--Upper management, including the C level, are more concerned about their next "sale" to further their own careers, rather than building great products that excite and delight the customers.
--The strategic direction of the company is not well understood, outside the company, and not much better inside. Funding for projects is mostly based upon political favoritism and/or the latest MBA prepared Powerpoint, and rarely on the real merits of the product to the marketplace. Rarely, if ever, are projects and their respective costs truly measured repeatedly for their ROI--look at Search.
--Bad news is not embraced and respected; the messenger is typically shot or stamped as not being a "real team player".
--The performance review process has been completely bastardized to focus on individual efforts over team/product delivery; it's more important to determine what your boss wants to see and deliver on that than what the product and/or customer need. The politics of the review process, especially the last month or two prior to the "ranking/lifeboat exercise", are more important than everything you did over the other 10 months.
--No one cares what your contribution over several years meant to the company, "What did you do for me this last six months?" is all that matters.
--You are one re-org away from having your career at the company terminated. If you get a bad manager, you are on your own and unless you can escape the group you will likely find yourself on the street -- Under-achieved/10
