Corporate Culture Shock?

When I joined Monster three weeks ago, I had an inkling of the corporate culture. During the interview process, I’d gone through the mental checklist of important workplace indicators: A lot of women worked at Monster, not just in the lower echelons, but in the higher ones as well. People seemed happy. Employee retention was strong. The team seemed to value output (results) over input (how long they sat at their desks). The job seemed as if it had a fair degree of autonomy. There were plenty of opportunities to learn. My boss seemed supportive.

These were all signs that studies like the “2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce” and work by companies like Deloitte Touche suggest are strong indicators of a healthy work environment. Also, the company seemed like a good fit for me: The environment was not formal, and based on the backgrounds of my colleagues, the company seemed to value entrepreneurialism and initiative.

But the truth is that it takes a while to get to know a corporate culture. There are always surprises, like that of Andrew Giangola as recounted by the Wall Street Journal. He joined a Midwestern company to find that most spouses of the top brass were expected to join the Wives Club, spending their time painting, reading and taking pottery classes. Or there was the case of Sabrina Heise, also told to the Journal, who joined a religious-book publisher to find staff lying on the floor worshipping before a minister. And then there are the much more transgressive cultural “values,” like those allegedly of Enron.

Fortunately, I’ve yet to lie on the floor, Bible in hand, or sign my husband up for any sort of club, though admittedly he wouldn’t mind finding a few more people to play Ultimate Frisbee with him. Monster makes a big deal about its values of accountability and fairness, so even if I climbed my way up to a senior position here, I don’t think I’d find myself breaking jail bread with Tyco’s former CEO Dennis Kozlowski.

But I did get a few surprises. I didn’t expect the big vat of mouthwash in the ladies room or the soda on tap (the powers that be apparently value good breath but not healthy teeth). I didn’t anticipate that our department would move across the hall within my first month on the job and that I’d get not one, but two new bosses (change is apparently good here, something I rather like). I thought the ping-pong, foosball and billiard tables might be occupied a bit more, not that I -- or anyone else it seems -- has the time.

As I suspected, Monster is a dotcom, grown-up. It’s not the nascent dotcom of the mid-’90s, with a few college graduates working out of their parents’ garage. It’s not the adolescent dotcom, with 20-somethings ebullient over that IPO as they drive their Porsches around town. This is a blue-chip dotcom. The walls are painted orange, green and purple; the exposed aluminum pipes are scrawled in the closest we get to corporate graffiti -- employee signatures. The company is rife with 360-degree performance appraisals, metrics for every occasion and sales incentives trips. I expected all this.

I am still waiting for the weird corporate culture shock. It will come, I’m sure -- a midnight Monster ball perhaps?

In the meantime, maybe you can share a few corporate culture shocks with us.

Exciting news: Monster Career Advice has been nominated for a Webby Award! Don't forget to vote for Monster Career Advice in the Employment category before May 5.

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