This is the “Our Culture” page for a new company we stumbled upon yesterday.
Someone in marketing was tasked with communicating how great it is to work there, and how much fun they have when not working (which used to be a thing you took care of yourself, right?). From the “gallery” of images, it appears that their “culture” revolves around spending quality time in their windowless shared-office space looking at screens, paddle boarding and spending gray afternoons outdoors playing Jenga.
I hope Jenga isn’t one of their signing bonuses. A far cry from those $6k bikes everyone got last year.
It also seems they’re missing the currently, totally acceptable promotion of office drinking that is the signature of this decade.
They could have even combined the two for not that much more money.
And what about the ubiquitous group shot? What do these really communicate to would be applicants? Don’t bother applying unless this is your first foray into the workplace since college? Everyone who works here gets a free (hopefully) company branded shirt/hoodie/fleece, which you WILL enjoy wearing to company events (daily) and group photo ops.
And the casual tone hints that it’s not going to be too different from dorm life. Some of us are just “wacky”, but the rest of us are really boring. And you can bring your dog. Well, only upper management can bring their dogs, but you’re cool with that, right? You can just pay someone else to take care of your dog back in SF, while you spend 16-hour days here in the Valley.
Ultimately, these “our culture” pages are meant to attract the best software engineers they can get, and maybe a few other wellness directors and happiness coordinators.
It makes one wonder how well they understand the engineers they already have. Are they still motivated by the weekly Jenga contests? Does the foosball table have a thick layer of dust on it? Surely they could do a better job of attracting top talent.
Ultimately, the concept that a photo gallery of amateur phone pics would be sufficient in communicating the benefits of working for this company is insulting.
Here’s one that hits the mark, touting a great quality of work/life experience over the life of the career.
Consider what really motivates one to go to work, day after day? Free coffee? The same t-shirt as everyone else? Jenga? Or maybe it’s as simple as job satisfaction.