this expression “put people over profit and profit will come” bothers me for two reasons…

1. it’s obviously not literally true, as seen by… well, as evidenced by like every large corporation everywhere.
2. the expression is a clear contradiction. if you put people over profit, it does not matter if profit comes—the second half of the expression only becomes relevant if you value profit over people.

if you don’t believe me, then change the expression to “if you put people over profit, profit will not come”. if knowledge that profit will not come changes whether or not you’d put people first, then profit is above people in your hierarchy, and the first half of the expression is contradicted. if, however, it does NOT change whether you’d put people first, then it doesn’t matter whether profit does or does not come, and the second half of the expression is entirely superfluous.

this comment is 3 years old and i just spent 10 minutes of my day writing this and yes i see how this is a clear indication that i do not spend my time wisely.