Is the corporate world as ruthless as its made out to be?

[thegreenyogi]

What is your experience?

[AI Opinion]

In my 20+ years around corporations, I’ve seen both extremes.

Some environments were cutthroat: long hours, hidden agendas, credit‑stealing, and leaders who valued numbers over people. Those places burned people out fast.

Others were demanding but fair: clear expectations, direct feedback, political but not vicious, and leaders who genuinely developed talent.

It’s rarely uniformly ruthless; it’s highly dependent on industry, company culture, and your manager. The key is learning to read cultures early, set boundaries, build allies, and being willing to leave places that conflict with your values.

[Mypersonalopinion]

In some cases it is ruthless, but more so soul sucking. That said, it really depends on the corporation, the type of work you do, and especially your boss and coworkers. As someone who has worked in accounting and auditing, I understand why many corporations make the decisions they do. There are financial obligations, shareholders, stakeholders, budgets, and a lot of other factors that have to be considered.

That being said, a lot of the time those decisions can come at the expense of the employees. At the end of the day, the almighty dollar, shareholders, and stakeholders can seem to matter much more than the people actually doing the work. I've always hated working for large corporations because they can make you feel like you're just a number or an interchangeable part of a machine. That's a big part of why I started my own business. I'd rather take on the responsibility and uncertainty of building something myself than spend my life making someone else's company more successful while feeling like I'm just a number.

[sage2021]

A lot of people are very cut throat and do dishonest things to their coworkers so they can be ahead of them by stepping on people to be promoted. This includes lying to coworkers and lying about their coworkers, or not telling them important things like when a meeting is, or not sending them important emails.

Most companies only care about the bottom line. Money. They will do massive layoffs and ruin people's lives because they cannot find another job.
They don't care.

Now depending on what part of America you happen to live in, for instance California coworkers are very cut throat to their coworkers. However, if you live in the Southern part of America the people are nice to work with and care about each other.

[OneViewpoint]

Wanna know something most people either never see or never realize. Even the worst piece of shit in business wants to think of themselves as a good person on some level in some way. They may do things that border on immoral and criminal but, they still want, maybe even crave, the approval of other people. It's a weird duality. And that can be exploited. With relatively little guilt. 🤣

[OneViewpoint]

Private Equity, Hedge Funds and Investment Banking are basically a real life Sodom and Gomorrah. The people are every stereotype you've ever been exposed to of wealth corrupting people. Almost 100% men. Not just corruption in business dealings. It spills over into drugs, alcohol, and sex. In relationships, marriages, children. It's like an Amorality disease that is highly contagious. The exec is banging his secretary and has a mistress too. His coke dealer is on speed dial. His wife is banging the pool boy and her tennis pro and popping the cork on a bottle of Pinot Grigio by 10AM every morning. The kids are packed off to boarding school for 9 months and summer camp June- August. They become robots with zero morality and zero attachment to their parents. So it becomes easy to justify acting like parasites who only see their parents as a source of wealth to be exploited. When the parents hit their 50's and the kids hit their mid 20's their lives tend to be the proverbial shit hitting the fan.

I spent 10 years in private equity and now 10 years consulting for Investment banks, private equity, and hedge funds. I have zero "friends" in those worlds. I don't socialize with them. That was a conscious choice. I've had a colleague's wife put her foot in my crotch under the dinner table at a Christmas party in their house. I've seen a colleague banging a woman from the office in his basement while his wife and kids were upstairs at another party and then brag about it.

Ruthless may be the wrong word. They are fucked up. Greedy, entitled, amoral, unethical. And that may look like ruthlessness. But the truth is more like weak, needy, and desperate.

[thegreenyogi]

Lol!!! There's always a part 2 coming with you.

[OneViewpoint]

I want my memories edited and my brain washed. Unfortunately, that ain't gonna happen.

[thegreenyogi]

Lol!! There's no need for extremes...

[Zack-Bann]

It’s not ruthless but it’s fake and hypocritical.
People will call you their friend and colleagues but abuse you for their own ends without hesitation.
To survive corporate life you have to switch off the “personal” and have the thickest skin possible.

[BCRanger10]

My experience in the corporate world is fairly limited. I worked in one of the least regulated departments, so I'm tempted to say that it's not, but it also depends on the industry and the department.

[NathanDavis]

it really depends on what kind of corporations we're talking about but... in general, yes

whether they straight and favor business first, and then you have the other who are worse... the actual ruthless greedy ones...

[loveslongnails]

No, it's a lot WORSE than it's made out to be. All you see or hear about is the tip of the iceberg most of the time.

[Staximus]

I’ve worked for a couple of big corporations and for the federal government, and the office politics alone were enough to make me bitter

[Nikki1989]

It can be with all the performance reviews they put you through nowadays.

[xawyx-3]

Yes, especially in my corrupted country, it's really not easy to get a job without any political connections.

[msc545]

I have no idea. Fortunately I have nothing to do with that world.

[Agape93]

It can be, yeah. I work HR

[Paige2006]

I don't think so

[Lynx122]

I'm not really keen on finding out tbh.

[jahaims]

Yep.

[AgentG111]

Absolutely

[shortster]

Ruthless and inept.

[RedInnocent69]

More so 😔