Sad to see this learning. Given, that the posting is absolut unspecific, I can only wonder, what I would have been doing in such a situation:

> What hurt me was a comment “You have to make clear to your > peers that you can fight and get to their bosses, > otherwise you are irrelevant”

> What I learned today it that you have to get dirty all the > way to succeed and to be seen. Lesson number one: “Get > messy when it gets messy”

Why is it, that this turn of thinking happend, I keep asking myself.

If someone (my teamleader, boss, a coworker) would have said the first quote, I would have been hurt, too. But, would I learn, to play dirty, just to "be successful"? Is playing dirty really the only way?

Would I be able to look myself in the eye? I don't think so. I believe, my reaction would be, to jump. I would so look for another job, a place, where a human being is treated like one. Where I would be more, than a commodity.

So no, my learning would be different. I would never become such a kind of human being.

But that is just my humble opinion, as everybody is different.