4 ms·

I once worked in a very, very low-on-the-totem-pole position for a company ranked highly on the Fortune "Best Companies to Work For". The reason their employees

by glesica 12y ago

I once worked in a very, very low-on-the-totem-pole position for a company ranked highly on the Fortune "Best Companies to Work For". The reason their employees said such nice things about them is that they went to great lengths to only hire people who would "drink the Kool-Aid", so to speak. If you only hire people who can be convinced that you are wonderful, your employees will surely say that you are wonderful. That being said, it was not a completely terrible place to work. There are much worse. It would have been hard to convince even "suckers" that it was a good place to work if it had, in fact, been a truly awful place to work. But it definitely wasn't great. The pay was mediocre, and the expectations were through the roof. And if you didn't act sufficiently grateful, if you didn't appear thrilled to be there at all times, then it actually became a pretty hostile place to spend time.

pketh 12y ago
I've had _exactly_ this same experience in the past as well.
mc32 12y ago
I've worked at one of these places too. Some managers knew the deal, others, for whatever reason, drank and lived the kool-aid. That is to say, they truly believed in it or at least believed believing would get them somewhere and did everything in their power to advance it. I can be satirical and sarcastic --most managers were okay with it as it helped to relieve pressures and a way to communicate issues --a few saw this as heresy. I really can't stand that kind of manager. One who believes so much in the system they are so personally vested in the company ideology.
mattm 12y ago
This is the real reason behind when companies say things like "We only hire the best." It's not to attract the best, it's for people working there to believe that they are part of the "best" (whatever that means). The way pretty much every company finds people is that it hires the best, according to subjective and biased criteria, from the people that currently are looking or don't have jobs who tend to live in the area and happened to find out the company had an opening.

by glesica 12y ago

pketh 12y ago

I've had _exactly_ this same experience in the past as well.

mc32 12y ago

I've worked at one of these places too. Some managers knew the deal, others, for whatever reason, drank and lived the kool-aid. That is to say, they truly believed in it or at least believed believing would get them somewhere and did everything in their power to advance it. I can be satirical and sarcastic --most managers were okay with it as it helped to relieve pressures and a way to communicate issues --a few saw this as heresy. I really can't stand that kind of manager. One who believes so much in the system they are so personally vested in the company ideology.

mattm 12y ago

This is the real reason behind when companies say things like "We only hire the best." It's not to attract the best, it's for people working there to believe that they are part of the "best" (whatever that means). The way pretty much every company finds people is that it hires the best, according to subjective and biased criteria, from the people that currently are looking or don't have jobs who tend to live in the area and happened to find out the company had an opening.