You're right, but rarely does management encourage a "we're just here for the money" kind of employee attitude. More like "we're all a team, let's do great things together"...until we sell the team and bolt. Should adults know better? Yes. But, it's still essentially lying, trying to get people to feel loyalty to an organization (so that they will worker long hours, etc.) while not feeling any loyalty to it yourself.
But, by now, the pattern is long since clear, yes. But it's so out of whack with how the rest of human interactions work, that it is perpetually surprising to most people. It's more or less institutionalized psychopathy.
It's not actually all bad though. At least in the educational software business of the time, there were various companies run by people who were trying to do more than personally enrich themselves. It's on a continuum... some were trying to do a lot more than just enrich themselves. Some were willing to do a little. For some, it was strictly about grabbing the most money, whether it was a short-term or longer-term play. Of course, no one running a company can simply not consider the money. And economic realities can force the hand of anyone.
The more cautionary tale is don’t lose focus of your goals. If you can grow slowly, without outside investment and just have a “lifestyle” business, you can to some extent decide your own fate.
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Any investor backed or publicly held company is going to sell out to the highest bidder without regard to the future of the company or the employees.
Not directed at you, but I never understood why this is always a revelation on a site run by venture capital firm.
You're right, but rarely does management encourage a "we're just here for the money" kind of employee attitude. More like "we're all a team, let's do great things together"...until we sell the team and bolt. Should adults know better? Yes. But, it's still essentially lying, trying to get people to feel loyalty to an organization (so that they will worker long hours, etc.) while not feeling any loyalty to it yourself.
But, by now, the pattern is long since clear, yes. But it's so out of whack with how the rest of human interactions work, that it is perpetually surprising to most people. It's more or less institutionalized psychopathy.
Unless you work at Netflix. They make their relationship with you very clear.
https://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664
Cause its populated with bright-eyed / naive engineers.
Right. That's what I was back in the '90s.
It's not actually all bad though. At least in the educational software business of the time, there were various companies run by people who were trying to do more than personally enrich themselves. It's on a continuum... some were trying to do a lot more than just enrich themselves. Some were willing to do a little. For some, it was strictly about grabbing the most money, whether it was a short-term or longer-term play. Of course, no one running a company can simply not consider the money. And economic realities can force the hand of anyone.
The more cautionary tale is don’t lose focus of your goals. If you can grow slowly, without outside investment and just have a “lifestyle” business, you can to some extent decide your own fate.