[camel_gopher]

You have to be careful of the perceived politics around this. Tall poppies get cut down. I still don’t totally understand why but sometimes taking initiative doesn’t sit well with the folks who want their trains to run on time.

[tyleo]

I think this varies from person-to-person or maybe organization-to-organization. I've definitely seen variations in the health of organizations but I think you can break up the categories used to judge them, e.g., meritocracy, overtime frequency, planning accuracy, psychological safety, value of work, etc.

I'd say the place I worked felt above average in meritocracy. In other words, it felt like folks sticking out to take initiative were more often rewarded than punished. I don't think we were perfect in every category though.