Dead Weight
A Turtle becomes a Turtle because of "dead weight" surrounding them. The several clueless and unproductive co-workers or idiotic fat cat boss drive a Wolf (high performer) to become a Turtle as there is no reward for high performance in dead weight work environments.
Many a Turtle out there probably sees this and wonders "why the hell would a company want to keep around so many people doing so little?" This question is simple to answer. Actually addressing dead weight at a company is not pleasant and requires follow-up and work by a boss. Many bosses don't want to deal with the unpleasant thought of actually having to discipline or even fire workers that jerk around doing nothing all day. This lack of action over time creates the environment you're probably in now. One dead weight worker will bread other dead weight workers as they lack of action by the boss tells employees "it's ok to be unproductive and clueless."
In addition many dead weight workers are ass kissers and you know the incompetent boss likes his or her ass kissed and frequently, so now not only is the dead weight worker allowed to goof off all day, but somehow they get better raises and perks that you as a good worker don't get. It's truly amazing to see this environment and unfortunately at my past company I had to deal with it by implementing my Turtle Philosophy.
As you know I finally left my old company a few months ago and joined a really good company. My new company is trying to grow, has active management that understands that improvement is needed. An interesting thing is starting to happen as a result. For the first time in my career I'm seeing the "dead weight" get dumped. My new company realizes that every position counts and you can't have worthless dead weight employees cluttering things up and making it harder for people who want to try and succeed. This is a "wolf environment" and performance and results are the expectation and rewards follow.
I know it's only been a few months a my new company, but I am encouraged. It is great to have leadership that understands and is competent. I have been working my shell off and I finally feel I'm able to achieve. In my first few months at my new company I've received more positive feedback in encouragement than I have in the past 15 years I've been working combined. I'm a wolf in a wolf environment and dead weight just doesn't cut it. It's good to be a wolf!!
