Over the past 20 years, I've worked in multinationals, mid-sized firms, and small companies, across the UK, France, and Lebanon.
I learned a lot of valuable lessons, and just as importantly, what NOT to do.
Here are three patterns I've encountered and intentionally unlearned.
In many environments I've worked in, remote work was not welcome. At its core, it was a trust issue: managers believed people were only productive in the office.
If I was working from home, it didn't feel like work to them. Trust was visual: if they couldn't see me at my desk, it meant I wasn't doing anything meaningful.
Years ago, I received a call from the company CEO while I was in the middle of a client meeting. I naturally didn't answer. He called again, so I assumed it was urgent.
I picked up. He just wanted to know where I was. Zero trust.
I've also had to deal with strict clock-in/clock-out policies. In our industry, I've never understood how that could be linked to productivity. Measuring input doesn't make sense in engineering.
Lesson 1: Trust is the foundation of any high-performing team. It makes collaboration both effective and enjoyable.
Growing up in a country like Lebanon, I often heard complaints about politics, city management, and work environments.
Most of these complaints were valid. What I never understood was why people didn't act on them when they could.
I became obsessed with tackling problems, guided by the proverb: "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
In many organizations I've worked for, there was clear consensus about certain issues. Yet nothing changed.
In one company, there was a recurring pattern of projects flopping due to scope creep and poor resource allocation. The response was always the same: extend timelines and firefight based on whoever shouted the loudest.
The root cause was never addressed.
One phrase I heard constantly was: "We should."
"We should improve this."
"We should stop doing that."
That mindset keeps projects stuck in conversations instead of moving them forward.
Lesson 2: Turn "should" into "must" and take action even when it's uncomfortable.
Over the years, I've seen many people settle into their comfort zone. This was especially visible in a large organization I worked at in the UK.
Some clung to outdated technologies, protecting their position instead of evolving.
Others resisted changing how they worked simply because "it's always been done this way."
Ambition dies in those environments.
Sometimes it's the company's context, other times it's poor leadership. Either way, when leaders fail to create growth opportunities, people become disengaged.
Lesson 3: Clear growth trajectories are the best way to break comfort zones.
In an upcoming article, I'll share how we're building a modern workplace around trust-based and async work, continuous growth, and knowledge sharing.
Book a call and get matched with engineers in 24–72h.
