Why are people that are the cruelest get the most respect in a work environment? This seems to be the paradigm of a way to succeed in business. This is a wrong philosophy on so many levels. Humans need kindness, respect and friendship. I suppose this is the bully culture created on the school playgrounds and never seems to be outgrown at work.
The corporate culture is a dinosaur that needs to be torn down and a new viable work system needs to be created.
I do believe that the corporate system is inherently sexist and homophobic. The system suits young men perfectly, but as they mature the strict social and hierarchy rules start to be too confining for them. These social and hierarchy rules were always stifling to women, but we try to find little ways to break out of this small box of existence.
Women must go through a strange transformation to be successful in the workplace. They must act more like a man. That is showing less feeling, personal faults and being more external tough. In a word "macho". But being to "macho" is offensive to the men, so the women have to go through another transformation. While holding on to some "macho" traits then retrieve back some unthreatening female traits. This scenario reminds of the Julie Andrew's movie "Victor, Victoria", where a woman becomes a man and then becomes a woman. What does it mean to open the door to view women as inferior in the workplace, since men don't have to go through these gymnastics. Some woman erroneously compensate for this by trying to join the "good old boy" network by picking on other women. In other words, doing the dirty work for the men, who participate in the "good old boy" network. I would like to see sexism stamped out in the workplace. This would help everyone and the business, itself.
Now, for a woman to directly show her true strength through compassion, speaking out against bullying, focusing on healthy egos and supporting each other is discouraged. It is amazing that strict bosses, especially male ones, have rigid rules that their employees must follow, but are totally optional as it applies to themselves.
There's a strong tendency in the workplace to focus on selfish pragmatism versus compassion. This means that people would be strongly inclined to do what is helpful for them and would diminish their considerations of their employees feelings, needs and hopes. This tendency is probably created by the co-dependency that the work executives want. This means that with excessive outsourcing and large use of temporary workers that the regular employees always feel that they are "expendable" and the impulse to feel "grateful" to have a full time job. Of course, we'd all feel more "grateful", if the employers would manage their budgets, create long term plans, and try to keep their full time employees, but then workers might have a voice. The corporation doesn't want a strong work force. We should all study the roots of co-dependency and fight that impulse.
There seems to be defacto tendancy to encourage infighting between employees by unfair treatments and punishments as well as the undo competition created by the above mentioned outsourcing and large pools of temporary workers. The management just sits back and relaxes, because they don't have to deal with employee demands while they are arguing with each other unless it infers with corporate profit. This creates an atmosphere ranging from Fraternity hazing to almost to the level of Roman gladiator games where slaves forced to fight to the death. I believe this waste of energy could be better used for production and development of employee and managerial skills. I suppose that would take a vision, sensibility and concern for human beings that isn't always developed in the obsessive compulsive need for power and money that is rampant in managements of corporations.
I believe that the corporate world creates a virtual reality, which is like a beast acting on it's own without regard to natural rules, social connections, or a person's internal growth.
Another way to look at the corporate system is an insidious parasite that invades the person's mind after some subliminal manipulation. After this transformation most people accept office bullying as natural, blindly accept unfair reward systems, and socializing is focused more on "getting ahead" than personal enrichment. The affected employees act more like "street thugs" than co-workers.
The worst things about the corporate atmosphere are that people get mentally abused, the truth is distorted, and people's lives lose meaning. We're being treated like gerbels on a treadmill chasing that ever illusive, yet unattainable prize.
I think that in the corporate world that there is some confusion about ownership. The stockholders own the company, yet the CEO's and board directors act like they own the company. I believe it's in the best interest of all of us, if the stockholders, the actual owners of the company, have more say in the workings of the business. Stockholders might like to limit the salaries and perks of the top management and therefore make the work environment more equitable.
