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You're not hiring someone the same... You can have an entirely different skill set, knowledge base, experience base, and be a similar fit, culturally. But you

You're not hiring someone the same... You can have an entirely different skill set, knowledge base, experience base, and be a similar fit, culturally. But you know, if you have an office full of people who enjoy spending their time together, who play games together after work, who go to lunch and laugh and talk, who listen to music out loud and don't prefer to have a library-quiet office space, then hiring someone who prefers to be a loner, who doesnt play well with others, who is arrogant, who needs absolute silence to work... those are pain points. Culture and skills/experience are not at all related.

mdorazio 10y ago
You just described criteria for determining who should join your frat house, not who should help you build products. Different people have different working styles and yet are still perfectly able to contribute to teams, often in ways that your culturally integrated group can't even see. I think you've fallen into the trap of confusing the people with whom you work and the people with whom you are friends. There is zero need for those two groups to overlap, and it's really only in the tech world where the "culture fit" phenomenon is trying to force them together, often to try and get employees to work longer for free.
- jmcdiesel 10y ago
  Or maybe your perspective (which seems jaded) is a bit different than a lot of peoples? There is no reason that your friends and co-workers shouldnt overlap. There is no reason you shouldn't love going to work. There is no reason you shouldn't be happy in the company of the people you're around the majority of your day. Your very post, is just you applying your own culture to a job. Part of your culture in the workplace is a detachment. Thats ok, everyone has their own thing, but you wouldn't fit into a place where people want to be inclusive, you would stand out and probably be considered an asshole by others. You see that your view on what should happen in a workplace is very different than mine. That would cause strife over time, it would reduce our ability to work together compared to people who shared our viewpoint... While your view is equally as valid as mine, and neither are more correct than the other, they are definitely different. Recognizing that difference is what the culture fit is all about. And your last line, comes of as purely cynical. I don't work longer for free because i like my coworkers... I still work the same regardless, but I tend to LIKE going to work more, and enjoy my time, and feel more invested in the company when I enjoy my coworkers and share a bond with them...
  - Jtsummers 10y ago
    If leaving Friday and not seeing your coworkers again until Monday morning makes you think someone's an asshole, you've got a very skewed definition of asshole. Being friends/social with coworkers should be an opt-in experience, not mandatory for your employees. People have lives. There is no reason you shouldn't be happy in the company of the people you're around the majority of your day. I hope to god I never spend the majority of my day in the office ever again. Work is 8 hours for me, and I love it. I'll put in overtime when I need to, I don't mind. But I get 10 hours a day of not being at work while also awake, part of it in the middle of the day at lunch. I'm friends with several of my coworkers (to varying degrees of closeness), but we're all adults, most have families, and most have hobbies or other goals. We've got bodybuilders (including a former olympian), and other athletes. We've got artists. We've got gamers. We've got homebodies. We've got authors. If work=life is the only way to fit into your office, it had better be doing something life changing to justify that demand from your employees. Otherwise, you're stealing their precious time. The one thing we can never get back.
    - jmcdiesel 10y ago
      The clear thing here.. You're way of thinking is extremely close-minded... you're actually misrepresenting what I said to make your argument, because you're determined to make your point. Which, as I said, goes a long way. Your way of thinking is almost entirely pragmatic - and you know what, surrounded by other entirely pragmatic people, that works well. But around a group of people who value interpersonal relationships a bit more than you do, you would indeed be the asshole. That would create a pain point in yours or others' work days. And the biggest point of all of this, that you seem to miss, is nobody is forcing anything on you. The thing you dont like, is a style of culture, and you would avoid that culture, where others look for it... which is the entire point of the culture fit in the first place... you're making the argument FOR the culture fit by your very actions, you're proving the vast difference in cultures, and how they don't play nice together very well. You wouldnt want to work somewhere that values the things i value - and people that value what i value wouldnt want to work for you, probably - and thats ok - and thats why the whole concept exists and is important.

mdorazio 10y ago

You just described criteria for determining who should join your frat house, not who should help you build products. Different people have different working styles and yet are still perfectly able to contribute to teams, often in ways that your culturally integrated group can't even see. I think you've fallen into the trap of confusing the people with whom you work and the people with whom you are friends. There is zero need for those two groups to overlap, and it's really only in the tech world where the "culture fit" phenomenon is trying to force them together, often to try and get employees to work longer for free.

jmcdiesel 10y ago
Or maybe your perspective (which seems jaded) is a bit different than a lot of peoples? There is no reason that your friends and co-workers shouldnt overlap. There is no reason you shouldn't love going to work. There is no reason you shouldn't be happy in the company of the people you're around the majority of your day. Your very post, is just you applying your own culture to a job. Part of your culture in the workplace is a detachment. Thats ok, everyone has their own thing, but you wouldn't fit into a place where people want to be inclusive, you would stand out and probably be considered an asshole by others. You see that your view on what should happen in a workplace is very different than mine. That would cause strife over time, it would reduce our ability to work together compared to people who shared our viewpoint... While your view is equally as valid as mine, and neither are more correct than the other, they are definitely different. Recognizing that difference is what the culture fit is all about. And your last line, comes of as purely cynical. I don't work longer for free because i like my coworkers... I still work the same regardless, but I tend to LIKE going to work more, and enjoy my time, and feel more invested in the company when I enjoy my coworkers and share a bond with them...
- Jtsummers 10y ago
  If leaving Friday and not seeing your coworkers again until Monday morning makes you think someone's an asshole, you've got a very skewed definition of asshole. Being friends/social with coworkers should be an opt-in experience, not mandatory for your employees. People have lives. There is no reason you shouldn't be happy in the company of the people you're around the majority of your day. I hope to god I never spend the majority of my day in the office ever again. Work is 8 hours for me, and I love it. I'll put in overtime when I need to, I don't mind. But I get 10 hours a day of not being at work while also awake, part of it in the middle of the day at lunch. I'm friends with several of my coworkers (to varying degrees of closeness), but we're all adults, most have families, and most have hobbies or other goals. We've got bodybuilders (including a former olympian), and other athletes. We've got artists. We've got gamers. We've got homebodies. We've got authors. If work=life is the only way to fit into your office, it had better be doing something life changing to justify that demand from your employees. Otherwise, you're stealing their precious time. The one thing we can never get back.
  - jmcdiesel 10y ago
    The clear thing here.. You're way of thinking is extremely close-minded... you're actually misrepresenting what I said to make your argument, because you're determined to make your point. Which, as I said, goes a long way. Your way of thinking is almost entirely pragmatic - and you know what, surrounded by other entirely pragmatic people, that works well. But around a group of people who value interpersonal relationships a bit more than you do, you would indeed be the asshole. That would create a pain point in yours or others' work days. And the biggest point of all of this, that you seem to miss, is nobody is forcing anything on you. The thing you dont like, is a style of culture, and you would avoid that culture, where others look for it... which is the entire point of the culture fit in the first place... you're making the argument FOR the culture fit by your very actions, you're proving the vast difference in cultures, and how they don't play nice together very well. You wouldnt want to work somewhere that values the things i value - and people that value what i value wouldnt want to work for you, probably - and thats ok - and thats why the whole concept exists and is important.