To founders.

It's beyond frustrating to know, as a programmer, that what your manager subjects you to would never fly with the founders. But because the barricades erected between you and the founders are so thick, you can never get a message through. Like Bob Dylan says in Maggie's Farm, 

Bricks line their windows, and the national guard is posted outside their front door.

Even in the rare instance you can get a message through the armaments, the assumption is always that you must be a disgruntled employee and it's best not to engage.

If you care about culture, you have to follow Paul Graham's advice, and go full "founder mode." You can't let your middle managers be black boxes. You have to care what your individual contributors tell you, and believe them, and protect them. You have to get your hands dirty and being willing to take out the garbage.

Where was “founder mode” when I needed it?