Company Culture is How You Treat People

Author’s Note: I originally published this article on LinkedIn on October 13, 2019.

I don’t judge your company culture by your mission statement. I don’t judge your company culture by how many times you have the word “purpose” on your website. I don’t judge your company culture by how many times you’ve been written about in Fast Company or what your Great Place to Work ranking is.

I judge your company culture based on how you treat people that work for you and around you. I judge your company culture by how you treat the people serving you; the people feeding you, the people driving you around, the people cleaning up after you, the people taking out the trash.

One of the coolest things about my work-life is that I get to experience the full spectrum of company culture, often within the span of a regular week. On some days, I’m the VIP guest; the keynote speaker at a company or event. This means I get treated like royalty. Sometimes I get picked up at the airport in a black Escalade, by a driver who has one of those signs with my name on it; I get driven to a hotel, someone else pays for my travel, and like four people ask me how I take my coffee and if I want a bottle of water before I go on stage. It’s pretty dope.

And then, on other days, I get to help my buddies with their projects, usually as support staff or as a volunteer. Most recently, this has included glamorous tasks like giving out Sharpies to engineers at a VR company retreat, restocking KIND bars for a tech company’s offsite in the woods, and handing out Silent Disco headphones to rich people at a Halloween Party. When you’re doing these tasks, it’s illuminating to see how few people actually say hello to you. It’s like you are completely invisible. Like you aren’t a real person, you’re just an automated servant in some sort of Millennial Theme Park simulation. You might as well be wallpaper.

At the VR company retreat, someone was like, “I don’t want this color Sharpie, give me a different one!” I wanted to be like, “You’re 30 years old motherfucker! Get your own fucking Sharpie!” But I said, “Oh, I’m sorry, sure thing sir.”

At the tech company offsite, some tech bro handed me his cup of beer while he was tying his shoe, and was like, “Hold this for me, thanks.” I wanted to pour the beer on his head, but I think he was the CEO.

At the Silent Disco, two people grabbed headphones out of my hands, without even asking, even though there was clearly a line and other people were waiting for headphones.

I just want you to know that the person serving you KIND bars, might just be the same person giving the keynote speech at your company retreat. Or, the person serving you KIND bars might just be the person that serves you KIND bars. Doesn’t really matter. They are a human being and they are spending their time serving you, which makes them part of your company culture, and someone you should treat with dignity, love and respect.

Author’s Note: I originally published this article on LinkedIn on October 13, 2019.