Today, that is true, especially if you work directly with people with power. They don't need a lot of power, just enough to gripe to your boss that you are "not a team player" or "difficult" or a "poor communicator".
Ye,t how many of us have set in a meeting in which everyone discussed a problem, agreed to do research and bring back their ideas to fix the problem, only to return and have the first meeting, again, like the first had never occurred at all. This can happen repeatedly, with a year passing and no progress occurring and no one wanting to mention that for fear of being negative or worse.
A meeting with ten experienced people making top wages and lasting an hour wastes at the very least 300 and doesn't include supplies and prep-time, do that for a year and you have wasted over 10,000$ to not fix a problem which is still costing whatever it cost in the first place times a year of that cost.
The next time you go to a meeting, watch the bobbleheads,
- someone identifies the problem and the nodding starts
- someone describes the already described solutions, and the nodding continues
- someone describes the possible ways to institute the solutions and the nodding continues
- someone points out that the group has done this at the last 4 meetings and the room stops, friends don't look at the speaker, enemies glare, all nodding ends.
Next meeting, its back to normal without the negative/nonteam player/square peg. The meeting runs smoothly, every one is a polite little bobblehead, and the meetings cost more than the original problem, which is still a part of the company's business-as-usual.
