On the Small Difference Between Cowardly and Mean

You can work with a coward,
but you must not, for any reason, work with someone mean.

You may have no choice but to follow the unright or the unreasonable,
but you must never, ever be with someone who sets people against each other for their own gain.
If the mean one is your senior, you quit. If the mean one is your junior, you cut them loose.
It may feel harsh, it may feel cold, but organizational culture is like a smell — it doesn't come out easily, and even if the source is removed, the smell lingers for a long time.

Work life sometimes requires competing with someone, even adversarially.
But if some people keep staying and others keep coming and going, the survival here is not being maintained through fair competition.

There comes a moment when unfamiliar things become familiar.
I only hope.. that what becomes familiar is not something mean.