I must say that I never though of the corporate environment as a bastion of fair play, accountability, and meritocracy. But the extend of the compromising, internal politics scheming and fear of excellence never ceases to shock me even after a decade of working inside the beast. Everybody from the lowest to the highest level spend most of there time trying to avoid responsibility and scheming while at the same time ignores the outside world and comes in contact with reality only when it is too late. All this isolationism, byzantine interrelations, fear of change and rigid hierarchical structures of the corporate world reminds me of the feudal system with the employs managers in the role of serf and vassal. I'm not implying that corporate employees are some sort of slave bound to the company and manager. The analogy has more to do with the rigit "social" structure and absence of any real influence the employees have in any decision making process at any level (this goes for a lot of managers too). They are are supposed to just do their work (or mostly pretend to do their work) and if they feel adventurous occasionally poach in the feudal forest (aka office supplies) when the manager is not looking. Managers on the other hand behave like vassals bound to their superiors and peers, competing for employees and budget (which has taken the place of land and titles) between them and making sure everything or appears to be going as the company plan dictates.

As I described in survival guides one and two the corporate environment does not have a place for innovation originality, honest competition and cooperation, creative argument, professionalism and strive for excellence. In fact all of these characteristics are considered as disadvantages. That's not to say that there can be occasions where individuals or even groups of people showing these characteristics cannot exist happily or even thrive in side large corporations. It is just that this tends to be rare and most of the time appears in isolated pockets inside companies or in some cases in R&D departments and only if they are isolated completely from the main company. If you happen to be a individually who cant get rid of these distinctive non-corporate characteristics and you hope you can find such a island of good work ethic inside your company it is not going to be that easy. These groups or individuals usually want to stay hidden for reasons that should be obvious by now and make sure not to advertise. Also when the group gets critical mass or the ideal conditions that harbored them disappear they leave usually to change career or create a start-up. So ending up in one of them is purely a matter of chance.