11 Nov 2018
Anonymous employee
PixelSpoke Response
7yThank you for your heartfelt and honest feedback. I appreciate your perspective, and it makes me sad to hear that the environment felt abusive and negative to you. Creating a safe and supportive space is something that I and our team are actively working to do. Starting in summer of this year, we redefined our value of Authenticity to clearly state that “We are prepared to be vulnerable, open, and honest with each other as we create a gossip- and politics-free environment of high mutual trust.” We have been creating opportunities to live the Authenticity value through quarterly team dinners and monthly margarita Mondays where team members can socialize and build trust, a foundational building block of healthy conflict.
We also implemented the Entrepreneurial Operating System, which gives team members a structured way to address issues we’re experiencing at the company in a safe, open, and honest space. Our issues list for our management team alone has fluctuated between 30 and 100 issues, and every team has an issues list where they are encouraged to report things that are not working. If a team member feels an interpersonal issue is too delicate to raise on the issues list, we have weekly check-ins and quarterly conversations between each team member and their supervisor to address them — though we encourage our team to work on issues with the people who are involved and provide coaching on how to do so as needed. We wholeheartedly agree that shutting down new ideas in meetings is unacceptable, and I have always been passionate about a culture where the best ideas win, not the biggest personalities. I and others have been pressing ourselves outside of our comfort zone as a way to model healthy conflict for the rest of the team, in hopes that our teammates will be comfortable to address their issues with us. There is, of course, always more to do, and we will keep working at it.
I understand that it was not the correct venue for your creative pursuits — it is definitely a job where budgets, time tracking, and thorough process are critical to us being able to deliver high quality work to our clients. One of the most dangerous things about promoting a culture, job or business is creating the impression that it is “perfect” or “unique.” We are far from either of those, and our constant awareness of our imperfections is the only way to keep building something special. I hope that you have found a better fit in your new situation for your own happiness and fulfillment.
Sincerely,
Cameron
CEO and co-founder