In modern times that trend has shifted in some companies. With the “empowerment” trend, there is a shift towards giving the employee more leeway in choosing how to prioritize tasks in a way that maximizes shareholder (company owner) profits. Rationale is that if you do not get in the way of your employee, he/she may be more productive than if you micromanage him/her. He/she may find ways of cooperating with other individuals in the organization – and that “unmanaged” cooperation may bring better fruit than the micromanaged one. This works sometimes, especially if you continuously weed out the bad employees: those that do not align to company culture or working habits. At other times, it creates the opposite effect. Maybe that is why management is more of an art than a science.

I prefer to choose my own destiny, even when I was an employee. I just tried to align my goals to the company profit. (In the end, it is top level management that matters, everyone in between you and them is an employee just like you). If I knew that something was not going to help anyone, I lowered its priority. My manager changed often, but my perceived ability to provide extreme value lasts even after I am gone from that company.

Yet… sometimes you must come to the realization that you may need to bring that phrase: “*sight* … it turns into food.”