Dahlia Season Consulting

I was terrified. My CIO threatened to fire any person who disagreed with him in a team meeting. Even the tiniest little technical detail. 

Sometimes the threats were public, but more often he was menacing in private. We cracked jokes about it, but that didn’t make it any less frightening.

I installed and configured servers with my stomach in knots. Would I be the next to be fired? As I set up email accounts and onboarded new employees, my throat would tighten as I imagined the CIO berating them for an innocent, unsuspecting comment, in a future team meeting.

And my coworkers were amazing. So kind and supportive. They taught me so much about Linux, systems, networks, and kernels. I persevered for them. I didn’t want to let them down. 

I had never heard of the term psychological safety. But even if I had, I learned early on that nothing and nowhere was safe. The world isn’t safe. 

It was my first real job as a sysadmin, so I couldn’t quit. I had to go to work, do good work, and pay my rent. 

So I did. Some days were tough, and I’d step out onto the fire escape for a good cry. Then I’d gather my courage and walk back into the office and get stuff done. 

I created my own internal sense of safety. I learned resilience and to count on myself, my skills, my sense of right and wrong, my internal compass. 

And I could, thankfully, count on my team. Despite the black shadow that the CIO cast on us all, we banded together and built the systems our company needed to be successful. We did great work. And honestly, we had a ton of fun. 

There is so much emphasis on creating work environments that are high in psychological safety, but now often does that happen? 

nd if it does, how often is it ruined by the introduction of an evil, or just clueless, executive? Or rounds of layoffs? Or financial pressures from investors, or stock prices dropping, or missing a funding round?

Should we spend less time worrying about a culture of psychological safety, and more time fostering our own courage, resilience, values, and purpose? So that we can show up in unsafe cultures and still do excellent work? 

What do you think?