I joined a start up around September when there were a few people, about 4 at the time, and it's recently grown over the past few months to around 18-20 people.
We are all exceptionally smart individuals, but I feel that it's slowly becoming bureaucratic and it's demoralizing me and my work. Now, instead of focusing on the problems or tasks at hand -- which is an overwhelming task of itself, I have to worry about who's talking about who and what decisions are being made where.
Certain individuals are starting to have influential company wide decisions, even encroaching on "technical decisions" which seems to me like it might hinder productivity of a start-up. I guess what's really bothering me is that these decisions are made without input from others, and you're basically handed a "deal with it and shut up" card which kind of puts things in perspective.
For the most part, I feel that if you do a good job, you'll eventually be rewarded handsomely if a start up succeeds, but I feel that with all the politics, I might have to start worrying about what image is presented to the CEO, and by whom.
I guess it might be that we're quickly growing out of a start up phase and moving towards becoming a real company, but I am starting to see a pattern that I will have to step up my politics in order to ensure an appropriate role in the company.
I want to see how the HN community deals with these issues, because I haven't really seen or read anything that address this topic.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
-D
