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How the Sunk Cost Fallacy Traps You in Bad Office Fights
Description
Lucas and Luna explore how the sunk cost fallacy keeps professionals stuck in losing battles at work, from failed projects to toxic alliances. They break down the psychology behind 'throwing good money after bad' using real-world examples like a marketing manager doubling down on a doomed campaign and a team lead refusing to abandon a legacy system. The episode explains why our brains treat ongoing investments differently than new decisions, and offers three concrete tactics to recognize and escape the trap: pre-committing to kill criteria, reframing the opportunity cost of staying, and seeking outside perspective. Listeners learn how to distinguish between persistence and self-destructive commitment, and how to walk away with less ego damage. This is episode 107 of The Office Politics Podcast.