They seem to have missed my main issue with the “team player” culture: It dumbs everything down to the lowest common denominator. It’s good for the company since it avoids becoming dependent on any single individual. It’s good for the mediocre because they avoid competition / tasks they cannot do. But it’s bad for top performers (in terms of ability, not speed) because they will be stuck in the drudgery, doing work that anybody can do.
This is only true of mismanaged teams. A good manager knows who to assign which tasks/projects depending on their workload and skills. Being a "team player" _should_ mean communicating your work to others, asking when you need help, and actively offering to help others when you can.
That's a badly managed team. Teams are diverse wrt. ability and expertise, that's expected. In well-managed teams work will be allocated to let everyone exercise theirs.
