I would call this a poorly written article, but it's not an article. It's someone's half baked thought on a blog, but unfortunately, it reflects an attitude common enough at most tech firms to warrant a comment.<p>Employees don't "suck" in isolation. What do you think happens when you try to hire and coach a group of people together to solve a problem? You're building a team. No, you're not building a "band" of "rockstars", you're assembling a highly functional team of professionals. Someone who was hired who's not at the bar of seniority to be functional on the team? Hiring process and manager take responsibility. Someone was hired who wouldn't professionally gel and fit in with the team/organization? Same problem. Someone on the team has concerns and they're not going heard? Someone on the team is not finding the growth opportunities they need? Same problem.<p>As a middle manager, it is your job to find the right team members for your specific organization. If you're wasting time whining about how certain organizations are "addicted" to "losers", all you're doing is passing the buck, which by your own admission would make you...a "loser". See how stupid that is? You're not a loser, you're just incompetent.<p>Probably the only thing this half baked piece got right is that a dysfunctional organization of a certain size is going to have a much more difficult time ridding itself of that dysfunction than a smaller one -- you can't just fire your way to healthiness in such a situation. But, that's what real crisis leadership is about. It's not impossible, just very rare. You can see why, though -- it's so much easier to place the blame on others (especially your reports) by grading them into adder/subtractor buckets. And of course, when the team, division or organization folds, it's not your fault. Then, you take that toxic attitude with you to the next organization unlucky enough to get saddled with you.<p>Looking at the world through the lens of losers/rockstars reflects a childish, simplistic view of how humans work and are motivated. Those who subscribe to it are bound to live through a life full of unnecessary hardship and mediocrity. The competition for talent is fierce, and managers who can't effectively hire, retain and develop talent will stunt the growth of their organization. Obviously, this is not uncommon, and many organizations deteriorate to this level of dysfunction. But, there are plenty that don't. They'll poach your talent, as they should, and you'll be too oblivious to understand why.<p>Learn your lessons the easy way, or learn them the hard way.<p>PS: Don't even get me started with that egregiously inappropriate heroin analogy. The author should hope that their HR department never finds this blog post, because that would be a PR disaster.