[quote=asianautica]
The company that doesn’t see through this bureaucratic shenanigan won’t be able to hold onto their top productive employees for very long. The people in my generation have no qualm in leaving for greener pasture at the first sight of middle management BS. We might be idealistic but we can see right through the BS. If middle management want to play those kind of bureaucratic shenanigans, you’ll see us go right across the street to your competitors. If you take a look at Google, most projects are led by people under 30 and sometimes, under 25.[/quote]

Don’t look now, but Google’s stock has been crashing. 🙂

It doesn’t matter though. Good middle managers don’t want Top Guns who could work for Google. We want socially-awkward grunts who are good at their jobs but not so good at politics. Good middle managers know how to play on the insecurities and inexperience of their grunts to get them to work harder.

And good luck getting another job in this environment. Do you really think you are that valuable? In this market, there are 10 college grads with high GPAs and no experience in playing the political game who are chomping at the bit to take your place. They’ll come in knowing the latest technology and they’ll work cheaper.

Just continue to do as your told and make sure you make your manager look good. Otherwise … you might be forced to take your (possibly self-overrated) talents to another company. 🙂