I’m not advocating for avoiding accountability for misconduct/malice - but in most companies, things are convoluted enough that individual blame is often misplaced, one is always juggling various limitations and issues trying to deliver.
However, the broader problem I have with blame-focus is that it only applies to Individual Contributor roles. I’ve never heard of middle management being held accountable for any actions whatsoever. And obviously not for less “egregious” misconduct like toxicity, workload, favoritism, etc. Heck middle managers can be completely ignorant of their reports’ actual work and survive for decades.
In my experience at FAANG, the worst of managers will get reassigned to a different team, and maybe have their promotion delayed. Occasionally, I’ve seen VPs get put on nearly a year of gardening leave after major misconduct like sexual harassment - and then they leave and become a C level at a smaller company. And of course, CEOs are fired only for complete mismanagement and company failure - and that’s a very high bar and can take forever until shareholders loudly complain.
Basically, my point is that you can only blame the actual workers at the end of the chain - everyone else along the way is easily shielded and escapes blame.
> I’m not advocating for avoiding accountability for misconduct/malice - but in most companies, things are convoluted enough that individual blame is often misplaced, one is always juggling various limitations and issues trying to deliver.
I didn’t think you were advocating for the situation that occurs. I was merely proposing that “blameless” processes are possibly mis-assigned blame (heh) for company cultures that become centred around ducking accountability.
However, the broader problem I have with blame-focus is that it only applies to Individual Contributor roles. I’ve never heard of middle management being held accountable for any actions whatsoever. And obviously not for less “egregious” misconduct like toxicity, workload, favoritism, etc. Heck middle managers can be completely ignorant of their reports’ actual work and survive for decades.
In my experience at FAANG, the worst of managers will get reassigned to a different team, and maybe have their promotion delayed. Occasionally, I’ve seen VPs get put on nearly a year of gardening leave after major misconduct like sexual harassment - and then they leave and become a C level at a smaller company. And of course, CEOs are fired only for complete mismanagement and company failure - and that’s a very high bar and can take forever until shareholders loudly complain.
Basically, my point is that you can only blame the actual workers at the end of the chain - everyone else along the way is easily shielded and escapes blame.