Corporate America and the Great Cleanup

I was talking to Reinhold tonight about the Smiling and Dialing session this morning, how there were people who were let go from companies I found jobs in the job boards for.

Back in the days, we theorized that people who are retrenched (let go/layed off -- many terms for losing ones job) were really the 'runt of the litter'. I've come to realize this is not correctly stated. 'Runt of the litter' is really a subject categorization. The way this should be stated should be that the politically savvy survive.

If you are a 'value add' to your organization but are not politically savvy enough to position yourself to be able to convince the organization of this value, you become the proverbial 'runt of the litter'. If all you are is politics and nothing else, you survive the slaughter. The converse, which is being a contributor without minding the politics of your contribution is the dangerous position to be in. You become this 'runt of the litter'.

The big question now is, as corporate America 'cleans up', is it really eliminating the doers? Are we in trouble in corporate America because we are at this threshold where we mostly have no essence and pure politics in our ranks, where the balance is off between doers and plain political animals? Who then is left to do the work?