I just read this awesome post about corporate culture about Zappos, and I was just blown away by how awesome it is. The company focuses on culture first, and by doing so, cultivates a great environment where everyone wants to work.
In some ways, it actually reminds me a lot of where I’m working at right now. I started here about 9 months ago, and I love this job. This is the first one since working at the movies (10 years ago) that I want to stick around for years.
When I was interviewing for the job, I met with the CEO and he said something that really stuck with me. He said that the #1 reason someone will accept a new job is because of the payrate, but the #1 reason they will leave is because of cultural differences. As a result, he said, they place a very high emphasis on corporate culture.
I was, of course, a little skeptical … but after seeing how nice the place was, I thought he must be pretty serious. Well, he was. This place treats its employees incredibly nice, and in a lot of ways the culture reminds me working at the theaters. The similiarity is that the environment is especially social (we’re mostly a call center, sort of … kind of a hybrid) so that people who are social and dynamic and easy going and fun to be around stay here and build up others. When you walk around on the floor you just get a feeling of connectivity for everyone. It’s really cool, and pretty rare.
Anyway, I love my job, and I don’t think I’ve ever said that since I worked at the movie theater so many years ago.
good observation. It’s a good reminder of why I should either help change the culture at work or find a new place to work!