
The Obligatory WePay "Company Culture" Blog Post - sophmonroe
http://blog.wepay.com/2010/09/the-obligatory-wepay-%E2%80%9Ccompany-culture%E2%80%9D-blog-post-part-1/
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quanticle
You alluded to one danger of ignoring culture: that your company will develop
a culture that you don't like. However, there's a bigger concern when you
ignore culture - the possibility that your corporation develops multiple
cultures, which conflict with one another.

You're already starting to define responsibilities and divide the work
accordingly. That's good. However, you need to make sure that there's still a
lot of communication between the groups, and not just between the group
leaders either. Otherwise what happens is that people get isolated in their
own group and begin to think of other groups in the company as the "other".
Things only go downhill from there, as these divisions slowly drive the groups
into working at cross purposes.

The real job of company culture is to remind employees that they're all in
business together; that its not their group against the other groups at the
company. If your culture manages that, then it almost doesn't matter what sort
of culture it is.

~~~
forensic
At the same time, organizational psychologists seem to recognize that
subcultures actually play a vital part of corporations and that they should,
generally, not be killed off. They are the watchdogs that keep the dominant
culture reality-checked, and they are generally a source of important, but
unexpected, new ideas.

A cultish hive-mind where everyone is a clone of the founder is no good
either.

It's not an easy balance to strike.

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enjo
8:30 AM - 9 PM ? Jesus.

~~~
adamhowell
Don't worry, the next bullet point clearly states they "separated work from
personal life."

~~~
kolektiv
Yes, that's quite easy if the definition of personal life is "Sweet Jesus,
sleep!"

More seriously, that's the kind of thing which does creep in to companies.
They have a culture already. It's a long hours culture. You may or may not
think that's a bad thing, but it's there. It's quite hard to lose as well.
People come in, they can't work _less_ than the people already there, so they
jump in to it. Soon people that only work 11 hour days are regarded as
slackers. Nip it in the bud. It can't work forever, and it'll get harder to
change.

~~~
billclerico
we don't apologize for working hard. we're a startup trying to make it in a
competitive business.

what rich meant was that unlike other companies, where social & work bleed
together (people hang at the office 7 days a week, 15 hours a day but aren't
always working) - we come in, we jam all day, we go home. and we take weekends
off.

~~~
ant5
_we don't apologize for working hard. we're a startup trying to make it in a
competitive business._

Past a certain amount of time, you're spinning your wheels, doing bad work
you'll have to clean up later, and pushing yourself towards an early burn-out.

It's unhealthy, non-sustainable, a bad cultural precedent.

If there's no other choice, then do it -- we all have. But don't be too proud
of it; it's not something you want engrained in your culture.

~~~
aberman
jeeze man, it's 60 hours a week (assuming that we never leave early or take a
day off).

It's nowhere near the hours worked by a first year analyst at an ibank, or by
a first year associate at a law firm.

Bill is not saying we are particularly proud of how much we work, just that we
aren't apologizing for it. Especially when we are talking about the first 5
employees in the company.

Trust me, I don't want to be working 12 hour days a year from now, but it's
what the company requires right now. I enjoy coming to work every day and
working on something I love. I'd much rather do that for 12 hours a day, than
watch the clock for 8.

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pigbucket
I don't quite know why, but I'm imagining that guy walking in one day and
saying, "My name is Tran. Khang Tran. I get stuff done." He sounds like the
kind of person I would like to have always behind me, kicking my butt. Also,
this was a really well-written blogpost, like a little novel.

~~~
aberman
You nailed it. He has been an inspiration.

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spudlyo
"When I hear the word 'culture', that's when I reach for my revolver."

------
onan_barbarian
If I was this Khang guy, I'd be flattered but maybe a bit self-conscious at
being so publicly fellated. I mean, really.

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zackattack
i found tony hsieh's Delivering Happiness to be a very good read with respect
to developing a culture you're proud of.. it's a nice look at what i like to
call "tribal ethics." any other recommendations?

~~~
aberman
I just finished reading it, and that's partially what inspired this post (I
talk about it in part 2).

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I would read "accidental billionaires"
(the book that "the social network" is based on). I think it shows how another
type of culture can develop on it's own.

