I've had many jobs over 20+ years in the software industry, and every one of them has been dysfunctional to some degree. Of course, that's normal. No person is without flaws, and the same is true of jobs. Even my best jobs had dysfunction.
There are many ways for a job to be dysfunctional...
- Micromanagement
- Unreasonable deadlines
- Poor communication
- Etc.
But something I've learned over time is that jobs can be dysfunctional in a miserable way or a chill way.
A company doesn't need to be as dysfunctional as Kruger Industrial Smoothing, but a little dysfunction can be a positive thing for a job...if it's the right kind of dysfunction.
Some of the dysfunctions of a job (e.g., micromanagement) can make one's life stressful. But not always. The chill dysfunctional flip side of micromanagement, little-to-no supervision, can be awesome depending on your situation:
- Time to work on your own priorities
- Build according to your own standard of quality
- Decide what you think is important
- Relaxed pace
Just like every person, every job has dysfunction. If they're flawed in a chill way, you're doing pretty well.
