>… when people say “culture,” what does that really mean?
I think of an organization's or a team's culture as the undocumented practices that the org or team all follow. Just to name a few…
1. Interpersonal interaction styles
2. Communication styles
3. What's incentivized
4. What behaviors are acceptable/unacceptable
…
You could have a "blame culture". Teams like that are incentivized to point the finger and look for convenient scapegoats.
You could have a culture that incentivizes "Psychological safety". Meaning people are allowed to speak up and disagree with stuff without fear of being fired.
You could have a "dysfunctional" culture. One example being where the norm is for individual members to convince other members that they are the smartest person in the room.
> What actually makes people hate their jobs over time? Is it pay/people/culture?
That's bound to be unique for each person. But it's not unreasonable to guess that _in general_ what ultimately makes people hate their job is…
• A person and their team value different things
An employee might place a high value on respectfulness. But a coworker can't even spell the word.
Another employee might consider software development as a "craft" and take pride in what they deliver. But the organization/team values "move fast and break things…tech debt be damned!" above everything else.
Knowledge – Am I building skills or knowledge that have value outside this specific company (algorithms, math, systems design, etc.), or am I just learning a bunch of internal trivia that won’t matter anywhere else?
Benefits – Financial compensation and benefits can make up for a surprising amount of dissatisfaction.
People – Do I like the people I work and interact with? Do we get along and have anything in common?
Laudability – Is the work noble, meaningful, or interesting? Highly dependent on the individual. For me, it’s education; for others, it might be science, healthcare, yadda yadda yada.
I'm usually reasonably satisfied if a job meets two out of the four.
I’m honestly not sure I could answer this one, I’ve never really worked at a company that pushed a unified culture. At most of the places I’ve worked, the teams were pretty siloed and insulated, so each team ended up having its own “culture.”
You could have a culture that incentivizes "Psychological safety". Meaning people are allowed to speak up and disagree with stuff without fear of being fired.
You could have a "dysfunctional" culture. One example being where the norm is for individual members to convince other members that they are the smartest person in the room.
That's bound to be unique for each person. But it's not unreasonable to guess that _in general_ what ultimately makes people hate their job is… An employee might place a high value on respectfulness. But a coworker can't even spell the word.Another employee might consider software development as a "craft" and take pride in what they deliver. But the organization/team values "move fast and break things…tech debt be damned!" above everything else.
I always break jobs down into four factors:
Knowledge – Am I building skills or knowledge that have value outside this specific company (algorithms, math, systems design, etc.), or am I just learning a bunch of internal trivia that won’t matter anywhere else?
Benefits – Financial compensation and benefits can make up for a surprising amount of dissatisfaction.
People – Do I like the people I work and interact with? Do we get along and have anything in common?
Laudability – Is the work noble, meaningful, or interesting? Highly dependent on the individual. For me, it’s education; for others, it might be science, healthcare, yadda yadda yada.
I'm usually reasonably satisfied if a job meets two out of the four.
and company culture does that matter at all?
I’m honestly not sure I could answer this one, I’ve never really worked at a company that pushed a unified culture. At most of the places I’ve worked, the teams were pretty siloed and insulated, so each team ended up having its own “culture.”