The Psychology Of Terrible Workplaces

"Rots from the head."

This seems like a pretty simple argument to make, so I don’t even think I need to belabor a ton of time on it. You can come out swinging and claim most CEOs are sociopaths — it’s a common argument — but that’s not really true. Maybe around 21% are. That’s still 1 in 5, which seems troubling when you consider the outsized impact CEOs can have in a capitalism, especially around decisions like automation vs. more jobs for people. But still, I wouldn’t say every damn CEO is a sociopath, no. I would, however, say that Ted Bundy probably could have been pretty successful in most apex predator companies today, even if he was still doing his butchering on nights and weekends. He’d probably be a SVP at Oracle or something. ** shudders **

But, the sheer fact is that the mentality and psychology of someone who comes to run a company is very different than a worker bee’s psychology. That’s usually why business transformation efforts fail — they tend to over-focus on process and under-focus on the psychological makeup of the people involved. You look simply at a guy like Bezos, who is worshipped by the capitalist class, right? He calls his net worth his “winnings,” implying it’s a game. He barely gives to charity. Now, I will say $18/hour isn’t bad in the fulfillment centers, especially in some communities, but he built a global-scale company based on rapid turnover. He ain’t in it for the people.

Diversity and inclusion is the same boat.