From reading your comment and the article, I think you're talking about different types of trust.
I trust my colleagues at all levels, say, not to steal £10 I leave in my desk. But the article is talking about the kind of trust to be working hard the whole time, competently, totally for the best interests of the company.
Given how common it is for us to moan about our useless and lazy bosses (and fellow programmers), I have to agree that trust of that nature isn't very common. I can't say whether it has got more or less common prevalent over time, though.
No, you got that wrong. I mean exactly that kind of trust in their abilities as coworkers. The thought of interpreting that in a "criminal" sense never even occurred to me. You may (re)interpret that as you will.
I can see now how a possible interpretation that surely somebody will come up with - whether they post it or not - is that I am clueless myself and that that's the reason I had such positive experiences. May be, I would be the last one to know, right? On the other hand, work as a well-paid freelancer who likes to not just not get fired but also to get the contract renewed would be hard if that was so, I think?
That previous paragraph shows I actually do have a trust issue: (now speaking generally, not in response to the comment) online I've come to expect bad things happening. You post something you think is positive and interesting and out of nowhere comes an interpretation that is dark and turns it all on its head.
Even in the GDR chemical factory, where it would have been extremely easy and would have had few repercussions, most people (actually everybody I ever worked with there, and I saw many different departments) voluntarily decided to do what it takes to keep things running as well as they could. When they didn't work it was because there really wasn't anything to do. I never saw anyone neglecting their duty. My apprenticeship was for a very technical job "BMSR Techniker" - measurement, control and regulation technology, so I never was an office worker but in the production line or in construction (electrical infrastructure).
I do remember that a (random) manager in the chocolate factory I worked for three weeks during winter break at university didn't trust me:
I had just fed a machine - more thoroughly than necessary - and had nothing to do until it would be finished 10 minutes later, so I sat down and read in my French lesson book - always with an ear for the machine next to me. I could not have done any other work even if I wanted, there was only that machine in that room.
In comes a manager (that I didn't know) - immediately assuming I'm a lazy SOB. It was the complete opposite - I LIKE to work, and I had until then - without any supervision or pressure - done much more than asked. That changed somewhat after that !$%"§$ manager treated me like dirt.
Okay, so there is this guy that I didn't trust, but he wasn't even my manager, he just happened to walk by, never met him again but he ruined the entire three weeks of work experience. I never bought anything that I knew was made in that factory again.
I trust my colleagues at all levels, say, not to steal £10 I leave in my desk. But the article is talking about the kind of trust to be working hard the whole time, competently, totally for the best interests of the company.
Given how common it is for us to moan about our useless and lazy bosses (and fellow programmers), I have to agree that trust of that nature isn't very common. I can't say whether it has got more or less common prevalent over time, though.