My issue with corporate workplaces isn’t so much directness as it is a serious over abundance of ego - usually white male ego. It creates communications, PR, and strategy disasters over the long term, and rarely do the average or non Human Resources employees see the overworked and underpaid people (often female) who are putting out those ego fires before they take the whole culture and all workplace productivity down with them. I think you can have a direct tone that’s also respectful, polite, and yes, kind! That allows more collaboration and less anger in the long run. I mean…image-wise, Amazon is doing terribly these days. Kinda connects the dots that you noticed but were ultimately ok with on a smaller scale!