In my experience, the most subtle but dangerous sign is institutionalized heroism.
I spent years working in places that praised the engineer who pulled an all-nighter to fix the production outage, but ignored the quiet engineer who built the safeguards to prevent the outage in the first place.
When a company is addicted to the adrenaline of the "save", they stop valuing the boring work of stability. To me, that isn't just toxic, it’s structurally unsound.
This list brings back some painful memories.
In my experience, the most subtle but dangerous sign is institutionalized heroism.
I spent years working in places that praised the engineer who pulled an all-nighter to fix the production outage, but ignored the quiet engineer who built the safeguards to prevent the outage in the first place.
When a company is addicted to the adrenaline of the "save", they stop valuing the boring work of stability. To me, that isn't just toxic, it’s structurally unsound.