February 20, 2007

Company Culture Gap

The first company in which a person works (for some longer period of time) seems to, in most cases, have significant impact to his/hers working habits. Most people will just “do what everybody else does”. It’s always difficult to be different. This way they will become a product of a particular company culture.

Even after years spent in another company, a person can stay unchanged, not noticing at all what’s going on around him/her and what’s other people’s attitude towards their jobs. When changing a company, only a self-conscious person can really change her attitude and make some positive change.

If, for example, a person was used to the fact that 1 hour of active work per day is a lot, nothing that others do or say cannot change his/hers mind. Why? Because is his/hers first company, 1 hour is much more than other colleagues were willing to invest. There, 1 hour was really a lot. Sometimes this fact can be so deeply nested that completely blocks the person from getting new attitudes and improving oneself.

This leads me to the conclusion that, since an average person is so susceptible to bad influence (especially those coming directly from university to their first jobs), a lot depends on luck because most people don’t know to what kind of company they are going to.

This is why I think it is very important to care about employees who happen to have their first full-time jobs in your company. These people are picking up the atmosphere and the company culture very fast, since knowledge about “companies and cultures” almost doesn’t exist and the mind is ready for receiving all kinds of information. Give them guidance they need. Make sure your company has positive influence on them.

And to the newcomers: Pay attention to what others are doing - but think with your own head!

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