“It’s just business,” people (probably your managers) love to spout… and it always is until it’s personal. You can rest assured that anyone using this canned clamshell phrasing is probably using this to dismiss situations where they’re exploiting you… and they are going to take it very personally should things one day not go their way. It’s the same sort of tactic that is used when you’re told by a notoriously toxic employer that “We’re all a family here.” The hope is that you’ll buy into the thin words they’re saying and not question anything else they’re doing or implying.
