Is your company culture cultish?
Having a strong company culture is certainly a competitive advantage (to paraphrase Napoleon again, good morale is worth fifty thousand men, etc).
The question is, how much is too much?
Of course, that depends. Some people love having their lives socially swallowed up by their job- it gives them something to do, something that makes them feel significant, at least on occasion. Other people just prefer leaving the office at 5.30 so they can go play with their kids.
People often talk about finding God on a mountaintop- a solitary, quiet affair. That’s fine, but it seems that besides the occasional mystical experience, when it comes to finding meaning, most of the time we do it socially, in groups.
A generation ago we spent a lot more time finding it outside our work- via churches, cub scouts, The Rotary Club, The Junior League, motorcycle clubs, etc. But in the last thirty years, we started spending a lot more time around the office. So now our jobs no longer just supply us with a living, they supply us with a life to go with it.
Just remember, it’s a choice. And only we can make it.
