What Really Matters Most in the Workplace

You’re not playing for a short-term gain. You’re playing for a lifetime.

Why would you do things that make enemies of people? Why would you leave a bad impression on others? As long as you’re hoping to stay in the industry, you need to build your own brand—your image included.

But who’s going to do the dirty work? You can’t all be the good guy. Do you really think the heads of the business department would take on the role of the bad guy? No, they won’t. That’s exactly where project managers come in.

They hire a bunch of people whose only job is to pour you tea, offer you the best cigarettes and tea, take you to dinners every day, introduce you around, and make it clear: if you need anything, just ask him—he speaks for me.

Then, when someone needs to play the villain—when the technical team refuses to take the blame and the business team won’t either—these people are the ones who get dragged in.

Years later, after you’ve burned bridges with every vendor in the circle, leaving behind an image of someone incompetent yet greedy, what happens? They put you out to pasture. They force you out.

That’s what we call a “rag” role—a sink-or-swim position. Many don’t realize it; they think they’re valued. In reality, they’re being set up.