Apropos of Nothing
It’s hard to write a blog about community when you are working community, and my hat is off to those who do it. Me, I find myself writing posts that cross all kinds of lines. I had two paragraphs of a rant about people who pick inappropriate names just to try and be all shocking, and that the only thing worse than that kind of asshole is the guy who isn’t doing it to be shocking, but actually believes the stuff he’s spewing. Then I realized I shouldn’t post.
The trouble is, examples are what make rants worthwhile, and I simply won’t use examples from a job I’m actively performing. I lack filters, and the only way for me to stay out of trouble is to not get in a position where filters are necessary.
But here’s a PSA: “Jokes” about raping, lynching, or genocidal maniacs are never actually funny, even when they involve people you don’t like! Okay, I take back the bit about genocidal maniacs. “Springtime for Hitler” was hilarious. But unless you are Mel Brooks, you are not allowed to make those jokes with your avatar name. And if you ARE Mel Brooks, and playing a casual online football name… call me!
Anyway, just wanted to dust the blog off to post a fascinating link from the NYT, one that I, ahem, think might apply to lots of game companies suffering growing pains: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/business/10corner.html?em
Ye gods, but that sounds like a nightmarish place to work. Exactly the kind of place someone rich enough never to need to work again would think up.
Then again, almost all tech companies sound like nightmarish places to me.
Those sorts of companies crack me up. Let’s spend our weekend building a log cabin inside a conference room! Woohoo!!! Build, Team, Build!!
I come up with my hair brained idea, run with it, see if it works and then show it to someone else on my team or our boss. He’s pretty cool about letting me come up with the ideas and then build the process/procedures once we determine if it is as useful as I initially thought it was…
Not getting ‘in trouble’ for trying stuff is enough incentive to keep trying to build a better mouse-trap. You can keep the goofy team building stuff and just pay me more money instead…
(and don’t get me started about people’s toon names!) :p
I had a hard time reading that all the way through without scoffing. I’ve worked for several companies that did corporate culture workshops, meetings and activities on a regular basis. None of them had particularly good work environments for the average employee, (two of them were spectacularly awful places to work) unless you count the occasional free donut as a major job plus.
Hope focusing on corporate culture works better for Zappos employees.
I know what you guys are saying. Certainly I have a deep seated loathing for “team building” and other exercises aimed at stroking the kind of personality who already has a reputation for being a team player.
But culture does matter. Let’s say, oh, just for the sake of argument, that a company that HAD been very player-focused shifted over time to being a company focused on its own bullshit. The culture of player focus was lost under the layers of crap foisted on it by management types hired (or promoted) to accomplish different goals.
It’s not that the goals those people were hired were bad goals. It’s that the culture they brought with them ultimately overwrote the culture that made the company successful and beloved in the first place.
No argument, corporate culture makes a big difference. The irony tends to come from the fact that the people who end up focusing your company on bullshit and power plays are often lip syncing the latest “corporate culture matters!” buzzwords while doing it.