Work Is Not School: Surviving Institutional Stupidity

Summary

For 16+ years, we master the rules of school. Study hard, get good grades, follow the formula and ultimately merit wins. Then we enter the workforce and none of it works quite like we thought. This becomes painfully obvious as you rise higher in the org. Even seasoned veterans forget this. Recently, a director-level client hit a minor career bump and spiraled into crisis mode, their expectations still anchored in what I call "school rules".Organizations don't run purely on merit or even clear criteria. Although they claim otherwise using buzzwords like “merit” and “data”. That’s only one part of the story, and also what’s visible. The other part, often more consequential, runs on flawed psychology, imperfect decisions, and competing interests. You can call it organizational absurdities. Or more bluntly, institutional stupidity.What follows is a reality check. It’s a “letter to frustrated high-performers” who keep bumping up against these unwritten rules of work. Consider it your guide to staying sane while playing the long game.💡Before diving in, a quick note: This piece deliberately spotlights the subjective aspects of organizational life. While companies strive for objectivity in all areas, there's an overlooked undercurrent of subjectivity that significantly impacts work, and careers. By highlighting this less-discussed dimension, I hope to provide a more complete picture and prevent unnecessary frustration. You won’t avoid it completely, but at least you’ll be better equipped.If you have to, blame stupidity not maliceMost of what we chalk up to “politics” or “backstabbing”, aka bad intent, is often better explained by stupidity, inertia, bad incentives, fragmented attention, and misaligned maps of reality.People are juggling too much, thinking too little, and rarely stepping back to ask, “What actually makes sense here?”When you assume stupidity instead of malice, you stay above the fray, stop taking slights personally, or turning misjudgments into betrayals. Th...