Yeah, orgs are a mess. Takes more than a blog post to unravel even the top few reasons. However, I do think many people approach work in a reactive mode when they don’t really need to.

I heard an interesting story about a high functioning alcoholic.

He was a VP at a top company. But sometimes he’d be in really bad shape and have to cancel his meetings and stay home for the day.

Nobody realized he was flaking — instead, they all thought he was just too busy and important to come to their meeting.

I bet people lower in orgs could get away with more of that behavior, for instance blocking off maker time in their calendar.