The whirlwind of my inaugural week left me with a couple of astounding first impressions:
- Everyone here is insanely passionate; I haven’t had a single meeting where there wasn’t some kind of enthusiastic cussing. And I flippin’ love it!
- I was wrong when I thought I understood what a “fast-paced” work environment was; if brains had lungs, no one here would ever breathe! But decisions get made and work gets done.
On my first day I had the pleasure of meeting our CEO, Geeman, during my new hire orientation. He meets every new employee. Most would expect a meeting with their CEO to entail a quick chat about how he started the business and what exciting direction the company is taking. Instead, Geeman focused entirely on the culture–not why he is the business of cloud enablement but more why he is in the business of keeping employees happy. Let me tell you—folks are stoked to be here.
I came from a technology company whose audience was Human Resources professionals. In my marketing communications role, I did a lot of research and writing on the benefits of employee engagement and culture—not just for morale, but for retention and even the impact of quality employee referrals.
So here I am, freshly aboard with a company that exemplifies the very culture and environment I used to write about, and discussing it with the CEO. I’m a self-admitted company Kool-Aid drinker—if not, a total chugger. And I am delighted more each day at how invested the management is in their employees, and the employees in the culture and each other.
It gets me thinking more than ever about the “chicken vs. egg” debate. Which came first: the hard-working employees or the perk-riddled culture? I’m excited to dive into the culture here and see if my observations can answer that; maybe it’s a bit of both and they keep one another alive? I’ll let you know after I visit the wall of candy and the wall of memes… or maybe once our marketing team has tasted enough local wine at our team outing!
Suffice to say, I couldn’t be more excited for the next chapter in my career and I can’t imagine working in a more collaborative and rewarding office with hilariously creative people. And it’s only day eight! I know this company will challenge me, but if I had a challenge to you, BitTitan: just try and faze me! I’m pretty sure I can’t be jaded—not here!
