Companies with a school-like atmosphere treating their employees...like school children? Perhaps the culture and hiring/recruitment practices optimize for lack of trust.
I visited a place one where the schtick was to get new employees to make a paint print of their hand on the wall like a primary school kids. I thought, this place infantilises its employees, I will never work here.
This comes about because companies see 'culture' as a means of manipulating their employees. It works because long-childhood tokens are a status symbol - poor people need to grow up quickly and demonstrate that they are compliant by wearing suits or other uniforms, middle class show that they can afford long education by retaining the signifiers of childhood. But no-one does this consciously, so people are susceptable to being 'rewarded' by these cheap signifiers instead of real value
A friend recently got what he thought was a great gig with an engineering firm - turned out it was more of a cult - rah rah sessions, after work bowling, softball - and they weren’t shy about shunning anybody who didn’t want all in right away.
He got bullied and saw others bullied too - we figure it’s why they prefer to intern pipeline and hire and retain - a lot easier to brainwash when young.
I mean it’s not a bad company, they do strong and good work - but acting like it’s the best place ever? Well, most of them have only worked there. We were like, offhand we’ve each had two better jobs than that one.[0] They used culture as a bait for lower pay too.
There’s something really disturbing about a company in 2022 wanting to act like a cult rather than accept the job market is turning more mercenary by the day. Oh well, their choice to fail.
[0] - Daniel Tosh “America #1” stand up bit for reference
There are people who like a "fun" office culture, and there are people who don't. What these companies are doing is creating workforces that are, in part, self-selecting.
I have my opinions about the value of workplace wackiness, but it gets the hires in the door. The question is, are those the right hires?
At a company with a healthy culture, managers should be hiring people who they trust to get their jobs done. If you feel the need to watch your employee's every move, why would you hire them in the first place? Treating employees like delinquent children instead of mature teammates indicates a very sick company culture that I would avoid at all costs.
I think it's not so much the allegations of a hostile work environment that would keep people away, it's the idea of working a company with ridiculous drama that looks like it came out of a bad high school movie. It indicates an unhealthy number of non-grown ups in positions of responsibility.
I think the 'vibe' is part of the problem. It's somewhat dishonest.
Why do all companies need to be 'family?' Can't we just respect each other as we get the job done and go home to our actual families? The 'company culture' is a ruse to get employees to have loyalty where the company does not reciprocate.
It's because all too often the "company culture" is a bunch of horse shit designed to keep naive employees working extra hours and accepting low compensation.
A few of these were okay but many were utterly toxic. Would anybody here wish to work in a tech company which didn't care for fresh opinions, where employees were taught to dogmatically follow authority and play politics?
Perhaps I'm not the target market since I work in a tech company and value creativity and passion, but it would take me all of a few days to run away from a company that had these values. Especially those that tell you to be agreeable, suck up to authority and to not the rock the boat. For example: don't share your knowledge and shut up; mentally challenge yourself but don't let people know what you're thinking; get people to like you; become a 'part' of a team; do everything you can to give your boss a higher status; be seen in the corridors and stay late but don't be too social by having lunch with people...
This is horribly disrespectful and a sure-fire way of hurting innovation and making everything political. I understand nobody wants arrogant employees that don't respect the team, but people should be hired because of the talent and experience they bring a company. They should be hired to help improve a company and not forced into being cogs in a machine. Let them be human; they should be respectful and participative members of your company, not passive slaves!
Hire people because you respect them and want to see them use their past experiences and talent to help you. Care about the fresh opinions they bring to your organisation and respect them for this. Help them to take ownership of their thoughts and participate fully in the company. Help them to grow the confidence to take control of their lives in and out of work.
I don't know what is with companies who pretend that the work environment should be more than an exchange of skills for compensation. Even ignoring these kinds of egregious examples, I find the rah-rah-rah of companies where people are excited to hear the CEO speak to be creepy and weird.
I wish I could say this is not normal, but I see this everywhere: employers want cult-like fiefdoms, and many are successful creating them. These companies are filled with young developers who completely drink the kool-aid and become no less than fan-boys for their oppressor, as anyone that has had more than 1 job would look at the environment as darkly Orwellian.
> You don't even have to like the people or even the company
This is a really big problem for companies. Trust is not something that you can fake or "present" in an etiquette sense of the word. When workers at a company do not like each other, they do not trust each other. Where they do not trust each other, a growing bureaucracy creates formal process creep to ensure that different interests are protected. Bureaucracy and formal process slow work down and prevent the organization from adapting quickly to changing market conditions. Organizations which cannot adapt in time with the argument lose touch, become irrelevant, decline, and eventually close.
The specific culture which evolves at the company is less important than its role in ensuring that the people in the company like each other and therefore can continue to trust each other.
So a company that sells to an industry that is primarily a blue collar boys club hires sales associates for culture fit (with the industry they are selling into) and then acts surprised when they abuse internal resources for amusement and make wisecracks that are wildly out of line for most white collar business environments.
The company is just acting shocked about the gambling to appease the public. Everyone knew something like this was bound to happen eventually. The cultures just aren't compatible.
This is too funny.
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