Expect loads of cynicism. I've found that talking about having Principles and Integrity in business and professional endeavors, usually results in being accused of "virtue signaling," which is ridiculous, as we are only talking about simple, basic, realistic human values; not some kind of Mother Theresa code.
That said, it is extremely easy to let a focus on "culture" turn into a toxic monoculture. It's always easier to exclude those that deviate from the norm, than it is to adapt to them.
It's not about accusing companies of "virtue signalling". It's about marketing and hypocrisy. All companies exist to make money, everyone is all about "making the world a better place" until they need to make money on their own. I worked in a lot of companies where all of us were family, all of us had to give that extra mile, all of us are inclusive, up until that big client from a big country comes and then you need to make sure you delete all references to things that the big country doesn't agree with or thinks should not exist.
Funny story also when someone told me to turn off my monitor because it's bad for the environment and we are a green company, then we take money and support as a client a company that literally cuts down rainforests, but hey...
Well deserved, too. When somebody makes a point of saying something that doesn't need to be said - and makes a point of saying it over and over again as if it were profound - anybody who's been around for a little while gets really skeptical really fast. There's a famous Reed Hastings (of Netflix) quote along the lines of "do not tolerate brilliant jerks". Naive people love to share that quote - and it's undoubted that they have somebody in mind who they'd prefer not to tolerate when they share it - but there's literally not one single human being who's ever lived who has said the opposite. Why does it need to be said, then? Because he (and the repeaters of the quote) needs justification for not tolerating people who's face he doesn't like, no matter what performance numbers they can produce in their defense. This slide deck includes a good quote from Grace Hopper: one measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions - but anybody who puts together 100 slides about "culture" bases everything on "gut feel" and ignores actual data.
I agree the cynicism is deserved. People make excuses for brilliant jerks all the time though. Some even make them role models. Think of Steve Jobs for example.
> [...] as we are only talking about simple, basic, realistic human values; not some kind of Mother Theresa code.
The problem I've found in having these conversations is that, for some people, the moment you disagree with their "simple, basic, realistic human values", things turn toxic. Ie. it's not really a discussion, it's "these are my values and you either agree with them or you're a terrible person".
For example, I saw a comment thread on this board about Black Lives Matter. It had devolved to the point where one commenter said something like, "BLM means that you either believe that black lives literally matter or you do not.", which, obviously, is not true.
BLM is a grassroots movement. The BLM Global Network Foundation is an organization with a website. Few people in the BLM movement pay any attention to the BLM Global Network Foundation.
Funny enough, while i have worked in a company like HubSpot and we did those excersizes and stuff, we were just a normal company.
In my current company, all those culture things are also communicated, they are just not a blog post on the internet and they do not feel like a cult :)
My direct experience is that there will be some that will be cynical -- that's OK.
A big lesson for me personally is that working on culture as a "product" is very useful. Collect customer feedback. Identify bugs. Categorize some things as "works as designed". Be transparent with your customers. And, of course, iterate, iterate, iterate.
> Collect customer feedback. Identify bugs. Categorize some things as "works as designed". Be transparent with your customers.
Sounds like "doing business" to me. I have a professional relationship with the company I'm working for and that's it. Don't need to add some "feel good" fluff which is just hidden marketing after all.
I always give the same feedback for this type of bs. Actions speak louder than words. If you have to tell people how great a company's culture is it clearly isn't.
Most people have been around the valley long enough to learn exactly what these values mean when it comes down to it. People are wise not to be drawn in too much to cultural platitudes of a company.
> “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”
Good point, a lot of cynicism is earned. I think that it is absolutely vital for culture to be modeled from the top.
Also, owners and corporate stakeholders are often so married to their work, that they have a difficult time understanding folks that aren't (like most of their employees). That means you can hear things like "I sleep in my office every weeknight, so I expect you to, as well."
Part of modeling culture is to understand others, and that's where most people fall down.
But I also think that cynical employees often grow into cynical, toxic managers, and that's where a lot of damage is done.
For myself, I have followed a path of personal growth, for my entire adult life, and I brought that with me to work. It helps me to feel decent about myself, my peers, and the world, in general (and I can still be a cynic, but one with a significant vein of love and tolerance).
Expect loads of cynicism. I've found that talking about having Principles and Integrity in business and professional endeavors, usually results in being accused of "virtue signaling," which is ridiculous, as we are only talking about simple, basic, realistic human values; not some kind of Mother Theresa code.
That said, it is extremely easy to let a focus on "culture" turn into a toxic monoculture. It's always easier to exclude those that deviate from the norm, than it is to adapt to them.