Why Trust Matters

In the office in which I work there are five people of whom I am afraid. Each of these five people is afraid of four people (excluding overlaps), for a total of twenty, and each of these twenty people is afraid of six people, making a total of one hundred and twenty people who are feared by at least one person. Each of these one hundred and twenty people is afraid of the other one hundred and nineteen, and all of these one hundred and forty-five people are afraid of the twelve men at the top who helped found and build the company and now own and direct it.[1]

So begins the chapter “The Office in Which I Work” in Joseph Heller's classic book, Something Happened. I begin this chapter with Heller's words not because they necessarily ...

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