[dx211]

> But in retrospect I can see that my touchiness in that moment probably cost me tens of thousands of dollars.

I don't know if it's a side effect of living in a western society, but I see people make this kind of mistake all the time in the corporate world -- i.e. assuming that behind it all there's some neutral arbiter who will square any conflicts that arise in the workplace. In reality, if you make your self look like an ass in front of the wrong person, at the wrong point in the fiscal year, it affects your bonus / promotion / etc., and you never get that back, plus it's used to factor into every reward you get until you leave that company. Definitely better to be diplomatic.

[TeMPOraL]

In a corporate world, it probably doesn't matter most of the time. Corporations are big entities - individual failings get lost in the noise. If you're a top executive then sure, your every word will push the stock price around. But an average employee can absolutely be an ass, as long as they don't anger the management, and it won't likely affect the bottom-line that much.

It also applies to smaller companies; in fact, I'm beginning to believe that people are being too obsessive about pleasing the customers. For instance, the best way to get a company to respond to your complaint today is through social media. They will ignore your e-mails. They will bullshit you on the phone. But they will not ignore a complaint on a Facebook page. But why is that? An average consumer has exactly zero capability to inflict any damage to the company. They won't even lose a single sale over it, unless the company is very new or caters to a niche market.

Some companies, those in extremely competitive environments, know it all too well. In convenience stores, besides meeting tons of cool people, you can also meet tons of assholes. They don't care. They know you have to buy food anyway.

[hueving]

>But an average employee can absolutely be an ass, as long as they don't anger the management, and it won't likely affect the bottom-line that much.

Parent was referring to being an ass in general. If you act like a dick in the workplace, it will affect your promotions, etc. People will just not think of you first when looking to shower praise.

[kwhitefoot]

> I don't know if it's a side effect of living in a western society ... In reality, if you make your self look like an ass in front of the wrong person, at the wrong point in the fiscal year, it affects your bonus / promotion / etc., and you never get that back

Is this western as in Europe, North America, Aus/NZ or just US?