The writer has a partial point. About 30 years ago I had the opportunity of visiting the Scandinavian countries and Finland and to look close to some electronic businesses, speaking to people. It was an extended stay. They paid higher salaries and gave more vacation days (sometimes triple) than us. Their societies were more egalitarian than Canada and comparably nice. What was the secret? According to the people I spoke with and to what I saw, it was every frequent checking & evaluating and being 100% candid on evaluating people. They could tell somebody that he/she had done a lousy job and that it had to change immediately, but they could have a beer together and play darts together 3 hours later. A decade earlier I observed the same thing during a 3 months stint in Germany. All these entities were performing better than our Canadian equivalent. I came back with the idea that you can be frank and demand improvements asap and still be nice.