beckygardener said:... How does it happen that people like that get into powerful and wealthy positions?
Fortunately, the majority of people are NOT sociopaths! ...
I think that nice guys don't get promoted that high: first, they aren't ruthless enough to trample their own way to the top.
Second, the selection process for top jobs and sky-high pay selects for willingness to do
anything to get ahead, and therefor lacking any scruples that would slow them down from using the same rapacious standards to advance the company's interests on the backs of who-cares-how-many abused victims.
I do see some guys in fairly high positions who act fairly decent - are they more decent than their very-highly-paid-peers, or just better liars?
I really wish I were over-cynical about this, but if you plotted my Pollyanna Index over time, it would trend steadily downwards as I accumulate workplace experience. SYEADILY downward.
I worked for one Director of Engineering in a VERY small company who was smart but a decent guy. He used to have a medium-highly placed job with a company like Hewlit- Packard (maybe not exactly HP, but like that).
He used to wonder why he never got promoted past a certain level at the big company. "I take notes at ALL the lectures and I do EXACTLY what they say we SHOULD do. But I see guys promoted past me who break all the rules and do "bad" things."
My buddy finally explained the answer to him: they lie. They SAY they want managers to be 100% "transparent", which means more-honest-than-honest. They SAY they want managers to put Safety First and be humane, and make SURE that all laws and regulations are 100% obeyed and never covered up.
Their course materials are probably vetted by HR and Legal to withstand scrutiny by regulators and even lawyers, for when they get sued for consistently breaking their own rules.
They SAY one thing, but they PROMOTE as if they want the opposite.
Which one do they REALLY want and reward?
Pollyanna need not apply.
