Do you have any examples of defamation lawsuits? I've sold two companies, and have plenty of rich and upper-level exec friends, and I have never heard of a defamation lawsuit amongst tech execs.
There is definitely a stupid game where people don't tell it like it is, but in my experience it's because people don't want to deal with HR at all, and so don't do or say anything that might bring a tut-tut from HR. Because people in HR are beyond annoying...
And HR fears a wrongful-termination lawsuit, not a defamation lawsuit.
This is all in the US, though. The UK has quite different libel laws and so maybe lawsuits are more common there.
There is definitely a stupid game where people don't tell it like it is, but in my experience it's because people don't want to deal with HR at all, and so don't do or say anything that might bring a tut-tut from HR. Because people in HR are beyond annoying...
And HR fears a wrongful-termination lawsuit, not a defamation lawsuit.
This is all in the US, though. The UK has quite different libel laws and so maybe lawsuits are more common there.