Thread by @shreyas

Your company might have a subtle culture problem when:

1/

The CEO regularly spends more time at all-hands criticizing competitors than on your company’s mission, customers, strategy, and goals

2/

OKRs & targets are viewed as a valid reason not to do something that is otherwise agreed as clearly the right thing to do for customers and for the company

3/

Scope hoarding is accepted as a normal & expected behavior of managers

4/

Ladders, levels, and performance reviews are actually driving important decisions around what to build, who builds it, and when it gets built

5/
Managers regularly criticize other teams & functions as being clueless & incompetent while maintaining that their own team is perfect and is in fact what’s keeping the ship afloat

6/
There is an implicit but clear functional hierarchy, such that the degree of rigor required to get your ideas heard & accepted is inversely proportional to the relative importance of your function

7/
It is common for people to nod yes in the room where the decision is made, and then work to sabotage said decision outside the room

The presence of one or more of these problems doesn’t mean that your company will fail. In fact, it could still be spectacularly successful financially. Question is can it be even more holistically successful without it? The answer might not be yes, but it’s worth mulling over it

And luckily as an employee, these days there are many fast-growing companies in silicon valley & elsewhere without these culture problems. So *if* you feel like changing things up, look around for earlier stage companies & you might just find a better fit.

All the best to you!