Comment by godelski

In a bit related way I've been trying to push the idea of "engineers need to be grumpy."

Not so much that we need to not be happy and not enjoy our lives, but that our job is to find problems and fix them. In that setting, being "grumpy" is recognizing the problems. If you're dogfooding your product, you should be aware of its strengths and faults. Fixing the faults gives clear direction that allows you to make your products better. You don't have to reach perfection, such a thing does not even exist. Instead we do this iteratively, as the environment is dynamic, just as is the customer's needs.

I would say that this is loyalty to the company and the product, though not loyal to the politics. It is clearly loyal to the product, which we as engineers are in charge of creating. But it is also loyal to the company because the things we build are the very foundation of the company itself. Being loyal to politics may keep you your job, but it is a short term solution that reinforces a culture of politics itself.

To managers: don't dissuade engineers who raise issues or complaints. These are not "no" in the language of engineers, they are "yes, but". Encourage those conversations because that's how we resolve the issues and build the things. The managerial role is to help those conversations not get stuck or too heated. Your job is to help maintain engineers' passions because that's what pushes the product, and consequently the business (and consequently your success), forward. But that passion is fragile. STEM is a creative endeavor through and through. If not given time to "play around" and try new things then that passion dies. When that passion dies your innovation turns lazy and your only goal is to make something bland like a thinner phone for the 7th year in a row.