Jason M. Lemkin discusses workplace attitudes, emphasizing that a small "chip on the shoulder" can motivate top hires, but larger bitterness can harm individuals and teams. He expresses empathy for reasons people are angry but warns that persistent bitterness—often accompanied by complaints about past employers—becomes problematic when hiring and team dynamics are at stake.
Lot of folks don't really want to work that hard anymore. There's a lot of issues and there's a lot of angry folks, and the reasons they're angry, I have some empathy from, and. And in some cases, I have a lot of empathy from. But too much of this, it breaks people. And, you know, it's always been true that a little chip on your shoulder is great for first, for your top hires. A lot of your top hires, your great VP of sales, your great. Your grade A, they're going to have a chip. Hey, man, I was. I was at this great SaaS startup, but they didn't see my greatness. You know, I was top 20%, but they never invited me to President's Club, blah, blah, blah. They got a little chip. Little chip is great. A big chip I start to worry about. And then when it's beyond chips and it's bitterness and they tell you how their last CEO was terrible and their VP of Sales was awful, there's. There's usually a lot of truth in those stories.
