Doesn't matter how many scavenger hunts or catered lunches you have.
Of course, you can get "awesome inflation". Day 1 at Google, maybe you're blown away by the catered lunches and at-desk free pedicures. A year later, maybe not.
The phrase you are looking for is "stuck on the hedonic treadmill": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill
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.
If (for the stuff you care about) there is clearly greener grass on the other side, I think you're on borrowed time.
I think it's pretty obvious once you start to look for it.
;) for the humor impaired.
It can be, but it doesn't have to be.
We are defining our culture but not all of the employees are on the same page.
We're still trying to figure out the best way to do it. I actually do not want to try too hard to convince people to accept a particular type of culture. It's either you like it or you don't.
A company should only keep those people that fits its culture.
This is where I get nervous when people start talking about "company culture". It will inevitably lead to this. Whatever happened to hiring people that can do the job, hopefully well? If the job requires that they have an "outgoing personality", like some sort of salesmen, then the requirement that they can do the job will be all you need.
When you start weeding people out based on your completely arbitrary idea of what the company "culture" should be, I think that becomes a problem. This is only one step above race and sex based discrimination. Personality based discrimination should not be allowed (with the obvious caveat that you should be allowed to fire people with toxic personalities).
Especially if your company is getting slightly bigger and not everyone interacts with everyone else on a daily basis.
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".
A company culture is the set of prevailing ethics within an organization which determines things like work ethic; attitudes towards change; levels of internal cooperation vs internal competition; treatment of customers, competitors, and suppliers; valuation of individuals' attributes; etc.
Company culture can be perceived by outsiders, but it doesn't rely on what others say or whether you are doing Good or not. It exists even in the absence of those things.
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.
Ancient HR policies and hokey mission statements are no match for a good NERF gun at your side.
What is Normal is by definition defined by what is not normal.
The employers that didn't have an HR department, and/or didn't tell me what their culture was beforehand tended to end up having nicer cultures. Go figure.
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.
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.
I'm looking forward to more on what in a culture can be assigned and determined proactively versus what should be left emergent...after all, the culture is a reflection of what you want to be and what you already are, right?
For me, I want to enjoy coming to work because of two reasons: (1) Building a product that connects with me and solves a real problem (2) I enjoy working with the people I'm with. It's the sense of camaraderie you build. All that other stuff contributes to that.
quote from @benhuh, "culture is shorthand for the attitude people have at work".
