Dream Feed Definition: Corporate Inmate Dictionary

Full Definition

The Dream Feed is the corporate pressure chain where everyone keeps feeding the dream of the person above them. Corporate Inmate calls it the Dream Feed because every level is working to make the next level's dream come true, usually believing some of that success will come back down.

All the pressure comes avalanching down onto the inmates. The inmate wants to look good to the warden, thinking it might lead to something. The warden wants to look good to their warden so they can get their recognition and reward. Everyone becomes a trained seal performing for the boogeyman at the top, on the assumption that being a significant contributor to someone else's dream will get their own dream realized.

Except the rewards don't travel back down the way the pressure does. The top gets paid first, then it slowly raindrops back down. Meanwhile every level below keeps delivering, proving, and waiting, and the inmate's dream gets postponed indefinitely, or forgotten.

Signs You're Living It

Your goals live in the word “after.” After this quarter, after this launch, after this promotion cycle. The “after” keeps moving.
Every level seems obsessed with making the level above them happy, and the pressure created at the top somehow arrives at your desk as an emergency.
You've been told that being a major contributor, going above and beyond, or “showing leadership” will be remembered when opportunities and rewards come around. Nothing specific was promised.

Survival Move

Before you give another quarter, launch, or year everything you've got, ask what you're actually building for yourself. Money? Experience? A promotion? Skills? An exit fund? Time?

You don't have to stop performing. But stop assuming that contributing to someone else's dream automatically moves yours forward.

Know what you're feeding. Know what you're getting.

Field Manual

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