Side note: I think "platitude" implies "meaningless."
Whispering platitudes into my significant other's ear isn't necessarily meaningless.
It can be, but it doesn't have to be.
Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
#12A company's culture matters quite a bit. Where the author makes a giant mistake, however, is in assuming that a company's culture is what it says it is.
I've worked at several organizations, and I can tell you that they definitely do have different cultures and sometimes that culture is a big contributor to success.
On a smaller scale, it's similar to the way a startup takes on the personality of its founder/s.
Re: Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
#13Medeus ex extremitus or "the ends define the middle"
What is Normal is by definition defined by what is not normal.
Re: Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
#14Medeus ex extremitus or "the ends define the middle" What is Normal is by definition defined by what is not normal.
sorry if my Latin is awful btw
Re: Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
#15You don't pick your own nickname.
You don't declare your own reputation.
You don't define your own company culture.
All of these things are object code, "compiled" by others based upon your behavior, which is the source.
What you do screams louder that what you say. Do good and you won't have to worry about what others say. That is "company culture".
Re: Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
#16I've always believed company culture comes down to 1 thing: peoples' belief about how awesome their life is going to be next month... In other words, optimism and stuff to look forward to. Whether that's fabulous wealth, fun social time with coworkers, etc-- you have to have faith that things will be awesome in the future or you start looking. Doesn't matter how many scavenger hunts or catered lunches you have. Of co…
I don't think it's that binary. There are definitely times where I've been on teams where I knew things were looking grim, but where I felt a bond with my everyone, and it was a fellowship that made us dig in to give our best effort. That can be very sustaining (moreso if you feel good about your future team-finding skills, I suppose).
I think it's a mistake to be focusing on the 1 month time frame. You dug in because you valued the people you were working with, and thought that digging and giving your best effort were likely to be enough to pull you through. I've been on teams like that with (10%) pay cuts and was happy I was there. Things did improve.
However, I was there 2 years later and it was happening again. None of the core issues had been addressed or were open to being addressed, and I was happy to be laid off. The majority of the other employees left within the following year.
Good people, interesting technology, but the corporate culture was dying. The company still exists, and the continued emphasis on good customer service and niche market keeps them running (from what I've heard from current employees). I'd be surprised if the software technology has improved in the past 5 years, but it still does what it has to do.
Re: Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
#17The meaningless platitude that management uses to describe what they aspire to have their company culture be, is a meaningless platitude.
Ancient HR policies and hokey mission statements are no match for a good NERF gun at your side.
Re: Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
#18I read this story about Googles culture.
When Google was really young, and wasn't sure how to make money, it was hiring. What Google found was that engineers didn't care if Google was going to win or fail, they cared about culture. And Google had it in spades.
Engineers were leaving well paid safe jobs to work in Googles culture, often taking pay cuts.
Made me think how important culture really is for the very best people.
Re: Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
#19Excellent, excellent, excellent! Reminds me of a tweet from yesterday (http://twitter.com/scottporad/status/15799876237):
quote from @benhuh, "culture is shorthand for the attitude people have at work".
Re: Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
#20More than anything, I think that its the word "culture" that makes this all screwed up. If you have a good "culture" (in the article's sense), people will want to work there, which is a good thing. If you dont, you will have talent troubles. Therefore, culture is important.
However, culture may be the wrong term, and I am always weary about a company that trumpets their culture.
At the end of the day, I want to work someplace awesome. Call it culture or attitude, it matters.