[curuinor]

People are great: organizations are less so. Your HR buddy can cry while they kick you off campus, they're still kicking you off campus. Unless they're the board and CEO, it doesn't really matter that the people around you care for you and you care for them. You can see them at the bar afterwards, I suppose.

[dsfyu404ed]

People have sway within organizations. Many decisions are at the discretion of one of many people. Having people on your side is important.

Working hard might not make you look good to "the company" but it can make you look good to your supervisor(s) which (except in the event of things like mass-layoffs) has a huge impact on how the company treats you.

[lunchables]

I insulate employees from that, 99.9% of the time. I decide where I need to make reductions, which happens. It doesn't really matter that I'm not the company, for all intents and purposes, that does not matter to the employee. That the CEO might not care about them (although, he does) does not matter in practice.