is a psychological concept popularised by the American Martin Seligman.
When an organism is forced to bear aversive stimuli, especially when it seems random, it becomes unable or unwilling to avoid subsequent encounters with those stimuli, even if they are “escapable”
because it has learned that it cannot control the situation.
For example, when an elephant trainer starts with a baby elephant, they tie one of the elephant’s legs to a post with a small rope. The baby elephant will struggle for several hours each day to try to escape but when the elephant grows up, way more than strong enough to easily snap the tiny rope, it won’t even try
It was taught that any kind of struggle is useless.
Every one of you watched as distinguished engineers, top sales people and beloved leaders where randomly fired whilst inside you know they were better than you in many ways. If there were some sort of discernible pattern maybe it would have made sense. Now, with Q1 over and nothing to show for it, everyone is bracing for the inevitable.
Ask yourself. When did Cisco tie the rope around your ankle?