A pervasive
AntiPattern.
You are told that the reason you are doing something is to
SaveTheWorld or to give better service to "the customers"
or to
HelpMankind or whatever, when the actual reason is
ShareholderEnrichment.
It isn't that
ShareholderEnrichment is bad, but you aren't given
that reason because someone thinks you will object to it.
Your vision of the goal of your work does not match the vision of
the person making the rules, so you find yourself encountering
barriers that don't make sense in the context of the reason you
were given.
This can lead to cynical viewpoints "
EverybodyLies" or
"
CompaniesAreEvil" neither of which are true.
The typical
MissionStatement is usually a
FalseMotive.
Sometimes we adopt a
FalseMotive of our own.
Guided by the bombardment of PR that happiness is
ThePerfectHome,
ThePerfectCar,
ThePerfectMortgage,
ThePerfectBurger, or
ThePerfectCareer, we put spurs to our trusty steed and
pursue
ThePerfectThing.
Compare what you're doing, and the rules that govern it,
to where you think it's going.
Hmmm. I sound a little cynical today.
It seems that the more pernicious of these is the one you do to yourself.