying to get ahead by gaming the system?
So if you're not part of management setting up the game, and if you're not one of the players conscious of the House Edge, how long can you play at the table? I really do empathize with people who have benign expectations of business politics and want to go attend those silly bar-crawl/"after hours" events. But those people, nice as many of them are, are tools. The only way to put yourself ahead of the management is to stop being a sycophant, and to strategically deny your employer free office hours.
I could not disagree with this more. My professional and business experience indicates this is not accurate.
> The entire article here is about how you will be manipulated if you don't question the literal wording of what HR tells you.
True! I'm not saying that the world isn't full of manipulative assholes, and people need to know what sort of assholery they will encounter.
I'm just saying that you don't need to be a manipulative asshole in order to succeed in business. If you're arguing that you do (which is what I'm hearing), I think that's incorrect.
> The only way to put yourself ahead of the management is to stop being a sycophant, and to strategically deny your employer free office hours.
We're entirely on the same page here, though.
Definitely agree here. If you're a manager or executive, you always have the option of showing up to work casually, treating everyone with good faith to get work done and get paid.
If you're an employee, though? Ground crew, not management, no reports? It's gloves-off all the time, a manager who's nice to you one day can turn sour another. It's the nature of the power imbalance that makes it impossible for good employees to take their employer in good faith. Without that skepticism, you're bound to be manipulated and undervalued as a human.
