[cmrdporcupine]

> the customer is not your customer. The person/people who control your raise, bonus, and promotion are your real customers

This is definitely the case in many/most companies, but it's also a sign of a dysfunctional and declining internal company culture, and a bad pattern that will lead to decline in quality of product and deteriorating internal team dynamics.

It's better to seek out employers where this inevitable trend is explicitly countered, or hasn't developed yet.

We all feel better when we're producing good quality and get recognition for it.

[julianeon]

Above a certain company size however I think what he’s describing is not avoidable. In a less than 0.5k person company you’ve very close to the company. In a > 10k person company there’s no way: there’s a lot of layers to the company and often can’t “touch” the customer as an employee. The nature of the job is mediating how the layers interact: you can’t reduce that complexity out of it.