Is the “10-80-10 Rule” of employee communications changing?

Popular wisdom has long held that you’re never going to please 10 percent of your employee base no matter what you do; is it just me, or is that bottom number growing?

I don’t remember where or when I first heard it, but I’ve heard it many times since then. I call it the “10-80-10 Rule,” and it’s a rough estimate of the camps that employees fall into in any given corporate culture. Obviously, it’s a gross generalization, but I’ve always found that it’s actually fairly accurate.

The rule states: In any organization, there are three groups of employees: