Red vs. Black

Software companies contain two types of employees: 'red' employees who thrive by following rules and pleasing bosses to climb the corporate ladder, and 'black' employees who resent bureaucracy but focus on delivering customer value. Red employees dominate large organizations while black employees survive by maintaining distance from corporate politics and concentrating on real work. The two groups naturally despise each other's approaches, with reds seeing blacks as rebellious and blacks viewing reds as shallow rule-followers.